Hello World Read Online Free PDF Page A

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up. Instead, Martin swears and stalks off, slapping Ben over the head as they
go.
    I stand there in shock, staring after the
boy’s disappearing shadows.
    A hand rests on my shoulder and I jump.
    ‘Are you okay?’ the stranger asks, his eyes
filled with obvious concern. I shrink out of his touch and look around dumbly.
    ‘I err… I’m fine,’ I say in a rush, raking
a shaking hand through my hair. I walk away from him and stumble to pick up my
bike.
    ‘You don’t look it,’ the boy argues,
jumping in front of me. I fumble to remember the name Ben had mentioned.
    ‘Look… Blake… Thank you for what you did,
but I’m honestly fine. I just want to go home now,’ I try, plastering a smile
on my face, pushing past him.
    Blake lets me past but doesn’t seem happy
about it. ‘Want me to walk you home?’
    ‘No!’ I shout over my shoulder, keeping my
eyes in front of me.
    ‘And you’ll go straight home?’
    ‘Yes!’ I mutter, darting around the corner
before he can reply.
    I carry on around the corner and power
walk, pulling my bike alongside me a few more streets until I drop my bike and
fall to the ground, crawling across to the curb and drawing my knees up.
    Then for some strange reason, I pull out
the crumpled napkin and punch the number into my phone. The dialling sound
rings twice and for a moment I think he isn’t going to pick up before Jay’s
voice sounds through the speaker.
    ‘Hey, Jay. Its Neve,’ I sniff, trying to
keep my voice steady and natural sounding.
    ‘Hey, Red,’ he replies happily before
noting the odd pitch to my voice. So much for keeping it natural sounding. ‘Are
you okay?’
    ‘Can you meet me, please?’ I ask in a rush,
biting my lip nervously. ‘I… need someone…’
    ‘I’ll be right there, I’ve just finished
work. Where are you? I’ll come and get you.’
    An odd relief passes through me and I look
around for any sort of landmark. ‘Andrew Street, opposite Mr. Chips .’
    ‘Okay, I know where that is. Hold on till I
get there, ‘kay?’
    I nod and hang up before dropping my phone
down next to me and bursting into tears, crying heavily into my knees.
    Everything inside me feels like jelly. Burning
jelly. I have just been torn apart all over again. I miss Alex so, so much. God
I miss him.
    I keep my nails pressed against my palms,
the familiar gesture calming me until all my emotions are nothing but numbness.
Distantly I hear a car pull up on the other side of the street.
    ‘Neve?’ I hear Jay call, looking up as he
rushes over and crouches beside me. If my voice on the phone or the disorderly
state of me sitting on the curb hadn’t given anything away, then something in
my face tells him that things are certainly not alright.
    Wordlessly, he pulls me into a hug and I
start crying helplessly on his shoulder. He strokes my hair and rocks me
slightly, whispering calming things in my ear that I hardly hear. I’m just
crying into this stranger’s shoulder and it doesn’t feel wrong. It feels safe.
    When I’ve pulled myself together enough, I
pull away and wipe the tears away from my eyes.
    ‘Sorry,’ I apologise, my voice sounding wet
after the crying. ‘You must think I’m such a state, crying on the curb like
this.’ I try to laugh but it just ends up sounding as fake as Katie Price’s
boobs.
    ‘Not at all,’ Jay says softly. Then he
catches my hand, noticing its grazed state. The blood has dried at least. ‘What
happened?’ he asks, his expression darkening.
    I carefully pull my hand away and clasp it
together with my other hand, running my fingers over each other nervously.
    ‘I ran into some boys that used to go to
our school. They stopped my bike and pulled me off it, started taunting me,’ I
shrug. I sneak at glance at Jay who is waiting patiently, as if he knows that
isn’t the whole story.
    Quietly, I debate with myself whether to
tell him about Alex. But then I decide that he’ll find out anyway, the whole
year knows. If it came