Lies Like Love Read Online Free PDF

sunflower; his head only just touched the first leaf.
    ‘Pete,’ I yelled, cupping my hands round my mouth,pushing my face against the wire. ‘Pete!’ I waved and called, walking my way round the perimeter, trying to get a little closer. The third time I called he heard and his head jerked up, eyes scanning and then fixing in my direction.
    ‘Audrey!’ I saw him say and he ran, little legs scissoring towards me. Peter grabbed my hand through the chain-link fence. I crouched down and kissed his fist.
    ‘You all right?’
    ‘I’m OK,’ he said. ‘Are you OK, Aud?’
    ‘Course I am, mate. What are you doing?’
    ‘Just playing,’ he said, and shrugged. I smiled.
    ‘There might be some nice children, Pete. You should join in, maybe play tag or with the boys playing ball.’
    ‘They said you can’t play if you’re new.’ He shrugged again and I bit my lip.
    ‘Tomorrow, then,’ I told him. ‘You won’t be new tomorrow, will you?’
    ‘I don’t know, Aud. I might be.’ His eyes widened and I saw him counting the days in his head, trying to work out how long different lasted.

Leo
    Leo was late for Biology again. Tuesday’s double lesson was something he was finding it difficult to get excited about. He strode down one of the many corridors, thinking how the school was like a long-tentacled creature and how maybe he’d go diving in the summer, see how things looked underwater, when he came face to face with Audrey.
    ‘Hey,’ he said, and she stared at him and blinked as if he were the last person she’d ever expected to see again. He couldn’t help smiling – she looked as if she needed smiles. Sue was right; friendly was good.
    ‘Are you lost?’ Leo watched her, wondering.
    ‘No. I was just looking for the nurse’s office,’ she said, and then blushed like before.
    ‘Oh, well, it’s down there.’ He pointed back the way he’d come.
    ‘Thanks.’ Audrey began to move again. Leo found himself following.
    ‘Are you ill? Do you need anything?’ It was only polite to ask. He couldn’t have her wandering off and then passing out somewhere.
    ‘No. I’m all right.’ She pulled her sleeves down over her hands as she spoke, chewed a fistful of cardigan and then stopped, looked at him, and walked on in the direction he’d indicated. Leo fell into step, forgetting Biology, andAudrey glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and her mouth twitched, just a tiny bit, the hint of a smile.
Gotcha
, he wanted to say, but that would be annoying and he was sure he could think of something else instead, but all he knew was that her hair was the colour of moonlight and that she didn’t so much walk as glide. Obviously those observations were not appropriate, conversationally speaking. Obviously she did not want to talk or be escorted or anything.
    ‘So, yes, well, it’s just up there,’ Leo said eventually, as they reached another corridor and it snaked before them, long and white and empty.
    ‘I got it. Thanks.’
    ‘No worries,’ he said, and stood and watched her float away.

Audrey
    The next day at break I asked Jen about Leo. He’d appeared the day before, in the afternoon when I’d been dodging Science, and now he was walking past the lockers where we were standing. He raised his hand, a brief wave, mouthed hello, then strode on. I just wanted to know if she knew him, that was all, but another girl butted in.
    ‘Leo? In Year Thirteen? That Leo?’ She gestured with her thumb down the corridor where he’d gone. I tried to smile at her and nodded.
    ‘Yeah. I think so.’
    ‘He’s taken,’ this other girl said. Jen grabbed her books and slammed her locker shut. She didn’t look at the girl.
    ‘What do you mean?’ I couldn’t help asking.
    ‘I mean taken, like, you know. Taken.’ She leant back against the wall and folded her arms, so I smiled quickly, not meaning it, and looked away.
    ‘Thanks for your help, Lizzy,’ Jen said, rolling her eyes and pulling me with her.
    ‘So,