13 Minutes Read Online Free PDF

circle, and until CCTV footage has been recovered from the shopping centre.
    At the present time there is no reason to consider this a criminal investigation.

 
     
     
    Seven
    On Monday, the hive was, as expected, buzzing, and Becca felt eyes turning her way as she moved between classes. Everyone knew she’d been at the hospital. They knew, thanks to a local newspaper photographer loitering outside, that Aiden worked for the man who’d pulled Natasha from the river. They knew that, long long ago, Becca and Natasha had once been friends and that Becca was the first person she mentioned when she woke up. It was all humming on the lines today.
    Oh yeah, I think I remember that. Shit, Tasha had braces then, didn’t she? Wasn’t that Becca Crisp quite fat? Proper lard-arse?
    Whispers. Mutters. Looks. She wished it would all stop. She didn’t need it any more than Tasha did. Occasionally someone tried to talk to her but she just pushed past them. They could talk to the Barbies if they wanted news about Tasha. The Barbies wanted the attention.
    Aside from seeing them surrounded by a throng of gossip-hungry wannabes in the common room at break, Becca had managed to avoid Hayley and Jenny for the first half of the day and was hoping to keep it up until the final bell rang and she could escape. It shouldn’t be hard. She had double Art all afternoon, which neither of the other girls took.
    ‘You okay?’ Hannah asked. Hannah was kind of Becca’s best mate these days, as much as anyone who wasn’t Aiden could be, and they were sitting, as they did most cold days at lunchtime, on the radiator in the Science corridor sharing the dregs of a packet of crisps. Hannah hadn’t mentioned the Tasha thing all day – not since Becca snapped on a text yesterday saying she really didn’t want to talk about it – but it was still there between them, a darker knot in the grey cloud that hung over the whole school. In some ways, Becca wished Hannah had asked. It would have shown some fucking spine. Hannah was sweet and could be funny when she was relaxed, and she was great at listening when Becca was either gushing or raging about Aiden, but there was no denying she was a bit of a doormat. Becca was the one in charge of the friendship. Becca had other friends: Casey in Theatre Tech Club, Emily who she sat with in English, and of course Aiden. Sometimes it felt like Hannah only had Becca. Hannah never had other plans. Hannah was always available. Hannah was always happy to see Becca.
    Becca was acutely aware that, basically, she was now best friends with the dull girl from school whose name no one would remember in five years’ time. It was a massive fall from being Natasha Howland’s forever friend. It bothered her more today than usual. Hannah didn’t seem to notice, though.
    ‘Yeah, I’m fine. I might go for a cigarette before Art. You coming?’
    ‘No, I’ll stay in the warm.’ Hannah always said her mum would go ape if she came home stinking of fags, but Becca knew that deep down it was Hannah who hated the smell. If they were out somewhere, she always stood a couple of feet away when Becca smoked and her face didn’t lie so well that Becca couldn’t see that she thought it was a bit disgusting. And she was right, it was. But it was also decadent and devil-may-care and she’d got used to it. She liked the feeling of the hot smoke deep in her lungs. A taste that carried in it a thousand ‘fuck yous’ to her mother and the hive.
    ‘Cool,’ she said, getting to her feet. ‘I’ll text you later. Have fun in Geography.’
    ‘Oh yeah.’ Hannah smiled and rolled her eyes. ‘All the lolz.’
     
    *
    The bitter cold outside was sharp after being pressed cosily against the hot radiator, and Becca sniffed into the collar of her thick coat as she made her way around to the back of the Sports Hall. By the time she’d crept through the gap in the snowy hedge and into the small area of no-man’s-land before the playing fields,