Chapter 16: Home Visit

Aside from painkillers for the headaches, Clarissa’s treatment consisted of nothing more than a few days of bed rest. I had three cracked ribs, which the doctors said wasn’t serious enough to warrant staying off school, but would be painful for some time, maybe as long as six months. The bandages applied at the dance were removed after my X-ray showed no other damage and I was sent home with a big box of strong co-codamol tablets.

Obviously, the talk at school on Monday morning was all about what had happened to me and Clarissa. It turned out that Lily had seen Stevens get up from his seat, round up his goons and follow me to the bathroom. She’d told Clarissa, who’d rushed come find me, while Lily told her father. That part of the story, everyone knew.

And everyone also knew that Stevens was on remand at Her Majesty’s Pleasure charged with common assault and awaiting trial. His goons, on the other hand, were free. The story went that once they realised they were facing charges too, they caved and told the police it was all Stevens. Perhaps they weren’t all so gormless after all.

But no one knew what had actually happened in the bathroom, so I had people bugging me all day for details. Details I refused to give. Since I was free during periods three and four, I tucked myself away in a quiet corner of the library and tried to hide from everyone. Early in period four though, Clarissa’s friend Emily sought me out. This wasn’t going to be good. She was bound to blame me for what happened to Clarissa just like her mom did.

“Paul?”

“Hi, Em.”

“I er ... I went to see Rissa yesterday.”

“How is she?”

“Oh, she’ll be fine. She’ll be fine.” She looked as if she had something else to say but wasn’t sure she wanted to say it. She held her hands in front of her, jiggled her foot and kept glancing around the room.

“Good. I’m glad she’s okay. Do you know when she’ll be back at school?”

“You can ask her yourself.” She bit her lip. “She wants to see you.”

“See me?”

Emily nodded and sat in the chair opposite. “She wants you to go around her house after school tonight. She says there’s something she needs to tell you. She wouldn’t tell me what it was, but...”

“But what?”

“But I think I can sort of guess what it is.”

“So what is—”

“Well, I can’t tell you, can I?” She rolled her eyes. “I mean, I might be wrong. And even if I’m not...” She shrugged. “You know. So, you’ll go see her tonight?”

“I’ll check with Vicky that it’s all right for me to be home late. It shouldn’t be a problem, but if she says no, I’ll let you know.”

Emily nodded. After a pause, she said, “Rissa couldn’t tell me what happened in the bathroom. She says she can’t remember. Something to do with the concussion or whatever.”

“That’s probably why she wants to talk to me, don’t you think?”

“It might be.” The tone of her voice said she thought otherwise. After an awkward pause, she said, “I heard that when the doctors came you made them take care of Rissa first.”

I shrugged. Then winced. I was going to have to learn quickly to stop doing that.

“Well, I just wanted to say...” She paused, nodded, then said with a smile, “That was pretty cool.”

“Thanks.”

She got up, winked at me and left.

Gavin caught up with me as I was on my way to lunch. “Robbo, wait up.”

“Gav.”

“Rogers called a team meeting yesterday. He’s seriously pissed at you.”

“Figures. It’s my fault his star striker is out of action for who knows how long.”

“Up to six months, I hear.” He was grinning.

“You don’t seem all that upset about it.”

“Yeah, well, you know. What can I say? The guy’s a tosser. Okay, so half the team are pissed ‘cause he’ll be out of action and Rogers is majorly pissed, but the rest of us are sort of glad he’s gone, you know? He’s arrogant and selfish and nothing was ever his fault. Even that penalty he missed the other week. That was because of an uneven surface. Or so he says. Besides, I’ve got more reason to be glad he’s gone than most.”

“Really? Why?”

His grin widened. “Who do you think gets to step up as his replacement?”

“Seriously? That’s great. Good luck, man. You deserve it.”

“Thanks.”

We carried on walking toward the lunch hall. “So,” I said, “you and Kelly, huh? I didn’t see that coming.”