Page 45 of Merrily Ever After
‘Before we went to Canada, my best friends were Ollie and Alex, but they joined the rugby team and now they’re always at rugby practice in the week or playing matches at weekends.’ He finished with a shrug.
He’d told me who he didn’t hang out with, I noticed, and not who he did.
‘Harley was really sad when he didn’t get picked for therugby team,’ Freya announced. ‘He cried.’
‘Shut up,’ Harley scowled.
‘Your dad told me how much you love sport,’ I said. ‘Are there any other things you’d like to do?’
‘Yeah, snowboarding,’ he replied. ‘Massive open spaces and speed and snow. Not much chance of me doing that around here.’
‘No,’ I agreed. ‘But there might be something else you like.’
I wracked my brains to try to think what else might give him a similar buzz: cross-country running, off-road biking, go-carting? I’d personally hated cross-country running at school, but it might suit Harley. I made a mental note to have a look at the school website and see what I could come up with. I’d ask Nell if she had any bright ideas too; Max was only a year older than Harley. I felt quite maternal at the thought of doing something useful for him. It was a good feeling.
‘He used to play football before Canada,’ Freya told me. ‘And I used to have swimming lessons. But I’m not doing that anymore.’
‘Football and rugby are so lame,’ he said, ‘and if you don’t play those, you’re a nobody.’
‘Well, you’re definitely not a nobody,’ I said, feeling fiercely protective of him. ‘Perhaps you’ll get the chance to go skiing again, maybe with school, or, you never know, perhaps we could try to arrange a holiday to the Alps. A family holiday.’
‘I know you’re trying to help,’ Harley said glumly. ‘But one measly week on the snow is nothing. I want to go back to Whistler. I’ve got friends there who like the same things as me. I liked that school better too.’
‘Hello!’ An elf plonked herself right in front of Freyaand started chatting. Freya fired questions at her, like where did she buy her clothes and what do elves eat and do they get presents for Christmas. I kept a watchful eye on her, but was glad of the chance to talk to Harley privately.
‘Perhaps you can apply for a university place in the US or Canada, that would be something to aim for, wouldn’t it?’ I said brightly.
He gave me a derisory look. ‘Merry, I’m thirteen. I’ve got five years of school to get through. I don’t fit in here anymore. We had a motivation and goals day at school at the start of term. We all had to talk about something we were proud of achieving. I took in a photograph of me in the air snowboarding because I thought it was cool. Now they call me Olaf.’ He noticed my blank expression. ‘The snowman fromFrozen?’
I nodded, my heart aching for him. Kids could be brutal.
‘When we came back to England, Freya went back to the same primary, but I’m in secondary school now and hardly know anyone. Everyone had already made friends when I got there. Now I’m just Olaf the snow boy.’
I had this awful image of him sitting on his own in the school cafeteria at lunchtime. I hated the idea of him being lonely. I’d known loneliness, I totally empathised with how he was feeling.
‘I’m really sorry, Harley,’ I said, risking giving him a hug. ‘Thank you for telling me.’
‘Please don’t tell Dad any of this,’ he mumbled. ‘I don’t want him storming into school and telling the teachers that the boys have to stop calling me Olaf. It won’t help, it’ll make things much, much worse.’
‘If you don’t want me to, I won’t, but I know your parents would want to know how you’re feeling.’
Harley shook his head. ‘I’m not telling them. It’llonly make Mum feel more guilty than she already does. It’s not their fault, but Mum and Dad getting divorced, and then us moving to Canada for a year, has made me grow up quicker than the boys at school. They seem like little kids to me.’ He glanced sideways at me. ‘If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to tell anyone? Especially Dad?’
I hesitated. I’d wanted him to confide in me, so I could hardly say no. ‘Of course,’ I said warily, wondering what the protocol was about not telling Cole what was happening in his son’s world.
‘I really want to go back to Canada. My best friend in Whistler has a massive house, he says I could live with him and go to my old school. That’s the only thing that’s going to solve my problem.’ He sighed. ‘Not going to happen, though, is it?’
There was no way his parents were going to agree to that, but I wasn’t going to add even more doom and gloom to the conversation. ‘Thanks for talking to me,’ I said. ‘I feel really honoured that you told me how you feel. I promise I won’t say anything.’
Harley smiled ruefully. ‘Thanks for listening. Whenever I try to tell Mum anything, she makes a thousand stupid suggestions. But there’s no solution. I hate living back in England. That’s just the way it is.’
Cole and Lydia would be gutted if they knew how he felt, poor lonely boy. Hopefully, this was a temporary thing and he’d find his groove amongst his old friends, or if not, find a new tribe. Despite my heart aching for him, I held onto the tiniest flicker of joy that he’d opened up to me. Slowly but surely, I was finding my place in this family and it was a wonderful feeling.
‘Any time you need a chat, I’m your woman.’ I squeezedhis arm in solidarity and then the elf waved us forward and it was Freya’s turn to talk to Santa.
‘Hello, Freya,’ Santa boomed from a large armchair covered in sheepskin blankets. He was sitting in front of a fake log fire and was surrounded by hessian sacks of gifts. A small Christmas tree sat in the corner with prettily wrapped presents beneath it and Christmas music rang out from a speaker fixed to the ceiling. ‘Are you looking forward to Christmas?’
Harley and I hovered by the doorway. Despite his reticence, he was taking in every detail of the room, and I noticed him trying to peer at the presents.
