"It's beautiful here."
Elle, a little surprised, said, "Er - yeah, I suppose it is."
She looked up into the canopy of intertwining branches overhead, the light glimmering through in such a way that most of them looked pale yellow rather than green. Around her the thick grass lolled over into the pathway, brushing at their ankles and the rolling wheels of David's bike. The undergrowth of ferns and bracken further off was dense and leafy, clawing up the trunks of the trees, spreading like a blanket over everything in sight.
He was right. It was beautiful. But it wasn't quite the sort of thing she'd have expected to come out of the mouth of someone like David.
She said:
"Didn't you have anywhere like this where you lived last?"
"No, nothing like this. Everywhere I've lived before has been built-up - urban. This is the first place we've moved to with proper woods and fields and stuff."
Elle, frowning slightly, said, "Weird. Didn't you say your dad works from the agriculture board or something?"
He grinned and rubbed at the back of his neck.
"Yeah, he does. But he mostly gets assigned boring jobs about, like, polluted canals. This is the first time he's had a job out in the countryside."
"What job?"
"Oh, god knows. Something to do with maize farming. I don't really listen, to be honest." He gave a little laugh, then said quickly, "Anyway, you don't want to hear about that. Let's talk about something else. Let's talk about you."
Elle felt herself bristle all over. Those were four words always guaranteed to make her feel sick to her stomach.
"Me? What would you want to know about me?"
David smiled, as if what she'd said had been a joke. She certainly didn't mean it to be.
"Well, let's start with your friends, I suppose. Have you all been friends for a long time?"
"Yeah, ages. Me, Russell and Jax were friends in primary school. Jax knew Maggie back then - they live sort of near each other, you see - but we weren't really friends with her until we started at Farway High. And then we didn't know Sellan until Year 8. He moved to Farway when he was twelve. But we've been friends with him ever since he came here. He and Maggie have been dating for about two years now."
"Oh." David had a surprised frown on his face. "I didn't realise they were dating."
"Yeah, that's understandable. They're not exactly a very touchy-feely couple. To be honest we were all surprised when they told us they were dating - we'd always thought they were more like brother and sister. I mean, they literally only communicate with each other through cat memes and Star Wars quotes."
David shrugged.
"Takes all sorts, I suppose. How about Russell? You say you've known him since primary school?"
"Oh, yeah. We met just about as soon as I moved here. I remember my dad had taken me for a walk along the edge of Farway woods and we just saw this boy, sitting in a huge patch of flowers, making daisy chains."
She smiled to herself at the memory of it. That little boy making daisy chains had been the first thing to make her properly smile since they'd moved here.
Lots had changed since then, of course. But she could still easily imagine Russell sitting happily in the middle of the woods making daisy chains.
David said:
"He's - I mean, he's gay, right?"
"Is it that obvious?"
He gave a little shrug as he said, "Well, I'd hate to assume anything."
Elle tugged a little at the collection of bands and beads she always wore round her left wrist.
"Yes, he's gay," she said at last.
She didn't like having this sort of conversation. Somehow it always felt like she was betraying some sort of confidence. She wasn't, of course. Russell wasn't exactly hiding anything.
She added, "That's not a problem, is it?"
"God no, not at all," said David hurriedly, much to Elle's relief. "I just wondered, that's all."
He sounded like he meant it, too. No judgement or disapproval, just a general question. She was glad that he was not only nice and genial, but also a good, decent person - the two things, she'd found from experience, did not always go together. The more she spent time with this guy the more she found herself liking him.
And then he had to go and ruin it by saying:
"And... Jax?"
Elle's face fell. Of course he wanted to ask about Jax. Clearly that's where this conversation had been going from the start.
"Jax is great," she said. She hoped her voice didn't sound too curt. "She's just a really good person, who also happens to be amazingly talented at everything she sets her mind to. There's not much more to it than that."
David said slowly, "I see. And what you were all saying today about her mum being an artist - is that true?"
"Oh, yeah. She's got this, like, big shed thing in her garden that she's converted into a studio and gallery."
"What sort of art?"
"Ceramics, mostly. Sometimes painting. But she can do all sorts. She came and did a printmaking class at school last term."
"Oh, cool."
"Yes," Elle said. Her voice was practically frosty now. "Very cool."
David was silent for a few seconds. Perhaps he sensed that he might have offended her. He looked up into the trees, listening to a wood pigeon chirping for a minute, and then said:
"Anyway, tell me more about you."
She did her best not to roll her eyes. No need to patronise her now, after all.
"There's nothing to tell."
"Come on. That can't be true. What about your family? What do your parents do?"
"My dad's a bank manager. He runs Farway Bank, in town."
"Oh, that's cool."
"No, David. It really isn't."
He gave a little laugh. "What about your mum? What does she do?"
Elle looked away quickly into the undergrowth.
"My mum died when I was five."
David let out a short, irritated sigh.
"Sorry, Elle. Russell sort of said that at lunch, didn't he? Jesus, I can be a real idiot sometimes."
She cast him a swift glance, and saw that he was looking absolutely mortified. Somehow she found herself smiling slightly.
"Don't worry about it. It was all years ago. I don't even really think about it anymore." A lie, of course. She barely remembered it, but she definitely thought about it all the time. Practically every day, in fact.
"If you want to know about my stepmum, though," she went on, "then I can tell you about her. She works as a junior accounts manager at a firm in Elkington that makes rubber machinery parts."
"Well... I guess that's interesting," David said, grinning.
"You don't have to pretend. If there's one thing Kaye isn't, it's interesting. She follows all the Kardashians on Instagram, and thinks she's classy because she puts ice cubes in her chardonnay."
David gave a loud laugh that echoed away from them through the quiet woods. The wood pigeon leapt out of his tree and flew off huffily.
"Definitely can't wait to meet her," he said, grinning. "What about brothers and sisters?"
"Two half-sisters. Twins. Four years old - absolutely obsessed with ponies and princesses and all that stuff."
"And I take it you're not?"
She gave him a look and said, "What do you think?"
He gave another laugh.
"Fair point, I guess. And is that it?"
"That's it. Me, dad, Kaye and the girls. How about you? Any brothers and sisters?"
"Nope. Only child."
"Ah, I see."
He squinted at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. Just explains why you're - you know. Like that."
He laughed again. In spite of its intense volume he had a very attractive laugh - deep and resonating, full of genuine warmth.
"Like what, may I ask?"
"I dunno. You have an only-child vibe."
"Wow. That's got to be the single most damning thing anyone's ever said about me."
"It's a gift," said Elle with a shrug.
This time they both laughed.
They'd reached the end of the wood. The path ended abruptly at the corner of Edgewood Street, and they emerged into a hazy afternoon light. There was a woman meandering along walking a fox terrier; a man halfway down the street was mowing his lawn. It was a perfect moment - very calm, very pastoral. Elle turned to David and found him watching her with an inward sort of smile, as if there were some private joke in his mind.
"So I'll just meet you here tomorrow," she said. "About ten o'clock? If you still want to come, that is."
He didn't answer directly. He cocked his head very slightly on one side, still studying her.
"Thanks for today," he said. "For... well, rescuing me, I guess."
"I didn't rescue you -"
"Yes, you did. I'd have been roaming all over that school for days if you hadn't come charging into me."
Elle smiled down at her own shoes.
"Well, you're welcome, I guess." She looked back up at him. Those hazel eyes were glowing like gold beacons in the sunlight. "Thank you for today, too."
"For what?"
"For, like, walking me home and stuff. It's been... charming."
His inward smile grew even wider.
"Charming, eh? You know what, I guess you're right. It really has been charming."
He hopped elegantly onto his bike and took off round the corner toward West Bank Street. Elle watched him go for a moment, then turned and set off toward her own house, halfway up Edgewood Road. As she walked she found it almost impossible not to physically smack herself in the forehead.
It's been charming? It's been charming?
Sometimes Elle and her brain were not best friends.