Page 11 of Charlie Sunshine
Charlie shakes his head, but I can see he’s trying not to laugh. “He’s just not a reader. He has other good qualities.”
“Is one of them excessive vacuousness?” I ask dubiously.
“Enough,” he says firmly. “And don’t start on Harry again either.”
I bite my lip to stop my litany of complaints and watch Charlie put some bread in the toaster. He looks around the kitchen with a puzzled look on his face.
“Misha, where’s your compost box?” he asks in a concerned voice.
I blink. “My what box?”
He turns to face me. “The box for your kitchen waste. It helps with recycling.”
“You look a bit possessed when you use the word recycling, Charlie. Makes me want to cross myself.”
“It’s very important,” he says earnestly. “We have to do our bit for the future of the planet.” He stares at me. “So where is it?”
“In one of the cupboards? Who knows?” I hold up my hands in defence. “Until you came to live here, I never had any kitchen waste. Not unless you count vodka bottles.” I hesitate. “Do you count vodka bottles?” I ask hopefully and slump when he slowly shakes his head. “Damn, I really thought for a second that I’d been an ecowarrior and never realised.”
He looks at me pityingly. “I’ll ring the council and get some more recycling boxes. We’ll be doing the right thing before you know it.”
“Great,” I say faintly.
He turns back to the toast, probably happily secure in the knowledge that this is only the first in the many lectures he has in store for me.
“I’m going round to Mum’s on Monday night,” I say to him. “Are you coming?”
“It depends. Is she making solyanka soup?”
I grin at his hopeful tone. “Probably.”
“Then I’m definitely coming.” He sneaks a look at me that I’m probably not supposed to see. “Any particular reason for the visit? You don’t normally go round during the week.”
I frown. “She’s called a meeting.”
Aidan grins. “What have they done now?”
I sigh at the thought of my teenage twin sisters. They’re hellions. “I don’t know,” I say grimly. “She’s saving that for when we get there.”
Charlie winces. “Eek! Sounds ominous.”
“Sounds tiring.”
“It’ll be fine,” he tells me comfortingly.
And even though they’re just words, they’re also Charlie’s words, and so they work. I still do my best to grimace at him. “Easy for you to say, Charlie Sunshine.”
He shakes his head at the nickname that Aidan gave him and Charlie’s friends adopted. “Do you want me to come? If not, I can go round to see Dad and Aidan.”
“No, I want you to come,” I say quickly.
“Why?”
I shrug. “It’s easier.”
He turns back to his toast, and I realise two things. One, I’m staring at his perfectly shaped backside, and, two, Sam and Aidan are watching me do it. Sam has a massive smile on his face, and Aidan’s eyebrow is cocked in that wicked way it has.
I shake my head repressively at them. “Oh, thank you,” I say in surprise when Charlie puts a plate of toast in front of me. “Is that Marmite? You hate Marmite.”
