“Maddison, go and take a seat in the quiet area. Apologise to Dylan first.”
“Sorry,” I muttered, before stomping off to sit on the chair. Grace followed me with her eyes. I knew because I could feel her watching me. But I did as I was told and sat down, as I fought the venom stewing in the pit of my stomach.
Out of the corner of my eye, I kept watch on Grace. She was working, but not talking to her friends. She was thinking about something. I wanted to ask if she was okay, but I couldn’t. It would have to wait until after school.
Dylan left me alone for the rest of the day, and my visit to the head teacher’s office was thankfully short. I’d lost my lunchtime play for the next two days, which meant less time with Grace. That was the kicker. A part of me knew I should feel bad about hurting a friend, but I didn’t.
“Hey.” I caught up to her as she was talking to a girl from our class in the playground at the end of the day. “Ready to go?”
She nodded. Her smile and easy-going nature seemed to be lost today, and it annoyed me. We didn’t talk much—at least not about important things—and this seemed like an important thing.
“Are you okay?” I asked, hesitant as to how she might respond or what I’d do with her answer.
“Sure.” The silence between us filled the gaps between our footsteps. I should have been making the most of these times, not wasting them wondering if she was okay or what she might want to share.
“Let’s take our bikes out when we get home. Go for a ride through the backfields. Go to the tree. We can see who can climb the highest?”
“Maybe not tonight. I’m kind of tired and want to go home and see Bob.”
Her rejection stung more than anything, and the anger from earlier was back, rolling through me and turning everything dark. “Fine. I’ll see you later.” I stormed off in the direction of home and left Grace to walk back alone.
It was a crappy move, but her dismissal had made me so cross, especially after what had happened today. I always wanted to spend time with her, so I couldn’t understand why she didn’t feel the same. Didn’t best friends want to spend time together?
The front door was just an obstacle to get through as I arrived home. The whole house rattled with the force I slammed it with.
“Hey, not okay. What gives?”
“Nothing.” I stomped past Mum and raced to my bedroom, slamming another door behind me.
“Maddison, please don’t take your temper out on the house. What is wrong?” Mum shouted up the stairs, but I chose to ignore her. I wanted to ignore everybody.
Nobody could help the way I felt, and no one could help calm the heat that was boiling inside of my chest, eager to escape through my fists. And it was Grace’s comment that had caused my anger. She was usually the only one to put it out, which was why it was ten times worse—because it was her.
I sat down on my bed and flung the book that was in my way across the room. It hit the wall with a dull thud, and I waited to hear Mum moan from downstairs. Thankfully, she didn’t. Somewhere inside of me, I knew I should go and apologise to Grace, or at least go over to see her. The anger festered in the pit of my stomach but wanting to see her won out. If I went now, I could still make it before Oliver came home.
As if just thinking his name could conjure him, I heard the door downstairs and the usual thud of Oliver’s bag. I waited for his footsteps on the stairs, but they didn’t come. The minutes ticked on, and his disappearing act only fuelled the anger that I’d only just managed to wrangle.
“Mum! Where’s Oliver?”
“He’s just left to see Grace. He’s got to be back in half an hour though.”
I flew down the stairs and out of the door, racing down the road to catch him. I’m a lot faster and caught him up on the green, a few metres from Grace’s house.
“Oi!” I yelled. “What are you playing at?”
“I wanted to see Grace.”
“Well, she doesn’t want to hang out tonight, so leave it,” I said as if he should know this already.
“Maybe she just doesn’t want to see you, thought about that?” His snide remark planted doubt in my mind and made me see red. I charged towards him and shoved him to the ground. “Don’t you say that.”
“Cut it out, Maddison.”
“No. I won’t.” I gritted my teeth and looked over Oliver, who was still sprawled out on the grass where he’d fallen.
“What are you doing?” Grace’s voice cut through the anger that had threatened to boil over, diffusing the situation in front of me.
“It’s nothing. A disagreement,” I answered.
“Jeez, guys. Haven’t you learnt to get along, yet?” She put her arm out for Oliver, and he gladly accepted her hand to stand.
“I thought you wanted to stay in and see Bob.” The accusation was clear in my voice, and I hated that I’d aimed my bad mood at Grace. I didn’t want it to be.
“I, um, saw you fighting. You know I hate it when you do.” The sadness was back in her eyes, and I cursed that I couldn’t keep my mouth shut sometimes.
“Well, that’s not going to change anytime soon.” Oliver stared at me, and he was right. I had no intention of stopping fighting with Oliver—especially over Grace. I’d have to be more careful when she was around, that was all.
“Well, I wish it would. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She turned and walked back to her house, leaving us both behind.
“Nice one, Maddison. It isn’t enough you see her all day at school.”
“You know, I don’t have to talk to you. But next time, don’t think you can sneak over here behind my back. She’s my friend, too.” I screamed the last words, flooding them with the anger that had been riling me all day.
“You can’t fight me to see her.” Oliver pulled up as tall as he could make himself, but it didn’t work.
“I can, and I will. You don’t get to boss me around. Besides, don’t you have any other friends to play with?” I rubbed the fact that he didn’t in his face.
“Don’t you? Why do you keep hanging around with us, anyway? Go and play with your mates.” Oliver scowled and stormed past me.
Not a chance he was getting away with that. I waited for him to think he was walking away, then rushed up behind him. This time, when I shoved him, I made sure I put all my strength into it. “I hate you. You know that.”
He didn’t say anything, and I didn’t wait around to hear anything he might say in return. In fact, I hoped he was crying in the dirt. My legs raced me home, and before Mum could say anything, I rushed to my room to hide until the fallout, which I knew would come. Oliver was too much of a cry-baby not to go running to Mum or Dad. Luckily, they only had his word over mine, and in this circumstance, they’d assume we were both to blame. Easy to manipulate when you’d been fighting your brother for as long as you could remember. Although, I couldn’t remember being this mad at him before. It was harder now. I was on the verge of anger all the time. For everything and nothing, and it didn’t matter what we did, nothing helped. Except for Grace.
A rare choice for me, I got on and wrote out the list of spellings we had for homework that week. It would save Mum yelling later on and put me in her good books for the arguments that would finally happen when Oliver got home. He should have crawled back by now. We were only on the green. And even if I assumed he’d spent a good ten minutes crying on the ground, he should have come racing in complaining at the top of his lungs about me.
But nothing.
Another thread of annoyance curled in my stomach as I battled to stay in my room and out of trouble, but I wanted to know where he was. I wanted to know what he was playing at.
“Mum!” I yelled down the stairs. “Is Oliver home?”
“No. He’s still out. I’m surprised you aren’t with him. Dinner will be in fifteen minutes. You can go and fetch him from Grace’s.”
Like hell. My footfalls thundered downstairs. “He’s not at Grace's,” I protested to Mum in the kitchen doorway.
“He should have been back ages ago. She said she was busy tonight before I came back.”
“Oh, I see. Is that why you’re walking around with a storm cloud over your head?”
“No. I am not.”
“Go and get your brother and stop arguing.” Her tone changed, and I knew my choices were to comply or risk being grounded for the rest of the week.
When I reached the spot I’d left him in, Oliver was nowhere in sight. We didn’t know anyone else on the road, not enough to go to their house, anyway, which left only one answer to where he’d gone.
“Hello, Charlie, is Oliver here? It’s dinner time.” I asked politely when Grace’s mum opened the front door.
“Yes, he is. Hold on a minute. Oliver? Time for tea. Grace, you can see the boys tomorrow.”
Oliver bounded down the stairs from Grace’s bedroom—no sign of tears anywhere. He did have a secret smile that made me want to shove him to the ground all over again. I held the urge in and let him walk past me. Before leaving, I glanced back up the stairs. Grace was sitting on the top step with Bob on her lap. She didn’t look very happy, and all of a sudden, I was worried that Oliver had run to Grace for help and told her what happened.
The thought that she might take Oliver’s side over mine only added another layer to the anger bubbling away. By the time I stepped out of the house, Oliver was already crossing the bridge and out of danger.
The rage was so close to the surface; it overcame me, forcing the heat of tears into my eyes. I wanted to scream, to see if that would empty what I was feeling inside, but I swallowed it all back. I was stronger than this. I would beat this. And I would beat Oliver.
He’d played me and showed me up in front of Grace, getting what I wanted in the first place.
Well, I wouldn’t let that happen again.
Chapter 5
Grace Ten Years Old
Summer arrived. Finally. Although this time, the uninterrupted weeks had a more daunting prospect at the end of them. Although, I’d promised myself not to let the nerves start already because I didn’t want to let them douse my fun before it had started.
As each year passed and I got older, Mum relaxed and knew I’d be safe with the boys. Sometimes, Oliver and I played in his room with the dragons he still collected while Maddison bashed the controller on his computer and yelled at his friends through the screen. The rain pushed us indoors, and for the first week of the holiday, it did nothing but pour.
“It better not rain all holiday,” Maddison grumped as we grabbed a juice from the kitchen. He’d been on the computer all morning, and his mood was always awful after he’d been shooting and fighting on that stupid game.
“Relax, it’s only been a few days.” Oliver tried to be positive, but as I stared out into their back garden, the water racing down the window in tracks, it was hard to see the end of all the cold and damp.
“I’m going to head home,” I said, my eyes didn’t meet either Oliver or Maddison’s, and I made my way to the door. Without the sun, and our usual methods of escape, it was hard to play with both of the boys. They didn’t want to do the same thing, and I’d got sick of being in the middle. The summer was supposed to be when we spent time all together.
I grabbed my coat from the hook and pulled up the hood. A cold gust whipped around me as I opened the door and peered out. It wasn’t far to my house, but it seemed a vast distance with the pelting rain in my path.
My fingers pinched the edge of my hood to keep it up as I dashed from the porch and raced back. I skipped over puddles to stop my Converse from getting too muddy, but by the time I hit the green, it was impossible. The rain had soaked into the canvas, my jeans were dark blue, and icy droplets blanketed my face. I kept my eyes screwed up against the rain and finally made it to the house.
After stripping off my sopping clothes and letting my coat drip-dry in the kitchen, I snuggled under the covers in my bedroom, relegated to the latest wizard book that Mum had ordered for the start of the summer. It was good, but it didn’t beat spending time playing outside. This year, the weather had seemed to forget about delivering a summer.
Two days later and I’d finished the book. The boys hadn’t come to call, and I didn’t venture out. But as I put the book down, I looked out of the window and saw blue skies for the first time in what felt like weeks. My eyes blinked, clearing any trace of sleep and checking they weren’t a figment of my imagination.
My legs raced as fast as they could go downstairs, and I burst into the living room. “Can I go out to the boys’?”
“Sure, sweetheart. But don’t go far, okay. The weather forecast doesn’t look good.”
She had to call the last part as I ran back upstairs to get dressed. I didn’t care how long it lasted, but I knew we had a window to play. Before I reached the front door, drumming echoed in the hall.
I opened the door to find both Maddison and Oliver looking at me with huge grins.
“Ready?” They both asked at once.
“Bye, Mum!” I called back, and as I closed the door behind me, I heard her warning of not going too far, but it was too late.
“So, what are we going to do?” I looked at both of them and noticed they didn’t have their bikes.
“The oak tree. I want to show Grace how to climb it properly, this time,” Maddison announced.
“Great, let’s go.” I’d only managed the first branch so far, and although it was higher than I’d ever climbed before, Maddison’s confidence pushed me to aim higher. We all ran off but soon calmed our pace. It would be a little walk without pedal power, and I didn’t want to be worn out before we got there.
The grass and trees all looked a richer shade of green from all the rain. Muddy water filled the dents and holes in the track road, and a stream of water trickled down one gully, running off into the fields. I couldn’t remember when it had last rained so much.
We arrived at the tree and jumped over the gate, ignoring the sign. So far, nobody had come to tell us off, and enthusiasm had replaced the worry that we were doing something wrong.
“Come on, Grace. I’ll show you where to put your grip.” Maddison pulled me over to the side of the tree where the funny knot provided the first ladder step up to the first branch.
Maddison shot up first, stopped two branches up and turned to look down. “Your turn,” he called.
The bark was damp as I found my grip, and I made sure my toe was secure, bouncing a couple of times before I reached up and pulled myself to standing.
“Great. Next level.”
With my heart thumping, I held my breath and placed my hand on the small branch jutting out and gripped it, pulling myself up as I stretched my leg to the branch at the side and used it to climb higher.
I looked up through the tree and saw Maddison looking back at me. He gave me the smile he only shared with me, and my heart skipped in my chest. As I reached up to climb even higher, a steady rumble cracked overhead and engulfed the air around me. It even made the tree vibrate through my fingertips. I crouched down, pulled my hand back and held on to the branch at my side.
“Grace?” Oliver called from his spot on the ground. “Are you okay?”
The excitement that had fired my courage had died with the noise still rumbling around us.
“No,” I called, the uncertainty colouring my voice.
“It’s all right, Grace. You’re fine,” Maddison chimed in.
The light shrunk away as if sucked from the sky, and the leaves and branches turned everything dark and gloomy. The tip-tap of droplets splashing on leaves sounded before I felt several drops hit my head and arms.
Maddison climbed down to me and perched on the branch to the side.
“Grace, you ready to go down?”
I nodded furiously at him, but my grip of the branch and my position backed up against the trunk didn’t change.
“It’s only a bit of th
under. Follow me back down, okay?”
I looked at him and nodded again, but I felt my grip tighten around the wood in my hand.
He slid his legs to the lower branch and dropped his body and then looked up. “See. Easy.”
My fingers relaxed their grip, and I inched my body along the branch to follow his lead. As I let go, the inside of the tree lit up with a flash, casting shadows around us, followed by a loud boom that shattered the sky above our heads.
“Arghh!” I squealed and pushed myself back against the trunk of the tree and gripped hold, securing myself in place.
“Grace, you’ve got to follow me down,” Maddison pleaded, but fear had tied me to this spot.
The rain fell harder, and a few drops now cut through the canopy above and started to cover me, seeping through my t-shirt and chilling my skin.
“Grace!” Oliver called again. “Mads, you’ve got to come down.”
“What about Grace?” he answered.
“Move, Maddison. I’ll talk to Grace.”
The rustle of the leaves told me that Maddison was finishing the last level before reaching the ground.
“Grace, you know what’s happening, right?” Oliver asked.
“Yeah,” I confirmed through chattering teeth. I was terrified that I was stuck in a tree in a lightning storm.
“Then you’ve got to come down. We need to get home.” His voice rang in my ears but didn’t make me shift from my spot.
“Grace?” he shouted again.
I peered down from my spot and saw him leaning up against the tree trunk, trying to get a clear line of sight to me. I wasn’t that high up, but the rain and the noise put a lot of distance between us.
“Grace, I won’t leave you, but you’ve got to help me.”
“Grace, come on!” Maddison added.
Another thunderous crack and the sky split with light. It sounded like the clouds were gathering like giant boulders, crashing into each other and fighting for position overhead.
Water dripped from my hair, now soaked through and plastered to my head, and the shiver that started now shook my whole body violently.
The Two Halves of my Heart: A Friends-to-Lovers Romance Page 4