David was waiting at the corner of the street, exactly where Elle had told him to. He looked very neatly put-together this morning in a crisp white T-shirt, jeans and a navy hoodie. There was something unusually smart and clean-looking about him. Most boys his age, even those verging on the more attractive side, rarely looked clean.
He turned as she came trotting down the street and his face broke into a wide smile.
"Hey!" he called.
She found herself smiling too. There was something about him that seemed remarkably genuine. It was easy to believe that he really was happy to see her, in spite of the overwhelming evidence telling her he probably wasn't.
"Morning," she said. She tried to wipe the dumb smile off her face but it wouldn't budge. Maybe it was something to do with the freshness of the morning, the intense heat of the sun, the promise that comes at the start of any gloriously beautiful day with no real plans or obligations to distract you. There was a sweet smell in the air of mown lawns and sickly-sweet flowers baking in the morning sun.
Maybe Elle was just glad to be out of the house. After all that weirdness at school yesterday, and then to end the day on that dream that still kept playing over and over in her head, it was nice to have a full day of just hanging out with her friends.
Her friends and David, that is. But it wasn't exactly a chore to be hanging out with him.
They began to walk. The gardens everywhere were full of people - people chatting over fences, people sunbathing, people clipping their hedges. Everyone was outside and enjoying themselves today. Elle still had a week of school and one more exam to worry about, but it felt like the first proper day of summer.
David, hands deep in his pockets as he walked, said:
"So. Where exactly are we going?"
"Into town. But don't get too excited - that's just what we call it, but it's not really like a town at all. There isn't, like, a cinema or a shopping centre, or anything like that. There's a few little shops and cafes. That's about it."
"Sounds fun," said David with a shrug. Strange, but he didn't sound sarcastic at all.
"I'm just saying. However low your expectations are, they need to be lower."
He laughed, and they walked on in silence for a while. It was a comfortable silence; neither of them felt the need to speak, just happy to be walking along next to each other on such a bright, sunny day. Elle wasn't used to those sorts of silences. She was used to feeling uncomfortable just about every minute of the day.
They were just turning onto the High Street when Elle said:
"What sort of things are you into?"
He looked at her.
"What am I into?"
"Yeah. Hobbies, I mean." She added, with just a shade of snarkiness, "I'm assuming you're into some sort of... sport?"
A funny smile crossed his face.
"Not really, no. I mean, I used to swim a lot. My old school had a swimming pool. I'm guessing there isn't anything like that in Farway?"
"What do you think? No, nothing like a swimming pool. There's a gym in Elkington - that's got a pool, I think."
"Elkington?"
"The nearest proper town, about twenty minutes away. It's where the college is." She frowned. "I thought you said you were going to Elkington College with the rest of us in September?"
David looked puzzled for a moment, then shook his head.
"Yeah, of course I am. I'd just forgotten the name for a minute." He kicked a pebble, sending it skittering away across the street. "Anyway, the answer is no, I'm not really into sports. I'm more into books."
"Books?" The word exploded out of Elle like the crack of a gunshot. David stared at her for a second.
"Yeah, books. Why, is there something wrong with that?"
"No, not at all. It's just - books are kind of my thing, too."
It felt like a stupid thing to admit out loud, but she was thrilled to see the look of excitement that crept up across David's face.
"No way! What sort of things are you into?"
"Oh, all sorts. Modern stuff, old stuff. I read a lot of young adult stuff at the minute."
David, with a smirk, said:
"Relationships and hormones?"
"That sort of thing, yeah. How about you, what are you into?"
"Early twentieth century stuff, mostly. Orwell, James Joyce, Salinger, F. Scott Fitzgerald. And occasionally some more classic stuff. Sometimes a Dickens or a Jane Austen."
Elle, giving him a look, said:
"You do not read Jane Austen."
He looked half-amused and half-annoyed.
"Yes I do."
"Reading Pride and Prejudice for English doesn't count."
He rolled his eyes.
"Don't get me started on Pride and Prejudice. Lizzie Bennet may possibly be the whiniest heroine in literary history."
"Wow. Harsh."
"But true, though. Have you read it? Three hundred pages of some stuck-up shrew and an uptight snob who could solve all their problems if they just talked to one another." He gave a tut and a roll of his eyes, then a laugh. "Sorry. I get a bit carried away sometimes."
"No," said Elle hurriedly. "It's nice to talk to someone with an actual opinion."
She was finding it harder and harder not to just give in and admit she was attracted to this mysterious new guy who had suddenly swooped into her life. On paper he ticked practically every box. Handsome was a given. Manners and a sense of humour she knew about already. It hardly seemed fair to pile a brain on top of all of that too.
In fact the only thing preventing her actually admitting it, even to herself, was to avoid giving Russell and the others the satisfaction. Elle had never really admitted to fancying a boy before, and she knew they'd have a field day if she started falling for this one. She still had the words 'Lover Boy' ringing in her ears.
Plus, he wasn't into her, anyway. That much was obvious after the pointed way he'd asked her about Jax the day before, and the way they'd been giggling together like a couple of besotted newlyweds as they came out of the school gates. Elle never stood a chance, not with Jax around. But that had always been the case, and it had never been an issue between them before. Why should it be one now?
David was speaking again, and she forced her brain to focus on what he was saying.
"I wouldn't really say I have proper opinions. I just happen to know the sort of thing I like."
"And don't like, by the sound of it."
"Yeah, I suppose that's true. But don't you have these sort of conversations with the others? Aren't they into books, too?"
"Not really. I mean, Sellan and Maggie read graphic novels and, like, manga and stuff. The others... not so much."
The truth was, Elle and her friends had almost nothing in common. She wondered sometimes how they'd become so close to one another. The only thing that really connected them was the fact that they were all sort of into art, but all in very different ways. Elle enjoyed art but she could barely draw a straight line with a ruler, whereas Jax was a proper artist, and Sellan was mad into photography. He was planning on taking Photography at college, and he was saving up to buy some incredibly expensive Japanese camera lens.
There were a few other little things they had in common, too. Jax and Russell were both into fashion and trashy reality TV. Elle and Jax both baked, occasionally - Jax more successfully than Elle, but that was at least partly her artistic flair. Maggie and Sellan had a million things in common, all of them incredibly niche web series, podcasts and foreign TV shows that hardly anyone had heard of. They all liked horror films - all but Jax, that is, who hated anything with a jump scare. But when it came down to it, on the big venn diagram of things Elle and her friends were into, there were very few places where the circles even came close to overlapping.
Elle and her friends. Another one of the mysteries of Farway.
There were quite a few of those. More and more, as Elle was finding out just lately.
"I certainly enjoyed that talk yesterday," David said. "Interesting stuff. I'd never thought of fairy tales like that before."
Elle had stiffened slightly. David bringing up Mr Luzlic's talk had made her feel instantly uncomfortable. It had also, for some reason, brought the vision of that screaming little girl from her dream back into her mind.
"Me neither," she said evasively.
"He must really know his stuff. Shame everyone else didn't find it as interesting."
"Yeah. A real shame."
David looked at her, concerned.
"Sorry, have I said something wrong? I didn't mean to offend you."
She shook herself, forcing a smile to her face. She was doing that a lot lately.
"You didn't offend me. Hey, look. There they are."
They had reached the end of the High Street, and she waved to the others who were gathered on the bandstand in the middle of the town square.
*
Russell lifted his head from where he was sitting on the stone steps. His eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, but Elle saw one eyebrow raise as he said:
"Well. Look who it is."
"I met David at the top of my street. He needed someone to bring him here, didn't he?"
Russell's raised eyebrow had gotten on her nerves for some reason; as did the fact that she felt the need to justify herself quite so much.
Elle looked round and said:
"Where's Sellan?"
"He's gone to Bertram's," Maggie said. She was crouched on the floor in the shade inside the bandstand, dressed head to toe in inevitable black despite the stifling heat. "There's some new German graphic novel he hoped they'd have."
"They won't have it," said Russell, gazing up into the cerulean blue of the morning sky.
The others all just nodded. That's what a shopping trip in Farway was always like; they went out looking for something and always came home without it. Mostly because all the shops in Farway were just little one-off places with names like Bertram's Books and The Tool Box and Candy Cottage. No branded places, no high street stores. They didn't even have a chain coffee shop.
Jax came forward at that moment, stepping from the shadows of the bandstand. She looked, as usual, cool in a completely effortless way. A vivid splash of colour from a vintage Hawaiian shirt was peeking out between the lapels of her sharp leather jacket, and there was gold jewellery glittering on her wrists and ears.
"Morning," she said. Her smile broke like a ray of sunshine on her face. That's what it was like when Jax turned up somewhere. It was like the sun coming out.
"Hey!" David said. His eye went from Jax to Maggie and finally settled on Russell. Elle hoped the quick flicker she saw in his eye wasn't him being judgmental. This morning Russell was wearing bottle-green skinny jeans and a shirt in a pattern of giant turtles and palm leaves. His sunglasses were almost definitely women's - they came to a slight point at the corner of each lens. Kaye's words from last night niggled in her ear like a burrowing earwig: Russell always wears such interesting clothes.
"Thanks for letting me tag along today, everyone," David said to the group at large.
"No problem," said Jax. "We can show you the fabulous sights of Farway."
Elle gave her a look, and Jax grinned playfully at her.
"Sounds great," said David. "Anything's better than being stuck indoors on a day like this."
"I wouldn't speak too soon," Maggie muttered, hauling herself off the floor.
Russell stood up too, slipping the strap of his satchel over his head. The three of them came down from the bandstand and they set off together across the square.
"Where are we going?" David whispered to Elle.
"Only place we ever go," Elle replied.