‘I can’t stay inside my tent till Saturday!’ George was coming back to life, which was good.
‘No need. I said I’d speak to Dex.’
‘You can go home now if you want,’ I said. That would be much better. ‘Marcus will arrange a lift for you.’
I thought she was considering it for a moment, then she shook her head. ‘Dex knows where my dad lives, and possibly my mum. I’d rather stay here. And I’d really like to go and see Murdo Mensah.’
I snapped then. ‘Jesus! Are you mad? You think that’s important?’
She gave a slight shrug and looked away.
‘So that’s it, then,’ said Marcus, handing me his empty mug and standing up. ‘You keep out of sight until I have a chance to deal with Dex. Probably best if you don’t leave the camping area until I give you the go-ahead tomorrow.’
I said to George, ‘I’ll sleep in your tent. There’s no way you’re staying anywhere alone.’
Marcus raised his eyebrows suggestively, almost smiled. ‘As you like.’
When he’d left us George said, still not looking at me, ‘You don’t need to stay with me.’
‘Don’t you want me to?’
‘Well …’
‘I’m not going to jump you,’ I said, annoyed now. She’d seemed keen enough to stay in my tent last night. ‘I just don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be on your own. You stay here while I move my stuff over then I’ll come and get you.’
‘Okay,’ She didn’t sound enthusiastic, but at least she wasn’t arguing.
When I returned two minutes later she was suddenly wide awake, scrabbling through her pockets. ‘I’ve got to phone my parents! They’ll be going mad that I haven’t been in touch. It’s nearly two days now. They’ll think something’s happened to me.’
‘Something did happen,’ I said. I sighed. ‘Come on, I’ll walk up the hill with you.’
We went up the banking until she got reception. As soon as she switched it on the thing started beeping.
She held it out so I could see the display.
Six text messages. Four missed calls.
‘Oh no,’ she wailed.
‘Looks like they’re concerned,’ I said. It was funny, really, for her to worry about being in trouble with her parents, after all she’d been through. ‘What are they saying?’
She scrolled through them quickly. ‘Four texts from Mum, getting increasingly hysterical. And there are even two from Dad. They want to know where the hell I am and why I’m not answering my phone. Oh, and Dad wants to know where Becky is, too.’
She stared at me for a moment, as though hoping for inspiration, and then began to text feverishly. ‘I’ll apologise. I’ll tell them my phone is on the blink. I’ll ... Oh God, what am I going to say?’
A minute after the first message was sent, the phone began to ring. Imagine someone being that interested in you.
I could hear a woman’s voice, high and angry, asking a bunch of questions.
‘Hang on Mum. Need to be quick. Not much battery.’
The voice was so loud now I could even hear the words. ‘Georgina, there had better be a good explanation! Where’s your father? I can’t get hold of him either and …’
‘Mum, Dad’s away for a bit, but it’s okay, he agreed Becky could look after me. Listen, I’d better go now, I’ll ring you tomorrow. Reception here is awful.’
‘Georgina, where are you?’
‘I’m okay Mum. I’m, er, with a friend. Don’t worry. I’ll phone tomorrow. Ah, phone’s dying …’ And she switched it off.
‘Trouble?’ I said quietly.
She took a deep breath and nodded. ‘I’ll need to think up a very good story before tomorrow. And charge this phone so I can contact her again. She’ll kill me if she has to come back from holiday early.’
I said doubtfully, ‘Wouldn’t it be better if she did? I thought you’d want to see her.’
George’s expression wavered so I could see the longing for comfort, and then the determination was back. She shook her head. ‘No. I’m not giving up now. I’m staying.’
I had to admire her guts. And worrying about her parents did at least take her mind off that bastard Dex Barker, which could only be good.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
GEORGE
Finn waited for me while I used the toilet then we crawled back inside my tent. I was exhausted but I didn’t fall asleep immediately. I lay in my sleeping bag on my side of the tent, with Finn close beside me in his. I didn’t think he was asleep either. It wasn’t even that late and the music from the various stages was still thumping through the ground. Closer at hand someone had a ghetto blaster on with Steve Earle singing about half of his friends being dead. That was really cheering.
Finn and I had talked for a bit after the phone call, then I’d been the one who had insisted on turning the lamp off. I thought that made it less likely Dex would know we were here.
I whispered, ‘Finn?’
‘Mmm?’
‘Why doesn’t Marcus just turn Dex in for the drug dealing? He must know it’s going on. And he hates him, I’m sure he does.’
‘Marcus doesn’t deal with the police.’
I thought about that for a while. Marcus clearly did have a thing about the police. I’d realised that on my first night here.
‘Why?’ I asked, more in hope than expectation of an answer.
Finn paused, then said, ‘It’s complicated.’
‘Doesn’t he mind about all the drug dealing and that?’
‘Only if Cami is involved. Which he is far more than Marcus realises. Funny how he has this blind spot when it comes to his brother. But otherwise I suppose Dex is useful. A lot of people come to festivals for the drugs. And Dex provides an unlimited bloody supply. So everyone’s happy. Maybe Marcus even gets a cut, I don’t know.’
This was the time to tell him about the man I had followed. And I’d remembered what Dex had said when he dashed off, about seeing Chester. It seemed odd he was friendly with Marcus’s assistant. But I didn’t see that any of that mattered now.
Instead I said, ‘You’ve never liked Dex though.’
‘Nobody likes him.’
‘Did he supply your mum?’
There was a long silence, then he said, ‘I don’t want to talk about it. Go to sleep.’
Now he was probably thinking about his mother again and being sad, and that was my fault.
I was too hot. I put my arms outside my sleeping bag and realised Finn had done the same. I took his hand, to show I was being friendly, or something. He didn’t move away and we lay there for a while, holding hands. Maybe that meant he didn’t hate me. I felt safe, his hand warm and firm around mine. Finally I could feel all the tension draining out of me. I thought I’d never sleep, but at least I could close my eyes and relax.
I woke first. For a moment I was disorientated, wondering where the hell I was. Then all the problems of the previous day came flooding back. Dex in the van, Dex towering over me, Marcus and Finn being furious. What a total mess. And then there was Mum wanting to know what was going on. I tried to decide what to say to her, it was far preferable to thinking about Dex.
I thought Finn was still asleep, quiet and tidy about this as about everything else he did.
Then he said, ‘What are you thinking about, looking so grim?’
I realised he had his eyes open and was watching me.
I rubbed my face, sure I looked a mess, and turned on my side so I could see him. He looked beautiful, no sleep in his eyes, the light hair only slightly mussed. Oh God, he was so gorgeous!
‘I was just thinking.’
‘Did you sleep okay?’
‘Yes, fine. And you?’ I felt embarrassed now. It was the first time I’d shared a bed – well, a sort of bed – with a boy. And apart from holding my hand, which was probably just to comfort me, he hadn’t shown any interest.
‘Perfect. No nightmares?’
I shook my head. I didn’t remem
ber dreaming at all. I wished he wasn’t always asking if I was all right. I didn’t want to be someone he had to take care of all the time.
‘I need to go to the loo,’ I said, sitting up.
‘Fine. I’ll come out with you.’
‘You don’t need to …’
‘But I will.’
He hung around outside the portaloo again like he was my personal bodyguard. It was a bit humiliating.
When I came out he collected water for us both from the standpipe. He said he’d heat it so we could wash in comfort. We shared some of his muesli bars for our breakfast and then Marcus appeared and said he’d spoken to Dex and everything was fine but it was probably better if I didn’t go around on my own. He said I should make sure I had either Finn or Cami with me. I tried to protest. I wasn’t feeling so terrified now and I didn’t want to be some useless girl who needed looking after. What Dex had done had been … awful, but nothing had actually happened. In daylight, with people around, I was fine.
But Marcus ignored what I said. He repeated his orders and Finn backed him up, of course.
He even said I could use the landline if I wanted to get in touch with my parents. This was a much better idea than just charging my mobile. I was now running seriously low on credit.
‘But if your parents are going to make trouble, you’ll have to go,’ he had said, back to his old helpful self.
So we headed over to the bothy and I phoned my mother. It was an awkward call. Finn stayed too close for my liking, listening to the excruciating conversation of lies and half-truths. He probably thought I was normally like this but I wasn’t. This was all Dex’s fault. If he hadn’t accosted me yesterday I would have got in touch with Mum before all this panic set in.
Amazingly, I did manage to appease her, more or less, although I’m not sure my story was totally convincing. She said she’d phone me at Dad’s house tomorrow, and was looking forward to hearing the full story. Great. And she wasn’t sure she should go away for so long without me again, and had I been studying? She was looking forward to hearing how much I’d done on Sunday. Double great.
I tried to phone Dad’s mobile but still got no answer. By then the office girl who worked for Marcus was scowling and banging things on her desk, clearly not happy to have us there, so we headed back to the camping area. I was glad Marcus wasn’t around. Finn would probably have asked him about finding me a lift back to Dad’s straight away.
Instead he waited until we reached my tent, having kept an eye out for Dex and seen nothing, then he said, ‘So, what are you going to do?’
‘Why do I have to do anything?’ I said, resentfully. I felt like I was a child and he the adult. It was ridiculous, he couldn’t have been much more than a year older than me. Why did he always have to be so bossy?
‘You just told your mum she could phone you at your Dad’s house tomorrow.’ He wasn’t going to let up. Probably he just wanted to get rid of me.
‘Well I’ll just … I’m not going back now! Murdo Mensah is on tomorrow night, this is my big chance to see him.’
‘You can see him some other time.’
‘Can I? Who knows? He hardly ever does live appearances. I’m not going to miss this chance.’
‘So you lied to your mum?’ He narrowed his eyes, looking angry. Why was he so bothered? Wasn’t everyone around here telling lies?
‘Jesus, I’m lying to her about being here. I’m going to be in trouble one way or another, this isn’t going to make any difference.’ I’d thought about this since speaking to Mum. She was definitely going to find out some of what I’d been doing during these holidays and there were going to be major ructions. Seeing as I couldn’t avoid that, I might just as well stay and make the most of what was left of the festival.
The old me wouldn’t have dared do that. Staying alone at Dad’s house had seemed like the ultimate rule-breaking. Apparently I’d changed quite a lot over the last couple of weeks.
The only thing I had to do was make sure she didn’t take an early plane home. It was getting so close to the end of her holiday now I thought the risks of that were pretty small. If I called her tomorrow, from the bothy phone again if necessary, I was sure I could stall her with that. I’d deal with the eventual fallout when I had to.
I thought Finn was going to make a big fuss, but he just shook his head and said, ‘Your decision.’
‘Yes, it is,’ I said. ‘And now I’m going to …’ I paused for a moment, confused. What should I do? Marcus had banned me from working any more shifts on the gates and there was no music on just now. ‘I think I’ll study.’
Finn smiled faintly. ‘Now that is a good idea. I’ll do the same. Why don’t you bring your books over to my tent, it’s bigger, and we can work there.’
Chapter Thirty
FINN
It was a funny kind of day. George brought some of her school books over to my tent and we settled in there.
I did more studying than I’d done in weeks, and I felt not happy, but at least calm. We made tea or soup at regular intervals and talked about what we were revising. I couldn’t help being glad she was still here. It was fun to be with her, especially when we talked about something other than family, and festivals, and all our troubles.
Most of George’s books seemed to be sciences so I presumed that was what she was interested in, but when I mentioned that she said, ‘Science? No way, it’s really not my thing.’
‘So why are you studying physics and chemistry and biology?’
‘Parents.’ She gave a huge sigh. She was good at those. ‘Actually, Dad’s not too bad, even though he lectures in land sciences. He says I should do what I want to do. But Mum is all You’ll never get anywhere with an arts degree in this day and age.’ She banged down her chemistry book and glared at it. ‘She studied English so she thinks she knows.’
‘But what do you want to do?’ I asked. I wanted to know what was going on in that strange, stubborn mind.
‘Art,’ she said, and then snorted. ‘Fine art. What could be more airy fairy arty than that?’
‘You should talk to Cami,’ I said.
‘Cami? Why?’
‘He’s supposed to be working on his art portfolio this year, to get into a good college. He failed practically everything at school, except art. Not that he’s stupid. I mean he is stupid, because he doesn’t bloody try. But he’s not thick. And he’s pretty good at art.’
‘Really? Wow. What sort of stuff does he do?’ She looked more enthused than she had about anything other than Murdo Mensah. It was good to watch her, the way her eyes sparkled and her hands waved in rapid gestures. ‘I didn’t know he was interested in anything, really. I love sketching. I thought I might get some done here but I’ve hardly done any. If I didn’t have to study this stuff,’ she gestured in disgust at her books, ‘It would be so much better.’
‘Maybe after your exams you’ll have more time.’
‘Maybe.’
‘Can I see what you have done?’
She hesitated so long I wished I hadn’t asked. I should have realised this kind of question could be intrusive. Not everyone was as careless as Cami about who saw their work.
Then she shrugged and pulled a sketchbook from her rucksack.
‘I haven’t done much. And they’re pretty rubbish.’
I took it and turned the pages slowly. It was true she hadn’t done much, but what she had done was good, really unexpected. Flowing, lightly-coloured sketches of the tents and the trees. The way she did them they looked ethereal, almost other-worldly. It wasn’t what I would have expected from someone as lively as George. They were quieter, with a whole lot more detail to them. But there was a quirkiness that was completely her, too.
She reached out to take the pad back. ‘As I said, they’re not very good.’
‘They’re amazing,’ I said, pulling back so she couldn’t take it from me. ‘Really. I like them a lot.’
I glanced up and saw her blush with pleasure. She must ha
ve known I was being honest.
Eventually I handed it back to her. ‘You’re really good. I can see why you’d want to continue.’
‘Thanks. But so far I’ve had absolutely no luck with persuading Mum. And when she hears I’ve been here I won’t exactly be in her good books, either. The only solution is to do really, really well in my exams, and hope for the best.’
We carried on studying in silence for a while, but eventually George lost interest. She pushed her books away with a massive sigh and turned to me.
‘What will you do next year? Will you go to uni? You said Highers are the exams you need to do for uni entrance.’
‘No. I’ll stay at school for another year, do Sixth Year. Most people do and I’ve only just turned seventeen, what’s the point of going to uni when you’re not even old enough to drink?’ I smiled so she could take that as a joke if she wanted.
‘What is it you want to do?’
‘Not sure. Biology, maybe. Botanical sciences. Something like that.’ Actually, I was almost certain, but I didn’t normally say so.
‘Far more sensible than art,’ she said, pulling a face. ‘And do you spend every holiday with Marcus and Cami?’
Uh oh, she was back to twenty-questions mode. ‘No.’ I really didn’t want to go into all of that. I turned a page, hoping she’d take the hint.
She didn’t. ‘Where do you go all those times you disappear?’
‘I don’t go anywhere in particular. I’m just around.’
‘But you go for walks and things. You went in to town.’
‘I needed some shopping and I was offered a lift.’
‘I just wondered how much you know, really know, about what Dex is up to.’
‘Christ, George, leave it!’ I swung around, raising my voice. ‘Are you mad? Look what happened yesterday! Stay out of this.’
She glared. ‘I didn’t say I was going to do anything. I just asked what you knew.’
‘I told you, I like going for walks. That’s why I’m thinking of doing botanical sciences at uni. I just like trees and being outside, okay? But I won’t even get into uni if I don’t start doing some serious studying.’
Music and Lies (George and Finn Book 1) Page 16
