They left West early.
Kitten screamed her way along the empty high street as dozens of people walked down to the beach.
Felix kept one hand on the wheel, the other on the gearstick. As he turned onto the B road the dice swung his way. He ripped them down and threw them out the window.
‘You know there were near two hundred Forevers on the beach during the launch. Sergeant Walters stood there watching them, waiting for them to do something wrong so he could find a reason to break them up,’ Felix said.
‘You were with them?’
‘Nah. I’m an F, remember.’
They stuck to the back roads, traced the coast because the motorways were jammed. They passed the Waterside Holiday Park, a line of caravans, the boats beyond them.
‘I feel like we should be saying more … something profound,’ Felix said.
‘Live like there’s no tomorrow.’
‘What is coming is better than what has gone.’
Felix took his foot off the pedal as they passed the mouth of Hamilton Bay, rocks towered on either side, the water was too clear, like an aquarium.
‘I never said thank you,’ she said.
He glanced over, then back at the road. ‘For what?’
‘You’ve always been there for me.’
‘Shit, we really are getting profound.’
Mae smiled. ‘When my parents … and Stella came home. I didn’t leave the house that whole summer, remember?’
‘Yeah.’
‘You sat in the garden each night. And you read your book. Sometimes you sat there hours.’
He shrugged like it was nothing. ‘In case you needed me.’
‘I did need you. And you were there.’
She placed her hand over his, gripped it tight.
‘Our friendship,’ he said.
‘The Reverend’s son and the town slut.’
They watched a boy and girl, maybe ten years old, walk down to the water, hand in hand.
‘This can’t be the end,’ Felix said.
‘Then how come it is?’
They drove the last half-hour in perfect silence.
Goldings Secondary was half the size of Sacred Heart, and a quarter as grand. Mr Silver had been head there for three years before coming to Sacred Heart.
Mae and Felix slipped in among the others and filed through the gate.
They found themselves in the main corridor, beside a line of lockers. A couple of kids glanced their way but most ignored them.
The head’s office was empty, they took a seat and waited. Mae had found out what she could online. Gemma Dune had been sixteen when she died. She’d looped a belt around her neck, then attached it to the automatic garage door at her house.
Mrs Charles entered and frowned. She was small but her face was all steel.
The second Mae mentioned Gemma Dune, Mrs Charles asked them to leave. Mae tried to argue till the headmistress threatened to call the police.
‘That went well,’ Mae said, as they walked back through the halls.
Just as they were about to head out the main door Felix stopped dead.
‘What?’ Mae said.
‘Look.’ He pointed.
The girl was maybe a year younger, she stood beside two others.
‘And them,’ Felix said.
Mae saw another group. ‘Jesus.’
Felix grinned.
Mae walked over to them, didn’t think of what to say because she was blinded by the tattoos on their wrists.
‘You’re Forevers,’ Mae said.
They turned together. One was about to speak when Felix called out, ‘Mae, we need to go.’
Mae looked past him and saw Mrs Charles coming, with another teacher beside her.
Mae smiled at the girls, who stared at her like they’d seen a ghost, then she jogged from the building with Felix beside her.
They’d almost made it to Kitten when Mae heard her name called.
‘You’re from West,’ the girl said.
Mae nodded.
‘Holy shit, it’s you. It’s really you.’ She reached out and grasped Mae’s hand, looked at the letters like she’d never seen them before, like they weren’t printed on her own wrist.
‘How –’
‘My cousin goes to Sacred Heart. Freya Cannon.’
Mae drew a blank.
‘She’s in Year Nine. She emailed a photo … and then I printed it out and before long … I mean, there’s twenty-six of us here now.’
Mae smiled.
‘I can’t believe it’s you. The ultimate creep.’
‘That’s what they call her,’ Felix said.
‘We get together in the field behind my house and play music … and we’ve taken back Forever, just like you. I mean, two days, but we’ve got each other. I feel like we owe you.’
‘You don’t.’
‘What are you doing here?’
‘We were trying to find out about Gemma Dune,’ Felix said.
‘Oh.’ The excitement died in a breath.
‘Did you know her?’
‘Not really, I mean, everyone knows about her. She had problems, she couldn’t cope with it all. And she was majorly into drugs. She’s like a cautionary tale in this town. Just say no.’ Mae wasn’t sure what she wanted to hear, maybe that Gemma had been just like Abi, and then she’d met Mr Silver and fallen apart. It would’ve been neat, but then she reasoned nothing about life was neat.
Another town.
Another dead girl.
‘You’re like a god to them,’ Felix said, as they drove back towards West.
‘Please.’
‘Seriously. All hail Queen Margaret.’
She punched his arm.
They stopped at Adlers Bay, swam out into the clear water and floated on their backs.
‘I’m going to miss this,’ Felix said. ‘I’m going to miss you.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Do you think we lived, Mae?’
Gentle waves, the sun so bright above. ‘I think we survived.’
‘I wanted more.’
‘Everyone does.’
‘I keep feeling … angry. I want to scream.’
‘You should, Felix.’
‘I think you’re either a screamer or you’re not.’
Mae screamed then. So loud Felix righted himself and began to tread water.
The beach was empty.
And so he screamed.
And she screamed again.
And together they screamed.
The road jammed five miles from West.
‘Remember the time I broke my arm cliff-diving?’ Felix said.
‘Sprained your wrist jumping from the low board at the pool,’ she corrected.
‘How about the time I made out with Avni Laghari?’
‘She was so drunk she puked into your mouth.’
‘First kiss and a free meal.’
They crawled along for a couple of miles. Stopped and started.
She tapped the analogue clock in the centre of the dashboard.
‘It’s stuck at eleven. Maybe time has stopped for a while.’
‘What’s the real time?’
‘Six.’
‘Shit, my mother’s going to kill me. I was supposed to be back by five at the latest. Said I’d help with the set for the concert. It’s supposed to look like heaven, all white curtains and candles.’
‘Sounds like you’re coming around to the whole church thing.’
He leaned out the window and craned to see how far the traffic backed up.
‘I’m just helping her because no one else will.’
Mae stretched her legs out. ‘I thought Jeet Patel was doing all that.’
‘Please, that kid’s the water boy. He spends all his time hoping something will happen to Theodore so he can step up. Eternal understudy, it’s gotta sting.’
Mae turned to Felix. ‘What do you mean?’
‘He pours the water, Mae. He makes sure everyone has a glass in case they choke up there.’
She thought back to seeing Jeet Patel in the chemist’s.
Mae opened the door and sprinted towards town.