Boys Don't Cry Read Online Free PDF

Dante. I don’t know how to bring up anyone else and I . . . I love Emma too much to ruin her life.’
    ‘Melanie, you can’t leave it here.’
    ‘Dante, I have to. If she stays with me, I’m afraid . . .’
    ‘Afraid of what?’
    Melanie didn’t reply.
    ‘Answer me. Afraid of what?’ I shouted.
    ‘Of what might happen . . . of what I might do . . .’ Melanie’s voice was barely above a whisper now.
    ‘I don’t understand . . .’
    ‘Dante, I love our daughter. I do. I’d die for her. But I have no life. Emma and I live in one bedroom in my aunt’s cupboard-under-the-stairs-sized flat with no chance of getting anything better. I gave up my life, my friends, my dreams for Emma, and sometimes when it’s just me and her and she won’t stop crying . . . Sometimes the thoughts in my head scare me. The things I do . . . the things I want to do scare me. Emma deserves to be with someone who can look after her properly.’
    Oh my God . . . ‘That’s not me,’ I protested, barely taking in what Mel was saying. ‘I don’t know the first thing about babies.’
    ‘Maybe not, but you’ll learn. You always had more patience than me. And you’ve got your dad and your brother and a big house and your friends.’
    She had to be joking. ‘Mel, don’t do this . . .’
    ‘I’m sorry, Dante. I’m going away now, up north for a while.’
    I shook my head frantically. ‘Melanie, please. You can’t. You can’t just leave . . .’
    ‘I’m so sorry, Dante. Tell Emma . . . tell her I love her.’
    ‘Melanie . . .’
    But she hung up. I immediately tried to re-call her but her number was blocked. I stared down at my phone, unable and unwilling to believe what had just happened. It took a few moments to realize that I was shaking, actually shaking.
    Was this some kind of sick joke?
    The painful, constant twisting of my stomach told me otherwise.
    Dumped. Melanie had dumped her baby on me and was now God only knew where. She was free and clear. And me? I’d been lumbered with a kid that was supposedly mine. Well, hell no. I was off to university in less than a month and there was no way I was going to let Melanie and some baby ruin my plans, not to mention my life. No way.
    The baby was getting louder and louder. My world was spiralling round and out of control like water down a plughole. I had to do something about that damned noise. Going over to the buggy, I looked down at the thing which was supposed to be my child . . . my daughter. The word set off an earthquake inside me with a magnitude of ten on the Richter scale. How could I have a kid? Ten minutes of not much with Melanie and now I had this thing screaming up at me? And it was so loud I couldn’t hear myself think.
    ‘Could you please stop crying – just for five minutes?’ The words were out of my mouth before I realized how ridiculous they were. Like the thing in the buggy could be reasoned with.
    Oh God, the noise.
    Do something – fast.
    I pushed the buggy so it was in front of the window. Maybe if the thing looked outside, it would find something to distract it and would stop crying. I broke out my phone and headed for the kitchen where the baby’s wailing couldn’t be overheard.
    ‘Collette, d’you remember Melanie? Melanie Dyson,’ I launched in before she’d barely said hello.
    ‘The girl who disappeared after Christmas a while ago?’
    ‘Yeah, that’s her.’
    ‘’Course I remember her. What about her?’
    ‘You two were friends, weren’t you?’
    ‘Well, we weren’t enemies but we didn’t swap diaries either if that’s what you mean.’
    ‘I . . . don’t suppose you’ve got her current mobile number or her aunt’s phone number or address, do you?’
    ‘No. And why on earth would I have Mel’s aunt’s contact details?’ I could imagine Collette’s frown.
    ‘Well, Mel went to live with her aunt so I thought you might . . .’
    ‘How d’you know that?’
    ‘Mel told me.’
    ‘When did she tell you that?’
    Dammit.