The Island of Dragons (Rockpools Book 4) Gregg Dunnett (desktop ebook reader .TXT) 📖

the car close to the side of the bridge. Oscar glanced backwards and forwards, then tossed it casually out into the water below. In the semi-darkness there was no one around to notice.

James rolled the window shut again.

“Shit. Less than four hundred bucks huh?” James mused.

“Uh huh.” Oscar replied.

“You wanna go back and ask if they’ve got any more?” James turned suddenly to Oscar and grinned, but Oscar didn’t smile back.

“Are you bored?”

“What?”

“Are you bored? Frustrated? How’s it going with that – what’s her name?”

“Which one?”

“I dunno. The cheerleader one. Isn’t that the latest?”

“Brooke? Yeah, she’s fine. She’s all over me.”

“I don’t doubt it. But maybe…” Oscar stopped, and James’ face tightened this time.

“Maybe what?”

“Maybe it’s time.”

“Time?” James pretended not to understand. Oscar took a deep breath.

“Time you got things back together with Lily.”

James didn’t answer for a long while.

“I’m kinda sick of hanging out in dead end bars too.”

“You think I’m not?” James snapped the words back, and there was silence for a while.

“Then I don’t see the problem. The two of you have split up before. You fuck around like a stud dog for a few weeks, wear yourself out and get back together… And I can see you want to – all these stupid risks you’re taking, ripping off dumb assholes for three hundred bucks. You’re deflecting. You’re putting it off. What I don’t understand is why. Just get back with her, and things can be back to normal.”

James didn’t answer, but his face darkened.

“What? Come on man, tell me. I’m your oldest friend. You’re not worried she found out about Brooke?”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what?”

James drove on for a while, looking fixed ahead, but then he started speaking again, through gritted teeth.

“There’s been a development.”

“What development?”

“OK you’re right. I guess I was ready to get back with her. So I went to her house – I’ve still got a key. Only…”

“Only what?”

“Only she wasn’t alone, was she?”

Oscar looked confused. Then he smiled as understanding dawned. “Oh man, you’re shitting me? You walked in on Lily…” he almost didn’t want to say it, but he did – “fucking someone?”

He turned to James, and from the blackness on his friend’s face he stopped smiling.

“Shit. What did you do?”

“I left. They didn’t see me.”

Oscar considered this.

“You see who it was?”

“Yeah. Yeah I saw.”

James drove on one-handed for a while, picking at his teeth.

“Well? Who was it?”

James waited until he’d removed whatever it was that was annoying him.

“It was Billy.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

I wouldn’t say I’m bored. I mean, I don’t want to sound ungrateful, it’s just… it’s just it would be nice to do something other than hang around in Lily’s house and, and – well, go to bed. She’s texted me again, asking if I can go round tonight, when my classes are finished, so that’s what I’m going to do, but this time I’m going to suggest we go out somewhere. Just for a change.

When I get there she’s dressed in her staying-in clothes. I’ve learned the difference now. If she’s going out she’ll make an effort, with make-up and whatnot, with her hair extra shiny and with clips in. But if she’s staying in she wears more comfortable clothes, and she just ties her hair up. Like today, she’s got leggings on, and a long sweater that comes down to her thighs. It’s not that I mind, I mean she genuinely looks amazing whatever she’s wearing, it’s just interesting to note.

“Hey Billy,” She says as she opens the door, and I notice how she checks the street behind me before she closes it, but I don’t say anything. When the door is shut and I’ve put my bike against the wall she leans on me and starts to kiss me right away, which is nice but like I said earlier, it’s not really what I want to do tonight.

“What’s wrong? Are you hungry?” she gives me a grin, like she noticed that I eat a lot.

“No. I mean yes.” There’s a smell coming from the kitchen, I don’t know what it is, but it smells really good.

“I am hungry,” I begin, and I tell myself to do it. Because if I don’t we’re going to end up eating and then just going to bed. “But I also thought…”

“Thought what?” Lily pulls away from me and looks me full in the face. She looks confused.

“I just thought that maybe we should…” Her eyes, which are so big and blue, follow my every word.

“Should maybe go out somewhere? Afterwards, I mean.”

Her look turns from confusion to something else. A little bit of hurt maybe.

“Out?”

I have to break away from those eyes, so I walk into the kitchen, towards the source of the smell, and there’s a bottle of wine open. I pour myself a glass of wine, and have quite a big swig from it.

“Are you getting bored of me already?” Lily asks, watching me from the doorway.

“No.” I feel a kick of emotion that I didn’t expect, and it feels like this isn’t going at all how I meant it to. “No, it’s just… just I’m a bit fed up with always being here, you know, being hidden away and everything.”

And all of a sudden it’s almost like we’re having our first row.

“Oh.” She says, and suddenly she won’t meet my eye at all. “Oh, so this house isn’t good enough for you? Is that it? I’ve been baking all afternoon, but now you don’t want it.” She comes in and picks up her glass now.

“No, it’s not that. It smells great. I just, I had this idea.”

“What idea?”

“After dinner, can you pack a swimsuit?”

“What? It’s freezing outside!”

“I know.”

I refuse to tell her anything while we’re eating – she’s made a sort of pie with chicken and vegetables and it’s really good – the pastry is just the right sort of crunchy on the edges and not soggy underneath. And then she goes upstairs to find a swimsuit and I come with her, and a bit of me wants