Page 8 of A Flash of Neon
But I don’t. I don’t get how any of this is possible. Out of ideas, I slump in my seat and let his words whirl round my mind. There must be a logical explanation somewhere, but I can’t find it. My head is starting to hurt from trying.
The bus slips through the outskirts of the city and towards the villages dotted along the loch. Neon gets excited by cows, a billboard for a distillery and the steam billowing from a factory. I can’t help but smile when he shrieks at the sight of a seagull – his joy is pretty infectious. But the closer we come to our town, the more nervous I feel.
“So, um, how long are you staying again?”
“Calm down, dude. I’m not planning on moving in.” Neon rolls his eyes. “Only a week. Any longer and people will notice that I’ve gone. I’ll leave next Saturday, before your moms get back from their trip.”
“What people? People in the Realm?” I ask. Neon nods, and there’s a little hint of worry in his expression. “Will you get in trouble? Aren’t you supposed to leave?”
“Um, no. There’ll be hell to pay if anyone realises I’m gone. I’m only staying a little while, though, so it shouldn’t be an issue. I’ll be back before they even notice.”
He gestures grandly to the window, like he’s pointing out the Niagara Falls or Mount Everest and not some soggy field on the outskirts of Inverness.
“Besides, I’ve never been to the real world before, and this is probably my only chance. I want to make the most of every moment.”
It’s getting dark by the time we arrive back at my town. We get off the bus on the high street and walk past the bookshop where Gio is finishing up for the night. There are a dozen or so customers milling around the tables, which is a relief – on Wednesday no one came in all day.
Neon points to the Halloween display in the window. “This is your moms’ bookstore, right? Can we go in?”
I almost ask him how he knows that, then remember I’ve told him all about my life in our messages. Neon probably knows me better than anyone else in the world.
“Not right now. I need to be home before five, and I’ll have to work out what to tell Gio about you first.”
My family lives a few minutes away from the shop, in a semi-detached house with a blue door and a very overgrown back garden. I pause on the corner of our street, working out how to sneak Neon past my mums. We don’t have a garage or a shed that he can hide in, and it wouldn’t be fair to ask him to crouch in the downstairs cupboard until they leave.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” I whisper. “We’ll … we’ll run upstairs to my room really fast and hope they don’t follow.”
He bursts out laughing. “That’s your brilliant idea? Stellar work, Laurie. I’ve seen multiple James Bonds in action in the Realm, and none of them have anything on you.”
“Well, I don’t know what else to do,” I say, throwing my arms up. “Do you want to wait here until they leave?”
“Uh, I’d rather not. It’s pretty cold out here.” He wraps his arms round himself and shivers. “Next time, imagine me as the owner of a very thick winter coat, OK?”
I creep forward to make sure that our next-door neighbour, Carrie, isn’t peeking through her front windows, then open the gate and beckon for Neon to follow me down the path to our house. I push the front door open, quietly slip off my shoes, then pull him upstairs and into my bedroom as quickly as I can. Neon spins round to take it in.
“I can’t believe I’m actually here,” he says, his eyes twinkling. “It’s smaller than I imagined, but it’s cosy.”
My room is nothing special – four sky-blue walls, a bed and a desk, a beige carpet that’s constantly covered with books and clothes – but the way he looks around, you’d think this was the big reveal on one of the interior-design shows that my mum likes so much. I hold my finger to my lips, then creep back to the door. No footsteps follow us. We’re safe.
I pull the curtains closed and gesture to the bed. “Stay here and don’t make any noise.”
Neon sits down and salutes. “Aye aye, cap’n.”
Heart pounding, I leave him looking around and slip out on to the landing. My heart almost leaps out of my chest when I see Mum just in front of me, dressed in her big coat and scarf and struggling down the stairs with a suitcase. She pushes her hair out of her face and looks up at me with a smile.
“Oh, good, you’re home. The taxi will be here in five minutes.”
Hurrying away from my bedroom, I grab the handle of the suitcase and help her downstairs. Mutti is standing at the front door, adjusting her bright red bobble hat. The tension between her and Mum seems to have disappeared for now. Whatever the issue is, maybe a week in London will help.
“Have a good time,” I tell them, trying to steady the tremor in my voice. “Good luck for your events, Mutti.”
Mum starts going over the rules for the week, including that I have to leave my phone downstairs before I go to bed. Right then, I remember the posts that I’ve got scheduled to go up on Neon’s main account. I whip out my phone and open the app to delete them – Caitlin and Hannah both follow Neon, and they’d be really confused if they saw those.
“There’s money in the elephant teapot for a takeaway.Onetakeaway. Try to eat at least semi-healthily the rest of the time, please. Five a day, and all that.” Mum waves a hand in front of my phone. “Are you listening, Laurie?”
I nod but don’t look up – I’m sure she’ll notice something is wrong if she looks me in the eye. “Five takeaways a day. Got it.”
Mum chuckles and swats at me with the end of her scarf. “Remember to lock the back door if you’re both going out. Call Gio if there are any issues at the shop. Oh, and absolutely no parties.”
