Chapter 6

There was a quiet rap on my bedroom door then Elize burst in without waiting for an invitation. “Aww, that is so sweet,” she said, as I groggily returned to consciousness.

I realised Justine was still in my bed and had spent the whole night with me. I was spooning behind her, sharing her bodily warmth, with an arm wrapped over her and my hand resting on her chest just below her breasts.

“The parents have just gone downstairs,” warned Elize. “Once they’ve started breakfast, they’ll be coming back to roust us.”

“Do I really have to get up,” whined Justine. “It’s so comfortable lying here, being held. And Mitch is such a gentleman: he didn’t take any liberties.”

“Poor you,” said Elize, yanking off the coverings and revealing the compromising position we were in. “Damn, I wish I could take a photo of this.”

“Is this any way to treat your guest?” complained Justine, but she wriggled out of my grasp and got out of bed.

Once Elize and Justine had departed, I rolled over to where Justine had been lying, revelling in the intoxicating scent she’d left behind. Before I knew it, Dad was waking me up a second time. He knocked loudly on the door and announced breakfast was nearly ready.

Breakfast was awkward. I didn’t know how to interact with Justine without giving anything away to my parents. “Hi,” I grunted, then put my head down and messily gobbled up my breakfast. Just like normal.

Elize and Justine quietly talked to each other, discussing Justine’s coursework project. Occasionally one or other of my parents would say something to try to initiate conversation, but only succeeded in eliciting monosyllables. At least the parents seemed unaware of the previous afternoon’s excitement.

After breakfast, I helped Elize round up the debris. She didn’t grill me about the previous afternoon and, in a way, that was almost worse than if she had. Then she announced that she’d be in her bedroom helping Justine with her coursework project and went upstairs.

The weather had turned nasty overnight so there was no sanctuary to be found outside. I grabbed a novel I’d been meaning to read and took it to my bedroom. Feeling a little bit conscious of the previous night, I left my bedroom door ajar, as if to allay any fears I might have Justine with me. But after the way we’d ignored each other over breakfast, I was pretty sure we hadn’t given the parents any reason to be suspicious.

I had got as far as Chapter Three when I felt another presence in my room. I looked up to see who it was. “Thank you for last night, I’ll remember it for the rest of my life,” I said. “I think you overpaid your debt, but I’m not complaining.”

“It was good for me too,” said Justine. “You’re a quick learner and you’re not pushy.”

I really didn’t know what to say to Justine. I wanted to grab her and renew our kissathon, but that felt crude and inappropriate.

“You’re really not going to tell me, are you,” said Justine.

“What?” My brain wasn’t in gear.

“My coursework project. I can’t see how you could possibly have set that up, but you haven’t given me a reasonable alternative. I told my mum that trying the bus company’s lost property office was your idea and I think she bought it. But what’s really going on? Do you some sort of superpower?”

I sighed. This was going to be difficult. “I wish you’d stop pressing me on the subject. It’s not in my interests to explain.”

“So you might be a superhero! What exactly can you do?”

“Look, I’d really prefer not to talk about it. Can’t you see the danger I might be in if the wrong people found out?”

“Okay. But I guess it somehow involves locating missing objects. Can you find missing people too?”

I hadn’t thought about it, but I couldn’t see why not. But I kept silent.