Don't Even Think About It Read Online Free PDF Page B

in the other. A small bump on her nose where she broke it after falling off a horse when she was about my age. A few red lines called broken veins on her cheeks.
    She has short, stubby fingers that she hates – she always told me I was lucky I got Dad’s hands. She wore a silver ring like a bit of rope on her left little finger, and she smelt of the almond body lotion she put on every morning.
    I wonder if she still smells the same. I wonder if her hair is longer, and if she still puts in the red colour every three weeks.
    I wonder if she remembers what I look like.

Half past seven, the next day.
    You are not going to believe this. My father has just gone out with Marjorie Maloney.
    Remember her? Lives across the road, dyed black hair, stinky perfume, tight skirts that show her knickers. Breaks her iron so she has an excuse to call over to Dad, and bakes lemon meringue pies that nobody wants.
    When Dad told me that he was going out with her this evening, I was sure he was joking. I just looked at him and began to smile, and he said quickly, ‘No, really, we are. Just to the cinema, and straight back. Two and a half hours at the most. Will you be OK on your own, or will I get someone to come around?’
    I couldn’t believe it. He was serious. After all the times we used to hide in the sitting room when she came knocking on the door with one of her yukky casseroles. I thought he felt exactly the same about her as I do.
    I was so mad I could hardly talk. I managed to say, ‘I don’t need a babysitter,’ and then I turned and went upstairs, and he had the good sense not to follow me. He called up a few minutes ago to say he was going, and that he’d leave his phone switched on just in case. (Of course HE has a mobile phone, not like some people who’ve been BEGGING for one for
months
.)
    I didn’t bother answering him, just turned up Eminem.
    I am MAD AS HELL. How DARE he go out with Marjorie Maloney? What if somebody sees them?
    As if I’d phone him anyway, even if the house was burning to a cinder. Even if a gang broke in and tied me up and robbed the place. (I know I couldn’t phone him if I was tied up, but you know what I mean.)
    When I heard the front door closing, I snuck out to the landing and watched him walking across the road to Marjorie Maloney’s house. She came out straight away – was probably watching him too, from
her
landing – and they got into his car and drove off, in full view of anyone who might be watching. She had a red skirt and a black top on, and she was giggling like anything as she was getting into his car. I said a quick prayer that she’d catch her skirt in the car door, but God mustn’t have been listening.
Half an hour later
    OK, I phoned Bumble, who managed to calm me down a bit. He said Marjorie could easily have asked Dad to go out, instead of the other way around, and Dad would be too much of a gentleman to say no, even if it was thelast thing he wanted to do.
    Bumble also said that maybe Marjorie really wanted to see this film, and maybe there was nobody else to go with her, and she didn’t fancy going on her own, so she only asked Dad along to keep her company.
    And the more I thought about it, as I was making a peanut butter and banana sandwich afterwards, the less mad I felt. Of course it’s not a
date
, nothing like that at all. Dad wouldn’t do that, not with Mam only gone a few months. No, he and Marjorie are just sort of friends.
    He needs friends, right? Just like me and Bumble.
    I don’t know what I’d do without Bumble. He’s my rock.
    I wonder if Mam would ever go to the cinema with another man. She must be meeting lots of new people over there in the States. I don’t think I want to think about that right now.
    Hope the film is a bummer, even if they are only friends.

Seven o’clock, Tuesday, beginning of June.
    Well, summer’s here, kind of. Bumble had a pair of shorts on him at school today. Pity his legs are so white and skinny. The rest