The Last Summer of Us by Maggie Harcourt Page B

how sunny it is and how there are flowers in the hedgerows or something. Anyway, you wouldn’t believe all this if you saw him take down the St Matthew’s team centre at the last match – but that’s Jared for you. A mystery. A riddle. He’s The Quiet One. He watches and he listens; less forgetful than I am, less self-absorbed than Steffan. It’s like he’s always waiting for something – a chance to make a run for it, maybe.
    I look at him looking at Steffan again and I catch it; it’s only there for a second, flashing across his face and disappearing in a heartbeat, but it’s there. He’s jealous. Steffan’s taking Jared’s escape plan…and he doesn’t even want it. The wrong one of us is going to America and we’re all as trapped as each other. All stuck in lives that are determined by other people. Other people’s choices. Other people’s mistakes.
    Steffan puffs out a long, slow breath and throws the middle of a daisy at me. The white petals are scattered around his knees. “Still,” he says, dangerously close to smiling at me, “I bet that’s taken your mind off your hand.”
    â€œIt had. Until you brought it up again. Thanks for that.”
    â€œWhat? You think you’re going to be allowed to forget that one? Just wait till school starts and Becca kicks off again.”
    I hadn’t thought of that. School, without Steffan. Becca without Steffan.
    How much can one person take? I wonder. How much can we carry before we break? How much more for Jared, with Marcus and his mother and now his dad back again? How much more for me? Becca’s comment was cruel and it was meant to cut…and how many more will there be? How much can we take, and how much more can we lose?
    Steffan knows I’m thinking it. He’s thinking it too. “We’re pretty screwed up, aren’t we?”
    I laugh. “Speak for yourself. I’m perfectly adjusted.”
    â€œYeah, right.” He dusts his knees off and clambers to his feet. “ Adjusted. ”
    â€œThat’s all I’ve got, I’m afraid.”
    â€œThat’s all any of us have got.” He smiles at me, and I grin back.
    Jared shakes his head at the two of us. “You two are mentals, you know that?”
    Steffan throws his arm around my shoulder and I lean into him. We both pull faces at Jared, who shakes his head again and laughs as he hauls himself to his feet and rubs bits of grass from his hands.
    They’re ready to move on. They’re probably right. Places to go, things to see, people to…
    On second thought, maybe it’s better if we don’t bump into anybody else for a while. Either way, we’ve got to find somewhere to camp tonight before night actually rolls around.
    Steffan tosses his car keys to Jared, who snatches them out of the air without even breaking his stride.
    â€œSpock, you have the conn,” he says, and Jared rolls his eyes.
    â€œThe original series? Really? Like I said: mental.”
    â€œListen, mate, Kirk was cocking amazing .”
    â€œAnd you’re Kirk, clearly.” Jared pockets the keys. This is an old argument and we all know how it plays out, but they do it anyway. Who’d have believed that the pair of them are closet Star Trek nerds? Or that they’d have sucked me into it too? Honestly.
    â€œBang right I am. And you…” He raises his hand, thumb extended and fingers splayed in the Vulcan salute as he pulls a mock-serious face and raises an eyebrow.
    It’s my turn. “You’re both rubbish.”
    â€œOh yeah?”
    â€œYeah. Bones is the best. It’s always Bones.” I shoot them a grin back over my shoulder. “The reboot version of Bones, obviously.”
    And, predictable as the moon rising, the tide turning and the clouds bursting on the one day you’ve not got an umbrella, I can feel them thinking it. If I turn around,