Running Shoes (The Shades of Northwood) (26 page)

To coin a
phrase
- “What the fuck?!”

“Earthquake?”
Jaye squeaked, trying not to look her in the eye.

“When did- how
did- I never knew you could do that.”

“Are you sure
it was me?” The chance that it wasn’t was damn unlikely and they
both knew it. It didn’t hurt to play the
sowing the seeds of
doubt
card though..

“Hey, I’m not
the one with the freaky dead person powers over here.”

“We don’t have
any powers!”

So, how did
Jack always know when she was scared and know when to hold her hand
even if she couldn’t see him? How did he put thoughts in her head?
Was it just some connection they had?

“You can’t be
sure of that. Look at all this mess, Jaye. That’s pretty damn
powerful!”

“It wasn’t me!
I admit, I’m in meltdown right now, and going on a destructive
rampage sounds good to me but I didn’t do this. I couldn’t.” Jaye
put the hair tools back down and switched them off at the mains.
“Leave them to cool off.” She dropped to her hands and knees and
tried to put some of her papers back together. Boring stuff mostly
– photocopies of old textbooks from school (always useful to know
the formula for photosynthesis or the name for the dots over an A
in German) and scraps of paper with book titles she had yet to
acquire.

When Jaye had
crawled to the other side of the bed from Katie and unceremoniously
dumped a handful of papers on the duvet, her spiky black head
rested aganst the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Katie grabbed the
stack of papers and shifted them to the end of the bed. Near the
top was the letter from the police. She felt a sharp tug in the pit
of her stomach as she really remembered, for the first time since
she had opened it, what was inside. Sure, Lainy and Leo had
mentioned it but Katie had somehow made it feel less important. She
had somehow known that things were going to get a whole lot worse.
And yet she was glad that Jaye had either not noticed it or been
polite enough not to read it. Not that Katie couldn’t do with
reliving the entire ordeal.
We regret to inform you that due to
a lack of evidence and an unsuccessful initial investigation, we
are unable to pursue this case.
Not the best news a girl had
ever received but it could be worse.

A lot
worse.

In – how long?
– a letter could be creeping through the post, informing her
parents of her untimely death.

Thinking that
way wouldn’t get anyone anywhere. Katie took a deep breath of
breezy air, fast becoming windy. She’d have to get Adam to board
the window over before night fell if she didn’t want to freeze to
death as she slept. A manic peal of laughter bubbled up her throat.
Katie swallowed it back, hard enough to hurt. Sleep. Now there was
something to aspire to. The papers slid back into chaos and the
dolphin on the duvet leapt out of the water as Katie plunged in.
She crossed her legs and doodled her fingers through Jaye’s hair.
As it dried from her shower, the souks softened into short black
waves, effortlessly sleek and shiny. “I wish I had hair like
yours.”

”Feel free to
take it. It’s so short and fine, I can’t do anything with it. At
least you can try different styles with yours.”

Katie rarely
went beyond a scrunchie or headband by way of hair accessories. Her
mind was more focused on practical styles that stayed out of her
face when running. “This place is a dump,” she said, not really
meaning it. Fallen books, clothes, shattered glass and her few
cosmetics tipped over on the window sill were about it. It would
take all of five minutes to tidy but she needed to say something to
lighten the mood. “Has Dan the dirt devil come to visit?”

Jaye looked at
her, confused. “Who?”

Jaye had
arrived with Dina the day after her family had come to visit. She
had no idea who Dan was. “My little sister,” Katie explained. “If
you lose her in a china shop, just follow the broken pieces. We
used to be at each others throats. I’m sure my parents found her in
the jungle.”

“How old is
she?”

“Twelve. No
idea what that equates to on her planet though.”

Jaye giggled.
Sharing a family name didn’t mean you had to be of the same
species. “Twelve.”

“Family – so
much more trouble than they’re worth,” Katie groaned, throwing her
arm over her face. She dared not close her eyes but she could hide
in this corner of darkness. “I miss them though.”

“Yeah. Me too,”
Jaye said and heaved herself up onto the bed. She inched across
until she was lying next to her friend. “Do me a favour?”

“Go for
it.”

“Cherish
them.”

Katie turned
her face to Jaye.

“After a while…
it gets hard to remember. The time you have left is precious. And
I’m so sorry.” She put a hand up in front of her face, Katie laced
her fingers with it, and tried to smile. “You should make some
memories.”

There was a
depth to her words – they were practically a warning – that seemed
to press Katie’s heart into the mattress. And that was surprising.
On some level she’d known she would not be going back to the city,
that they might visit her but she would never go back with them.
Hearing someone else say it just made it… more. More real? More
difficult? The adjectives defied her. Just more.

And this girl,
just a few years older than herself, speaking with tears in her
eyes and a smile on her ace, had already been through it. It struck
Katie how unfair this all was. “I have plenty already.”

“They won’t be
enough. You like to think so but you always want more. Human
nature.”

“No chance I
just dreamed this whole week?”

Jaye rested her
head on Katie’s shoulder and held their clasped hands to her
burning cheek, staring at the ceiling. Lying sounded tempting. It
also sounded too much like cheating for comfort. Just because Jaye
couldn’t tell the younger girl anything did not mean she had to
outright lie or deny anything. Besides, she couldn’t control what
other people said. And there was no rule that said she couldn’t
fade her flesh away to protect herself from being hit. In the face.
It was a pretty automatic response to physical threat. Katie had
seen it, and put her thoughts together, so none of this was really
Jaye’s fault.

Not really.

After a minute
of silence and stillness Katie figured that her friend had gone to
sleep and slid off the bed. She turned to stare down at Jaye. Her
cheeks were bright with worry and exhaustion but, sleeping, she
looked peaceful for the first time in a chaotic 24 hours. With the
innocent unconscious look of a child and the almost stillness that
only showed in the truly tired, Katie found herself transfixed by
the even rise and fall of her chest. The fact Jaye was technically
dead and had no logical reason to breathe and yet she still did was
weird. Jack did it too. Katie remembered his breath tickling her
neck, whispering sweet words to her, and had to hold in a sob. Now
was not the time to be getting lovesick. There had to be a way of
working out the ghosts from the live people in town. How many were
there and how many of them had she already met? Katie stepped into
a pair of pumps, leant over and kissed Jaye on the top of the head
and snuck out of the room. She closed the door behind her as
quietly as she could and leaned the back of her head against it for
a minute. She was listening for any sounds Jaye might be making as
dreams turned to nightmares and nightmares turned to hell, but
there were none. Tiptoeing away, her phone chimed. The display
flashed up DAN. She clicked it to answer, hoping the sound – too
loud for the full but strangely empty house – hadn’t woken
anyone.

“Shouldn’t you
be in school?” Ditching in the first week was definitely a
detention offence. Mrs Blacke, still the head at her old secondary
school, had no concept of going easy on the new kids.

“It’s only half
ten. You know, break time for normies. What’s wrong with you?”

“Sorry. Time
just got away from me.”

“Mom told me to
ring anyway. This is strictly a business call.”

“Love you too,
sis.”

Dan grumbled
down the phone and a far away voice yelled at her to get out of the
way. Luckily, she didn’t have the guts to swear at the lads yet
otherwise Katie thought she would have gone down to Arthur Claymore
High and washed Dan’s mouth out herself. “Whatever.”

“There’s my
girl. What did she want?”

“She wants to
know if you want us to come down for your race or not.”

“Erm…uh…” she
stuttered, stalling for time. The prospect of her family coming to
town threw up problems Katie hadn’t even thought of yet. “Hang on,
let me go downstairs where people aren’t sleeping.”

“Seriously, I
know Northwood’s hours away but it’s not in a different
timezone.”

It felt like
it. “Why couldn’t she ask me herself?”

“You know Mom
doesn’t do the tech thing. Probably thinks the phone’ll blow up if
she pushes the red button or something, I don’t know. Look, it
wasn’t supposed to be a trick question. But I will warn you now, if
I have to spend four hours trapped in a car with the olds, I want a
present.”

“Some-one’s hit
puberty like a ten ton truck.”

“And you better
win.”

“The
competition here’s really tough. I mean, I haven’t timed myself
against them yet but these guys… they’re verging on
professional.”

“Katie.” There
were more half-mumbled words. Words which sounded suspiciously like
a vote of confidence though Dan would rather go to school in footie
pyjamas than admit she was proud of her big sister. “Come on, the
bell’s gonna go in a minute and I’ve got art.”

“You in the
Tate Modern yet?”

“Ha frikking
ha! Do you want us to come down or not?”

The choices
were absolutely heartbreaking. “I really don’t have time to think
right now. I’ll give you a shout when I decide.”

“What’s there
to decide? It’s a yes or no thing.”

“I’m sorry.”
What was she apologising for? What
wasn’t
she saying sorry
for? “One of my friends is in the hospital and I really haven’t
thought about much else.” Which wasn’t completely a lie. Everything
Katie had thought about lately had somehow related to what was
going on in the hospital.

“Oh. Major
downer.”

“You got it.
But I will think when I get chance.”
If I get chance.

A shrill bell
rang out three times and the background noise increased as a
thousand stampeding hormone bombs rushed indoors. The
claustrophobic crush of that wave caught Katie off guard and she
felt like she was back in school once more. Jaye had told her that
whilst there were still class bells at the academy, students never
rushed to get anywhere. “Gotta go.”

The call ended
so fast that Katie was left with her mouth open, no time to say
goodbye. She slid her phone shut and pushed it deep into the pocket
of her baggy, faded and frayed jeans. On her way past the hall
table she grabbed her baseball cap and jammed it on her head,
hoping to restrain the curls Jaye hadn’t had chance to work on. She
passed the kitchen door as she headed out, having worked out that
cutting through the back garden would cut five minutes off her
journey. Leo was still sitting at the table. He looked as if he
hadn’t moved in hours and Katie honestly didn’t think he had. He
stared down at the table and only raised his head when she
spoke.

“If Jaye wakes
up, tell her I’ve gone to the hospital.”

He looked so
shocked, so sad and so hollow that Katie felt her heart break for
him a little. Katie toyed with the spaghetti straps of her mini
backpack, watching Leo open and close his mouth before finally
speaking. “Dumb bitch.” The words should have been filled with
contempt and venom but they just weren’t. Somehow it hurt more that
way.

Katie shrugged.
“If anything happens, I’ll be in the right place.”

Sinking back
into his former position staring at dust floating through the air
and blindly running his fingers up and down his arms, Leo started
humming. Katie recognised the tune with a jolt, remembered his arms
holding her tight and safe, and wanted to reach out to him. To tell
him that she would keep him as safe as he had kept her. But neither
of them needed to hear that this morning.

So she scurried
out the back door.

And wondered if
he would forgive the lie she had just told.

And if it
mattered.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

“Isn’t it
getting a little cold for those?”

There was an
old woman standing by the pick and mix counter and shovelling
sweets into a plastic bag enthusiastically. Katie recognised the
woman from somewhere and took a minute trying to place her. Of
course, it was Bernice from one of Roy’s photos on the desk. The
woman was too focused on her sugar rush to notice Katie staring.
That was nice. Being anonymous was comforting for about ten seconds
and then Katie scraped the Velcro strip of her wallet over her
knuckles and shook herself back into the present.

“I’m an
addict.”

“Looks like
rain later. You got something to keep you dry?” The man behind the
counter took her money and then tapped numbers into a till. The
numbers looked entirely random to her but the register opened. He
counted out some change, handed it over and snapped it shut. The
cash drawer popped open twice before it decided to stay shut. Katie
sucked on her icy drink to keep from laughing, put in mind of the
temperamental register in Open All Hours, but only succeeded in
thing Bubbleberry Crush was going to escape through her nose.

“I hope so,”
she said and took another suck on her drink.
You got me.

“Got something
of a sweet tooth there, miss?”