Page 18 of A Cornish Love Story
Freddy whacked him on the arm. ‘Not cool, dude. Ignore him, Georgie. He’s being a dick.’
Ethan put his arm around my shoulders and threw the spider back to Kira, but she was staring at us, dumbfounded, and so were Freddy and Orwell. I felt a rush as I leaned into Ethan, enjoying the weight of his arm around me.
‘Georgie has to come,’ he said. ‘She’s Kira’s best friend, and she knows more about the house than the rest of us combined.’
‘Agreed.’ Kira leaned over the table so she could high-five Ethan.
‘Solid,’ Freddy said, and I saw Orwell throw Ethan a filthy look before he nodded along with the rest of us, and we started concocting our plan to get into the abandoned house for Kira’s birthday.
Later that day, once we’d said goodbye to Freddy, Kira and Orwell in the village, Ethan offered to walk me home. Sarah was silent beside us, hovering like a storm cloud ready to erupt.
‘I suppose I’ll go back by myself then,’ she said sullenly.
‘It’s five minutes that way,’ Ethan gestured patiently. Their house was a double-fronted semi-detached, set back behind a long driveway, so different to the terrace I lived in with Mum.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Sarah,’ I said, and got a glare in response.
‘Are you enjoying Ethan’s attention, Georgie?’ she asked, surprising me.
‘Sarah.’ Ethan’s voice was a low warning.
‘I like him a lot,’ I told her, refusing to be intimidated.
‘Don’t get used to it,’ she said. ‘Don’t think he’ll stick around.’
‘I’ll be home in ten minutes, OK?’ Ethan’s tone was sharper than I’d ever heard it, and Sarah strode off without another word. He sighed. ‘She doesn’t want me to crowd her or walk home with her, but when I try and do something else, she’s offended.’
‘You’re very protective.’
‘I want her to be OK. There was …’ He stopped talking, a muscle pulsing in his jaw.
‘What, Ethan?’
‘Before we came here, we lived in York. One night, she went to a party and called me around one a.m., asking me to come and get her. She woke me up, and I was angry, and stubborn about it.’ His laugh was humourless. ‘She sounded frantic, but she’d called me so many times before and it had never been an emergency. Usually she just wanted me to pick her up. So I said I’d come, but I took my time getting dressed, and I walked because she was in the centre of town.’ He shook his head. ‘When I got there, she was bleeding – she had a cut on her head – and the police were there.’
‘Shit.’ I brushed my hand against his.
‘She’d got into an argument with another girl and her boyfriend, who were both older than her. Sarah had lashed out, the other girl had retaliated, and honestly, I was glad that the police were called – even though Sarah got in trouble. It stopped it escalating.’
‘You were there for her, though.’
‘I could have got there sooner and been less pissed off about it. I should have protected her better, so now I am, and she resents me for it.’
‘Hey.’ I squeezed his arm. ‘You’re doing all you can. I’m sorry it’s so difficult.’
‘Maybe it’ll get easier if we settle here.’
‘It’sboundto get easier.’ I nudged his shoulder. ‘Also, can I just say, especially now I know howresponsible you are, that I would never have expected you to suggest breaking into an abandoned building.’
‘We might not be able to. Kira’s right, it’s likely to be padlocked and boarded up.’
‘What if it’s not, though?’
He smiled. ‘Then we can jimmy open the door and have a look around. You’d like to, right? Considering how important it is in those books you love?’
‘I would love to.’ I’d told him about the Cornish Sands series a few days ago, and was even toying with sharing some of my favourite passages with him. ‘But atnight?’ I shuddered theatrically.
‘There’s less chance of being caught in the dark.’ We had reached the turning onto my road. There was a shop on the corner, Alperwick Watchmaker’s, thename written in faded, elegant script above the door, though it had been empty for as long as I could remember. It was glass-fronted and faced the beach, and I thought it would be perfect as an ice-cream parlour or coffee shop, one of those community hubs where regulars got to try all the new specials for free.
