A Sea Change Read Online Free PDF Page A

shot.
    ‘Yes, I do,’ Jenna had told her, and her mum had just laughed. She could hear the cackle now, fuelled by fags and cheap bottles ofsupermarket own-brand vodka. Her mother’s bloke went and bought a bottle of vodka every morning from the corner shop, and by four o’clock in the afternoon the pair of them would have polished it off, just in time to head to the pub.
    Of course she thought she was better than that.
    Jenna had dreamed that, if she got away from the grimy house where she had been brought up, she could make something of herself. She had to escape the lazy, drunken woman who had given birth to her and four other kids. Her Mum had never been a proper mother to any of them. If anything, they had to look after her. There were days when Jenna hadn’t gone to school because her mum was so drunk that she was scared to leave her.
    Jenna could remember going back to her friends’ houses sometimes. She had looked on, wide-eyed, as their mothers fussed over them, made them tea and asked about their day. She had sat in the bedrooms of her schoolfriends, with their crisply ironed duvet covers and matching curtains, and fluffy dressing gowns and slippers. They had clean towels hanging in the bathroom and toilet paper on a holder. There were proper mealtimes when the wholefamily sat round the table. They had fathers who came home and hugged them. They had fathers who would never raise a voice, let alone a hand, to their wife or kids.
    Jenna wasn’t jealous, but she never invited anyone back to her house. She would have been too ashamed because their house was a hovel. The tiny front yard was studded with dog turds that baked hard in the sun or turned to mush in the rain. Sometimes, Jenna cleared them up but she ended up gagging. Inside the house, the lounge was covered in dog hairs and the wallpaper had been scratched off the wall. Every surface in the kitchen was covered in dirty cups and plates, cereal boxes and takeaway cartons. There were empty bottles everywhere, but no glasses. Her mum just poured vodka straight into a can of 7Up and glugged it. In the hall, there were tins of dog food upended straight onto the floor. Her mum argued that the dogs only took two seconds to eat it, because they were always starving, so what was the point of dirtying a dish?
    Whatever happened, Jenna wasn’t going back there.
    She blinked back the familiar tears. It was up to her now. She had no one else, and that was how she liked it – even though it was hard. Sheforced herself to get out of bed. She could lie there all day, but then she would be just like her mother. She had to keep going, even though she knew that what she was about to do was wrong.
    Jenna got herself dressed – before she could change her mind. She put on a bikini, then chose a dress. She didn’t want to stand out, so she picked out one with a simple white halter neck. In a bag, she put a towel, some suncream, a bottle of water and a book. She tied her hair in a high ponytail and finished off the look with a pair of sunglasses and some flip-flops decorated with big flowers.
    As she left the house, she looked like any normal young girl about to spend a day on the beach.
    Jenna had just enough money for the bus fare to Everdene. It was only five miles away, but it might as well have been a thousand. Her heart lifted every time she went down the hill towards the bay. It was as unlike Tawcombe as you could get. Everywhere you looked there was beauty, from the rolling hills to the sea to the sun on the distant horizon. There were shades of green and blue and shimmering gold.
    She’d come here before – sometimes with her mates. They ate chips on the beach, washed down with bottles of cider, and got the late bus back. They never went in the sea. That was for tourists and surfers. As far as Jenna was concerned, the sea might look nice – but it was cold and wet.
    She got off the bus in the centre of the village where the traffic was insane. On a hot day, in