The Feeling from Over Here by Gabrielle Tozer

Author:Gabrielle Tozer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

CAMERON

1.02 a.m.

The Stones’ ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ thumps in Cameron’s ears as he nibbles on the jagged edge of his thumbnail.

An overnight coach.

Lucy Faris.

Endless texts and calls.

The bus lurches along the highway as acidic bile burns up his throat, his stomach churning at the taste.

And now motion sickness.

The fun continues, he thinks, replaying the moment Lucy drilled him back at the roadhouse restaurant. Her words were laced with a disgust he’d never seen in her before — like she loathed the taste of their conversation on her lips. Like she wanted to wash her mouth out with a bar of soap after speaking to him.

Like she hated him.

Lucy freaking Faris.

The chances.

Unbelievable.

‘Oi, driver, I think something’s burning back here!’ a deep voice booms through the silence, snapping him to attention. Cameron looks around the back of his seat, feeling everyone’s panic swelling like a tidal wave. The smell hasn’t reached him in the front row, but he watches as passengers unbuckle their seatbelts and cram into the aisle, grabbing bags and arms and shoulders and pillows, and inch forward step by step, like they’ve forgotten that there’s nowhere else to go.

Didn’t he know it.

‘It’s getting hot back here, like an oven!’ a woman in a beanie shouts, as a small boy clings to the back of her jacket.

Cameron spots Lucy in the middle of the bulging line, squashed between a young couple fighting about their hen’s and buck’s parties. He notices as Lucy checks then rechecks over her shoulder at the chaos at the back of the bus, before smirking to herself as the girl shrieks at her fiancé, ‘Stop being such a groomzilla, babe! Mum’s bought the penis straws for the party, and she’s not returning them. They were half-price. I told you that!’

Cameron watches Lucy cover her lips, trying to disguise her amusement as the couple launch into another round.

‘It’s starting to stink!’ The same deep voice shouts again. ‘Pull over or something! There are kids on the bus, man.’

The driver clears his throat into the loudspeaker as the passengers jostle for space in the aisle. ‘Just looking for a spot to pull up here on the left, folks. The old girl’s probably just overheated — please, let’s all remain calm.’ He draws in a sharp breath and exhales, not realising his microphone is still on.

As the bus screeches to a stop on the side of the highway, everyone shoves and pushes to the front of the aisle. Cameron lets in passenger after passenger, biting his tongue when no-one bothers to thank him.

‘Quickly please, everyone, let’s go!’ the driver says, mustering people off the bus. ‘Grab what you can and stick together, please, just wait over there, out of the way. We’re all friends, or at least we’re gonna be after this.’

Cameron steps onto the gravel with a crunch, the icy air burning his nose and cheeks. ‘Where are we?’ he asks the driver, shoving his fists deeper into his hoodie pockets.

‘I can tell you where

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