Jenny Downham: You Against Me

She took a step back. ‘My mum’s calling.’

‘I didn’t hear anything.’

‘Or maybe it was my dad.’

‘Stop it, Ellie. This is me, and I can see exactly what you’re doing. Punishing yourself won’t help.’

‘I’m not doing it on purpose!’ He watched a blush creep like dye across her cheeks. ‘I feel so ashamed.’

‘Karyn doesn’t see it like that.’

‘How does she see it?’

‘I guess she realizes she might have done the same thing as you, if it was the other way round.’

Ellie sighed. The door and the bricks of the house were glazed with sunlight. She was bathed in it.

‘I wrote her a letter,’ she said, ‘but I never sent it. Tom’s still pleading not guilty, you know that, don’t you? Karyn’s going to have to lay down her soul, and all that will happen is everyone will know her private life. It’ll be horrible and actually, nothing will change.’

‘That’s not your fault. Karyn knows the score. She’s always quoting statistics at me.’ He took a step nearer. ‘I know you think I’m a bad influence, and maybe I am, but can’t we at least spend some time together?’ He leaned closer, wanted her to understand that Karyn didn’t mind as much as she thought. Only this morning, Karyn had sussed he was coming here and given him that mocking half-smile she was so good at. Tell her I’ll come to the wedding , she’d said, but I’m not being bridesmaid. And if that brother of hers is there, I can’t guarantee his safety . He couldn’t tell Ellie that though, it’d freak her out – make her think he was seriously about to propose.

‘Listen,’ he said, ‘Karyn’s out of the flat loads, she has tons of support, and yes, I know your brother’s pleading not guilty, and yes, the court case will be a nightmare, and yes, your dad’s a tosser, and yes, my mum still drinks sherry for breakfast and hides it in the airing cupboard and hopes none of us notice. Miracles don’t happen overnight, Ellie, and we don’t have to fling it in Karyn’s face, but maybe we can grab something good out of this while we can?’

‘Well,’ she said, tilting her head to one side, ‘that’s one way of putting it.’

He laughed. ‘Come for a walk. Get changed out of those pyjamas and let’s go somewhere.’

A bird cried and flapped from one tree to another. They both watched it and it changed something. She softened.

‘Look,’ she said, ‘the sky is gold.’

It was true. The sun had risen over the rim of the gate. Pink and gold bled together; the tops of the trees washed with light.

‘Come on, Ellie, just a walk. No harm done. We’re on the same team, you and me.’

She frowned at him, puzzled. Light collided with the wall behind her. ‘Team McKenzie?’

He smiled. ‘Something like that.’

These were the things she left at home – pyjamas, slippers, dressing gown, revision, parents.

‘I’m off,’ she said from the doorway.

Mum and Dad turned from the breakfast table to look at her. They took her all in, from the red lips to the summer dress, from the length of exposed leg, to the new sandals.

She gave her mum a kiss on the cheek. ‘See you later.’

She smiled. ‘You look lovely, Ellie. Off you go.’

Dad said, ‘So, it’s just a walk you’re going on, is it?’

‘Yep. It’s a beautiful day out there.’

‘And how does the weather explain the lipstick?’

‘Just expressing myself.’

‘That’s not an explanation.’

He kept on frowning. Ellie felt sad about the look that passed between her parents – strained, polite, held-in. Mum might suffer for this walk; she certainly would if Dad found out who Ellie was going with. But, later, maybe Ellie would dare to tell him, and maybe, just maybe, her mum would support her while she did it. Event by event, she’d try and whittle her dad down.

She kissed him on the top of his head to say goodbye. He looked stunned. ‘Don’t be all day,’ he said gruffly. ‘You’ve got plenty of revision to do.’

‘Yeah, yeah, my whole future’s at stake, I know.’

It came out worse than she meant it to. It came out like she didn’t care. But she did. It was about balances. There were many hours in a day to revise and only a few had sunshine in them.

Sometimes, if you want something badly enough, you can make it happen. If you miss someone so desperately that it wrecks your insides, you say their name over and over until you conjure them. It’s called sympathetic magic and you just have to believe in it to make it work.

Here was a whole new reality – her and Mikey, the early morning sun rising over the gate and the day becoming itself.

Her dress was circles of orange and green, bright as Ferris wheels. He wanted to whistle, but stopped himself.

Instead, he said, ‘Wow, you look amazing.’

She smiled. ‘My dad’s still capable of a bribe, even when he isn’t talking to me. The dress is a taster of what’s to come if I knuckle down and get ten A-stars in my exams.’

‘You’re going to earn yourself a whole new wardrobe.’

‘Not if I keep hanging out with you.’

She nudged him to show she didn’t mean it badly, then pressed the secret button that opened the gate. They stood side by side in the lane as it slid shut behind them.

‘That leads to town,’ she said, pointing left, ‘and that leads to somewhere else.’

They looked across the field together. The whole place was edged with trees and the sun shone on the mud and green leaves pushed their way into the air. Two crows landed as they watched, then took straight off again.

‘I’m up for it, if you are,’ he said.

They walked around the edge. It was furrowed and the mud had dried in the sun and was hard under their feet. They talked about Karyn a bit more and about the court case, but once they got through that, there were so many other things to talk about. She told him about her Art exam and how she was doing a project called ‘Red’, and she told him that now the weather was warmer she was planning on getting back to her swimming.

‘You promised me a swim in the sea,’ he said, ‘remember?’

She raised an eyebrow. He loved it when she did that. ‘Well, you promised to teach me how to cook.’

‘I will.’

‘All promises are good then.’

He told her about Dex being upset that Mikey hadn’t confided in him, how Dex had said he could do his day release at the pub if he got on the NVQ course. He shared his theory that Jacko fancied Karyn and how it was the last thing he wanted to have a theory about, and yet also how he knew it was none of his business.

As they walked, the weather chased across the field – sun, then shadow, then sun again. The trees waved in the wind, their leaves gearing up for summer.

They came to a path that led through some trees and out onto a different field. This one was bigger, stretched further. Birds reeled up from their sunbathing and twittered overhead. It was beautiful. Maybe it led to the coast. Maybe if they kept walking, they’d reach the sea.

‘I don’t know about you,’ he said, ‘but I want to keep going.’

‘Yes,’ she said, ‘me too.’

He felt perfectly happy as he walked side by side with Ellie, their fingers occasionally brushing, electricity building between them. It was the first time for days, maybe the first time in all his life, that he didn’t want to change anything.

With thanks to the many people who shared their expertise, their stories, their time – especially Debbie Adler, Chris Rollings, Gonul Guney, Anne McShane, Sarah Pepper, Andrew St. John, Megan Dunn, Anna Owen, Louis Hill, Marion Scott, Bethany Scott, Viv Parker, Simona Balletti, Patrice Lawrence, Nathalie Abi-Ezzi, Cat Goscovitch, Sarah Lerner, Eva Lewin, Stef Pixner, Archie Hill, David Fickling, Bella Pearson, Hannah Featherstone and Catherine Clarke.