The tape ended on the kind of cliffhanger that had her called back into Mr Silver’s office, where he demanded to know just what kind of sickness she’d infected Abi’s mind with.
At lunch a dozen kids had sought her out, burning her with their stares and their questions. Like she and Abi had unlocked the meaning of life then swallowed the key. The rumour mill got to work and by the time the day was done they had entered into some Montague–Capulet pact, only Mae hadn’t followed her over the cliff edge.
When she finally made it to her shift at West Video she was drained.
She endured for the much-needed minimum wage, a place to hang out in the evenings and as many free movies as she could watch.
Across the street, Felix whiled away the hours in West Wine, doling out fifty-pound bottles of red so people could soften the world in style.
A couple of shops were darkened. The old ice-cream parlour, once owned by an Italian named Rosa, who headed home after Saviour 7. The last day, she’d given out free ice cream. Stella had eaten so much she was sick.
She looked up to see Sally Sweeny crossing the shop floor, shoulders and head down, clothes so loose they hid the shape of her.
‘Felix said you have ice cream. He’s out.’
Mae pointed to the freezer.
Sally took out half a dozen tubs and piled them high on the counter. She retied her blaze of red hair, watching the ice cream intently as she handed Mae the cash.
‘Are you having a party?’ Mae said.
‘Every day is a party, bitch.’ Sally pulled at the neck of her sweatshirt, like it was cutting off the circulation. ‘You got Fifty Shades?’
‘Out.’
‘It’s Selena, people are either fighting or fu—’
Mae shrugged. ‘If you can’t get on, get off.’
Sally smiled as Mae began to bag.
‘Leave one out. I’ll eat it on the walk home.’
‘You need a spoon?’
‘I carry one.’
Mae went to hand Sally her change.
‘Put it in the pot. Cancer kids or deaf dogs or whatever.’
Sally opened a tub of salted caramel, took a metal spoon from her pocket and stabbed it.
‘Is it true you found her?’
Mae nodded.
‘It’s a long way to fall. Must’ve been so much blood.’ Sally stared at the counter as she spoke. ‘My mother said she was glad.’
Mae felt the air cool.
‘Piano. It’s my life. I had a chance at more … Abi never took it serious. She could play, but she held us back. Missed practice. Turned up late to concerts. We don’t all have rich parents. Some of us need this.’
Sally picked up the bag, walked towards the door and then stopped. ‘Her face … Was she still beautiful, or did the Abi Manton everyone saw just disappear?’
‘She was dead, Sally.’
‘She died the day she bowed down to Hunter Silver.’
Mae watched her leave, then she saw him.
He left West Wine with a bag, in front of him the last of the day burned off as stars edged out the sun.
Mae walked out and sat on her kerb, Felix opposite.
‘That boy,’ she said.
‘Bought a single bottle of tequila. Means business. And that’s not all he asked for. Asked if I knew a short girl, dark hair and tattoo on her wrist.’
Mae glared in the direction he’d headed. ‘And do you?’
‘I’m almost a Forever, right?’ He pointed to the F on his wrist. ‘Deny until you die. What did you do?’
‘Saved his life.’
Felix dropped in the street and struggled to do press-ups. ‘Phase three of the wooship. Candice likes Liam, and he’s ripped,’ he wheezed. ‘I told my mother I’ll only consume protein from here on.’
‘I think your biceps are actually inverted.’
He stopped mid-push and slowly lost all power. His cheek gently met the pavement as a passing car sounded the horn.
‘You keep looking down the road,’ he said from the ground. ‘Don’t tell me Mae Cassidy, she of stone heart and bad attitude, has a crush on a pretty summer boy.’
She gave him the finger.
‘So let me get this straight. My attraction to Candice is banal and obvious, whereas your attraction to that kid is …’
‘Non-existent.’
‘Ask him out.’
‘Ask out Candice.’
‘I will once I turn myself into the kind of boy she might actually notice.’
‘She doesn’t like Tirds?’
‘I ended up in the nurse’s office before she could even see it. Pleather and thirty-degree heat don’t go well together.’
Mae began to laugh.
‘She ended up cutting me out of it. Caught the goddam T-shirt too. I had to walk home topless.’
‘I sometimes wonder why we’re still friends.’
At nine Felix brought out a couple of cold beers.
Mae lit a cigarette and blew smoke towards the moon.
They toasted each other. ‘To the creeps,’ he said, and stared at her, waiting.
‘And the weirdos,’ she said, finally.
‘Sometimes things feel too solid, you know? We’re too strong to break apart.’
‘But we’re not. Superiority is an illusion.’
‘I tried to pray again last night.’
‘And?’
‘It’s my voice in my head. There’s no one listening, Mae. Our real eternity is made of supernovas and black holes and –’
‘Asteroids.’
Mae didn’t notice the two girls until they were right beside her.
They stood hand in hand, one tall and one short.
‘We’re Matilda and Betty,’ the taller girl said. ‘The Forevers –’
‘They’re real and they’re coming for you,’ Felix called from across the street.
‘We’ll be waiting, Mae.’ The tall girl nodded, and then they turned and headed towards the beach.
‘Lesbian crew,’ Felix said. ‘You think they’d let me –’
‘No.’
‘What about if I just –’
‘No.’
Felix closed his eyes and lay back on the pavement. ‘Maybe in the next month we’ll get answers to every question we’ve ever wondered about. We’ll find out the meaning of life. We’ll fall in love and get laid and meet the most amazing people and save a life and take a life and –’
‘And maybe we’ll just die an extraordinary death at the end of a life so ordinary it barely counts.’
He stood and walked into the middle of the street and held his hands up to the sky. ‘I reckon I can take her.’
Mae smiled.
‘You think Abi is looking down?’
‘Or up.’
He looked across at her. ‘She said she had to do something bad. What if it was so bad it got her killed?’
Mae looked up at the stars, trying not to feel the chill that ran down her spine.