Page 75 of The Cut
Annie glances back into the hall, that well of sadness still lingering inside her. This is the last time she’ll be here and maybe the last time she’ll see Ben, for a while at least.
‘I shouldn’t … my dad said he was on his way.’
‘Come on.’ Ben holds out his hand.
Annie takes a deep breath and steps into the passenger seat and closes the door. ‘Goodbye, Barton Mallet.’
‘Your buns are all soggy.’ Ben puts the car into gear and speeds up the driveway of the school.
Annie cracks a smile, pulling off her Princess Leia earmuffs and leaning her head back into the seat. ‘Sorry I shouted.’
The car smells of damp dog and strong alcohol. Ben has been drinking.
‘Flash my dad if we pass him on the road. He’ll be worried.’ Annie wipes the condensation from the windscreen and fiddles with the290demister. Ben remains silent, focusing hard on steering in a straight line as they exit the car park and head off through the driving rain.
‘That was the turn for Forest Hill.’ The little blue Ford Fiesta whizzes past the green gates of the cemetery and suddenly swerves left at the dog rescue. ‘Ben, where are we going?’
‘Back to where we began.’ Ben grips the wheel and turns to her. ‘A nostalgia tour.’ The sign for Water Ford Gate flashes red as they approach.
‘It’s under water, Ben, you won’t make it through.’ Annie grips the dashboard as Ben starts to accelerate down the hill towards the ford and the weir.
Ben steps on the pedal and screams out at the top of his voice, ‘Whhhoooohoooo!’
Annie screams and covers her eyes as the car ploughs into the deep ford, waves hitting the air vent and pouring over the bonnet, windscreen and roof, spurting plumes of water like fins behind them. For a second the car wheels leave the ground and float free, aquaplaning across the river. The tyres find the road surface again as the battered old car miraculously makes it across to the other side and speeds away.
‘Oh my God … you are an absolute psycho, Ben Knot!’ Annie’s hands leave her eyes. She is flushed and shaking.
Ben, still whooping, continues towards the turn for Cheney End. As they round the corner, the car begins to buck violently, the carburettor coughing and chugging. Warning lights across the dashboard flash red as the engine peters out. Ben steers into the lane leading down to Doggers Dive and depresses the clutch. The car freewheels down the hill and slowly judders to a halt in the car park. Ben brakes, the car stalls, lights flicker off and the engine dies.
‘Alone at last.’ Ben swallows nervously. ‘So now what are we going to do?’
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JULY 2024
Nathan wrapped his dressing gown tight around him and towel-dried his hair. He stood at the top of the stairs and listened to the silence in the house. Dani had dropped him off at home, bundling him into a hot shower and getting a cup of hot soup inside him before she headed back out to find Lily.
There was something gnawing away in the pit of Nate’s stomach. Since the beginning of this last school year, around about the time he’d started making the film, he’d felt as if he was under water. Everything had become blurred and his senses dampened. He hadn’t really been listening or paying attention; he had been somewhere else. He’d been someone else, but the person he was pretending to be wasn’t real, he couldn’t be real. He’d allowed himself to be drawn into Karine’s vision. He’d let himself get carried away on a wave of imagination, but time seemed to have slipped through his fingers; he’d lost himself. His mum was absent; she didn’t even really know what he was up to anymore. Dani was halfway out the door and his dad was somewhere else entirely. He could run away right now and no one would even notice. He could burn the house down and no one was here to stop him. It had all gone horribly wrong.
His phone buzzed, a text from his sister:
Where are you … thought you were doing this too?
Dani said no … she’s coming to get you. Where are you?292
Waiting in a car for instructions from Karine … did you film our Nicki Minaj dance number?
Yeah, watching it now. LOL
Nate began to hook up the camera to his TV monitor to watch the video of Lily, Sam Rathbone and Gaynor Carson twerking to ‘Red Ruby Da Sleeze’.
His plan was to cut the most embarrassing bits together as a special montage to torment his sister at her birthday bash in September. Happy birthday, Sis!
Nate opened his laptop. Freckles the Bitmoji was frozen on his RetroFX message board.
The last message had been sent two days ago. ‘See ya very soon.’ A cute little wink emoji and an aeroplane.
