Unexpected Rendezvous

Chapter 27

Perrie's POV

"What are you doing here?" I counter, trying to buy time. "I heard you leave."

"You heard me leave?" Jonnie repeats. "What, are you spying on me now?"

This isn't starting well. "No, I just...I heard you and Chris in the hallway when I was coming in, and then I...I heard you leave."

"I came back to take a piss," my brother eloquently says. "And then I heard you. For the first time in hours." He's wearing a Charlton FC jersey and shorts, his hair sweaty against his forehead. His oversized sports bag is slung over one shoulder, making his stance lopsided. He lowers it to the ground and leans against the doorframe, eyes narrowing. "Why are you wearing my hoodie?"

I tug on on one of the hood's strings. "I, um. Was cold."

"You were cold," Jonnie repeats. Then he shakes his head, like he's trying to clear it. "Never mind. More importantly, where the hell have you been all day?"

"Oh, you know," I say as vaguely as possible. Leigh inches closer to the wall, like she's trying to get out of the line of fire between Jonnie and me. "Here and there."

It's an obnoxious response, fully deserving of my brother's answering glare. "Do you realise I had to miss half of training to talk to the police about you?" he asks. 

Oh God. My legs are rubber bands, suddenly, barely keeping me upright until I can collapse into the nearest chair. "The police?" I repeat. "What...why?"

"Why do you think?" Jonnie snaps. "Maybe because you've been missing all day, and everyone's been talking about you, and nobody knew where you were? Except for that brief moment in time when you ran away from a news crew, of course."

Here it is. This entire horrific day is about to come crashing down on me, and I'm nowhere near ready for it. "So they think...do they really think I killed Nelson?" I whisper.

Jonnie lets out a harsh laugh. "They don't know what to think. They'd like to talk to you, but you've been, you know." He puts his hands up in finger quotes. "Here and there."

I can't match his sarcasm right now. "What kind of questions did they ask?" I press.

"Oh, they ran the whole gamut. Where you were, why you weren't in school, why you were in London today, were you angry with Nelson about the student council election. Fun stuff like that. And they wanted your phone number."

"Did you give it to them?" I ask while simultaneously checking my phone for unknown calls. There are a few, but before I can listen to any of them, an alert flashes on my screen. Flight 2612 is delayed due to air traffic, and is now scheduled to arrive at 5:45pm. I glance at the clock on the wall and wince; even with the delay, that's less than half an hour from now.

Less than half an hour until they know everything. My stomach sinks, and I finally have to admit that I've been fooling myself for hours. For the entire day, really.

Leigh was right. We can't fix anything.

"I gave them a number," Jonnie says.

I frown. "What do you mean?"

He shrugs. "I might've changed a couple digits."

I blink. I can't have heard that right. "On purpose?" I ask, confused, and he rolls his eyes. "What did you tell them about me?"

"Nothing."

"What do you mean, nothing?" I ask, frustrated. I might deserve these vague answers after the ones I gave him, but that doesn't make them any easier to take.

"What I said. I told them I talked to you around one o'clock, and you seemed fine, and I hadn't heard from you since."

You seemed fine. I flash back to that conversation, which mainly consisted of Jonnie yelling at me and refusing to give me Aaron Carlo's phone number. "Did you tell them that I asked for Aaron's number?"

He shakes his head. "No."

I don't get it. This was his chance to show the world how much of a disaster I truly am, and nobody would have blamed him for taking it. So why didn't he? "How come?"

Jonnie sucks in a frustrated breath. "Because I didn't know what was happening! You left me high and dry all day, and I had no clue if I'd be saying something that was going to fuck you over."

My mind spins as I stare at him. "Why...why would you care about fucking me over?" And then, before he can answer, I add, "You hate me."

The words come out of the saddest, most insecure corner of my brain, the part of me that knows my relationship with Jonnie hasn't been the same since he became extraordinary and I became less than. I've never said them before; I'm not sure I've even thought them before. And I'm terrified suddenly about what Jonnie will say in return.

His mouth twists. "You really think that?"

"You humiliated me at the talent show-"

"It was a joke, Perrie!" Jonnie cuts me off. "A stupid fucking joke. I thought you might laugh, for a change. Like we used to whenever one of Aunt Caitlin's books showed up. I didn't think you'd read the thing in front of the entire school."

"You know I'm not good at off-the-cuff speaking," I protest.

"I know zilch about you. Because that's what you tell me."

We stare at one another, and...is that hurt on my brother's face? How is it possible, when I'm the one who's been hurting all this time? I think back to that day at Spare Me, when Jonnie was showing off in front of his friends, and the satisfaction I'd felt at plotting my revenge. I ruined Ms Badwi's entire livelihood for that. It can't be because I've been wrong about my brother all this time. 

"My Chocolate Digestives," I say abruptly. "You took them, you prick. So don't try to pretend like you haven't been giving me a hard time for years."

"This again?" Jonnie rubs a hand over his jaw. "Can you please explain what you're talking about with the fucking biscuits? Because I do not understand."

"The Digestives that Jade left for me on our porch in year 8," I say, folding my arms. Jonnie still looks blank, so I add, "Come on, you remember. She left them with a note, inviting me to see Infinity War. You took them before I had a chance to read it, and that's basically why Jade and I stopped being friends. Or anything else."

A dawning understanding flits across Jonnie's face. I feel a quick stab of satisfaction until he turns to Leigh and says, "You gonna leave me hanging?"

When I look towards Leigh, her eyes have gone wide, and she's playing with the frills of her dress as she stares at the floor. "Huh?" I ask. Leigh doesn't say anything, and I turn back to Jonnie. "What are you talking about? What does Leigh have to do with this?"

My brother waits a second, eyes on Leigh. When she still doesn't speak, Jonnie huffs in annoyance. "Seriously? Okay then. Well, here's what I remember, Perrie. I came home one day and Leigh was on the porch, holding a pack of Digestives and a piece of paper. I asked what she was doing, and she said she was going to surprise you, but since you weren't around, she'd give them to you some other time. And she asked me not to say anything."

"Leigh?" I almost feel woozy, my brain spinning in too many directions. "Is that true?"

Leigh is pressing herself against the wall, like she's hoping she can fall right through it and wind up in some other dimension, far away from Jonnie and me. Finally, when she realises that isn't going to happen, she nods resignedly and says, "Yeah. It is."