Behind them came the click of the front door and the two of them turned, Win to her left, Sophie to her right, the two of them drawing close enough that it was easy to hear Sophie’s muttered, “Ugh. Ryan.”
“Would it cheer you up to see that he’s bleeding?”
“Yes. It absolutely would.”
But Win only had a fraction of a second in which to share Sophie’s slightly wicked smile, because Ryan wasn’t alone. Sunny was with him. Win was so fast up the drive that Sunny hadn’t made it three steps from the front door before Win was there, hands on her sister’s shoulders, holding her still enough that she could inspect her for damage.
Suspicious of Ryan, Win switched to Mandarin. “Zen me le? Ni mei shi ba?”
“Calm down. I’m fine.” But there was a tremor in Sunny’s voice and something unhinged about her smile.
Ryan ignored both of them, just carried on down the drive, lifting his top up to dab at his nose, exposing a pale, skinny torso, the skin splotchy like he’d been grabbed and pulled and punched by sharp, vicious hands. There was a flash of a glance as he passed Sophie, still sitting on the wall, and then he’d turned down the road and away. Sophie looked up the drive to Win, then she too was gone, following Ryan because he was the person who had the parcel and, when all was said and done, that was what she cared about.
Before Win could form anything more coherent than a “What—” she was interrupted by the sound of someone at the door.
Lucas.
Sunny turned away so fast that she practically propelled herself down the drive with a single step, trainers slapping angrily on the brickwork.
Win didn’t know what was happening, didn’t really know where to start. But since both Sunny and Ryan had run off, the only place she could start was with Lucas.
“What happened in there?”
“I made a mistake.”
“What kind of mistake? Did you hurt Sunny?”
“No.” His reaction was horrified and honest. “I was with her upstairs—”
“Upstairs?” She took a step forward and for all Lucas had the physical advantage of someone twice her size who hefted barrels and crates on a semi-regular basis, he took a hasty step back.
“On the landing, looking at Kellan’s sister’s wedding picture.” Lucas relaxed a tiny bit when he realised Win wasn’t about to reach down his throat and pull his testicles up through his digestive tract. “Someone was knocking the shit out of Kellan – or – I thought so – and I didn’t know it was Ryan … he had a different T-shirt on…” An excuse so flimsy he looked ashamed at having made it. He brought a hand up to his head, fingers combing a savage path through his fringe. “I didn’t know Kellan was going to smack him about like that. I’m so sorry…”
RYAN
Ryan hadn’t wanted company, but he had Sophie at his back, ready to interrogate him about that bloody parcel and Sunny bouncing around in front of him, nagging at him for bleeding. Short of climbing over someone’s front hedge and sprinting through their house, he was trapped.
“You can’t walk all the way home!” Sunny grabbed him by the arm, then quickly let go as he snatched himself free with a scowl.
“You don’t even know where I live—”
“Enough!” Sunny’s sister had caught up with them. Win – that was her name. She was nothing like Sunny. She looked tough, spoke with authority and wore an expression that squashed Ryan’s instinctive urge to argue. Instead he slouched back against the sign for Kellan’s road and had another go at his nose. Less blood came away than last time.
The whole group seemed to take a breath. Win’s presence slowed Sunny to a less vigorous jitter and Sophie leaned against the lamp post, a far cry from the girl so angry she’d savaged his forehead with a Sharpie. Beyond all of them, hulking in the shadow cast by one of the trees, stood Lucas.
“Ryan,” Win said. “Are you OK? Do you need to see a doctor or something?”
“Ha! No.” Clearly none of them had seen a fight before. His attention darted to Lucas, who looked guiltily away. Correction: none of the girls had seen a fight.
“Ryan…” The second Lucas spoke, everyone else went extra silent, Sophie’s gaze dancing round all of them as she tried to piece together what was going on.
Ryan decided to give her a little help. Just for once.
“You come to say sorry?” The words dislodged something and Ryan spat out a dark, shiny globule before carrying on. “Or did Kellan send you to finish what you helped start?”
“That’s not what happened. I was trying to break things up.” For all he was looking at Ryan as he said it, they all knew he was talking to Sunny.
“My face says thanks.”
“I really didn’t mean to hurt you—”
“Says the guy who got chucked out of his last school for breaking someone’s arm.”
“What?” Sunny hissed, all of them turning to look at Lucas so that they missed Ryan’s satisfied little smirk. Revenge sweet enough to cut through the taste of blood.
“I didn’t – that’s…” Lucas sighed. “I didn’t get chucked out.”
To be fair, Ryan couldn’t recall the ins and outs of Lucas and his reputation for being tough. Knew he’d broken someone’s arm – the one thing he wasn’t denying. Too honest, that one. Ryan would have denied it in a heartbeat in his position – and if he’d been Lucas, they’d have believed him.
Felt kind of weird to be the one people listened to.
“Whatever.” Ryan sniffed and dabbed a thumb to his nostril. “I’m out of here…”
“Wait.” Win pulled a set of keys from her pocket and nodded at a car parked across the road. “My car’s just here. I’ll give you a lift.” Then, “Sophie, I can come back to get you if—”
But Sophie was shaking her head, pushing herself up off the lamp post.
“No. I’ve had enough partying for one night.”
For one awkward moment, no one said anything more, but then Win looked at Lucas. “What about you?”
“If you’re sure…”
But Win had already turned away, pointing her key at her car, pulling the driver’s seat forward for Ryan to get in the back. He hadn’t meant to accept, but Win commanded a level of authority that Ryan found hard to rail against. Besides, he was tired, he hurt and a lift wasn’t such a terrible idea.
Sunny was in next, then Lucas, his bulk squashing the three of them into an awkward tangle of elbows and knees as they battled to put their belts on, Sunny squealing indignantly when Ryan accidentally elbowed her chest.
“So is this it?” Sophie twisted round from the passenger seat, fixing Ryan with a steely look and a sigh that was either exasperation or exhaustion. Maybe both. “Wasn’t there anything else inside that parcel?”
“Well there was this.” Ryan pointed at his T-shirt and there was a murmur of “I told you!” from Lucas. “And some letters.”
“What?” Sophie tried to twist round further, the seatbelt jerking against her neck, an angry dog restrained by a leash. “For us?”