seventeen

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“So whereabouts d’you live?” asked Isaac. It had started raining now, big aggressive droplets splattering down on the windscreen.

    “Bayliss Gardens,” Jared answered, and Isaac raised his eyebrows.

    “Ooh. Fancy.”

    “Shut up.”

     The song faded out and there was a moment of comfortable quiet before the next one began, the sound of the windscreen wipers steady and almost comforting between them.

    “Ironic,” sniggered Isaac as ‘Here Comes the Sun’ started playing. Jared snorted, rolling his eyes exaggeratedly.

    “What even is this CD?”

    “The yellow one. Look in the glove box.”

     Jared looked, and found about twenty CDs, each with a different colour scribbled on them in sharpie pen.

    “Me and my sister made one for each- mood?” Isaac had turned to glance at him with a slightly sheepish grin. “We share the car, but she’s at uni at the moment so it’s all mine.”

    “Oh right. Where’s she at?”

    “Um.” Isaac turned a corner into one of the town’s greying-1960s-housing areas. “Sheffield. That’s her.”

     He motioned to a picture on the dashboard. In it Isaac was grinning stupidly at the camera with his sister’s arm hung around his shoulders, pulling him close to her side. She and Isaac looked very alike, both with dimples and pale skin and hair a messy light brown. She was smiling too, her other arm around a fluffy white dog and her face scrunched up in a silly expression that did nothing to disguise how pretty she was.

    “That your dog?” asked Jared, pointing at the small fluffy creature.

    “Yep. He’s called Moss.” Another sheepish grin. “The cats are called Roy and Jen.”

     Jared slapped a hand to his own forehead.

    “Really dude? You named your pets after the IT Crowd? You are so fucking predictable.”

     Isaac just laughed, and started singing along to the Beatles. Jared leaned back into his seat, shaking his head with a reluctant smile.

    “You got any brothers and sisters?” Isaac asked after a bit.

    “Yeah,” he said. “One brother. Probably the biggest idiot to ever walk the Earth. I mean, he once almost burnt the house down microwaving his jeans – like, with the metal zip and button and everything – trying to dry them for a party.”

     Isaac chuckled.

    “I’ve got a brother too. Little one called Joseph, and yeah, my parents do like their biblical names.”

    “You’re pretty religious then?”

    “Um. Used to be. My mum is. I don’t really like what it does to people sometimes. Hey, I have a question for you J.”

    “My name’s not J,” muttered Jared, but Isaac ignored him.

    “Why didn’t you use Willa’s number? It was actually written in the book, you know. I showed you it.”

     Jared narrowed his eyes.

    “Oh, come on Isaac. I’m not a total stalker.”

    

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