The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson Read Online Free PDF Page B

answer a call from her on my lunch break.
    I’m at work and it’s doing my head in to be inside on such a beautiful day. I can see the blue sky above the atrium in the middle of the mall, but the fluorescents down below are sucking the natural light right out of the air, something which never fails to depress me.
    ‘I don’t know,’ I reply uncertainly. Stuart was still in a foul mood this morning, even after a properly sincere apology.
    ‘Come on, we can go straight from work. There’s a load of us going.’
    ‘Who?’ I can’t help but ask.
    ‘Everyone. Aaron, Dougie, Em, Mike and a bunch of his mates.’ She hesitates. ‘I don’t know about Tom.’
    I take a deep breath and try not to let her hear me sigh.
    ‘Did you see him last night with Isla?’ I ask the question that has been plaguing me.
    ‘I saw them chatting, yeah,’ she replies awkwardly, and humiliation rushes through me. It must be so obvious how much I like him. I wish it wasn’t. ‘I don’t think anything happened, though,’ she adds, trying to placate me.
    ‘Whatever,’ I say, and she doesn’t answer, which only makes me squirm more.
    ‘Oh, please come,’ she tries again. ‘Even if Tom’s not there, it’ll still be a laugh.’
    Bugger it.
    ‘OK, why not?’
    I meet the others at the station after work and wait until I’m on the train before texting Stu. I usually walk home from work because we don’t live far from Maidenhead town centre, so he’ll be expecting me back around this time. He calls me as soon as he gets the text, but I press divert.
    ‘He’s going to do his nut in,’ I tell Natalie, who’s sitting next to me. The others are chatting noisily and playing about in the seats around us. She rolls her eyes. Her parents are so easy-going that she doesn’t get why Stu is overprotective. I try not to let on how worried I am. ‘Oh, well, it’s done now.’
    My phone pings to let me know a message has come in. Uneasily, I take a look. Get your arse back here right now.
    ‘What does it say?’ Natalie asks, so I show her. ‘Oops,’ she comments.
    ‘He will kill me, you know,’ I muse, relatively calmly, as I study the old piece of chewing gum that has been squashed into the back of the seat in front of me.
    Ping ! I mean it.
    I bite my lip. Natalie grabs my phone to read Stu’s message.
    ‘What are you going to say?’ she asks.
    I shrug as I stare out of the window at a field full of yellow rapeseed flowers. ‘I’m already on the train, what can I do?’
    ‘You’d better tell him that,’ she suggests.
    So I do.
    Ping ! Then catch the next one straight home!
    I sigh and type out a reply. You know I’m not going to do that.
    I wait at least half a minute for his reply. This is the last straw!
    Unease overcomes me. I wonder if I’ve finally pushed him over the edge. What’s he going to do? Kick me out?
    I text him back , I’m sorry. Really.
    And he replies, Too little, too late.
    ‘Shit,’ I say out loud, warily showing Natalie our latest exchange. ‘Oh, well.’ I try to sound light-hearted. ‘It’s done now. I’d better enjoy my last few hours of freedom before he locks me up for good.’
    Some of my bad feelings are miraculously washed away when we arrive at the riverside to see Tom, surrounded by a few of his friends. No girls, I note with relief. I avoid his eyes in a couldn’t-care-less manner as we wander across the park to the river. It’s a gorgeous evening and the aroma of freshly cut grass, river water and cow parsley fills the air.
    ‘It smells like summer,’ I say to Natalie.
    ‘It smells like hayfever,’ she replies, followed by a loud sniff to prove her point. We’re giggling as we reach the group.
    ‘Hey,’ Tom says, leaning back on his elbows and smiling up at me. ‘Have you come straight from work?’ he asks, thwarting my intentions to ignore him.
    ‘Yeah.’ I find myself sitting down closer to him than I was intending to. He’s wearing blue jeans today and a faded