The Key to Anchor Lake ✓

34 : Blaire

B L A I R E

•

Once her shift at the café is over, Sukie texts me to let me know she's on her way over, and it's only a few minutes before there's a knock at the door and I find her standing on the other side.

"Hey," I say, going soft and warm in her presence, like I'm an ice cube and she's the sun. "Are you in a rush, or do you want to come in?"

"I've got a few minutes," she says, peering around the hallway. "Where's Elizabeth?"

"In the attic. She's painting. I assume," I say, leading her to the sitting room. I don't miss the way her eyes are drawn to the mantelpiece, where Mum's urn still sits.

"I'm sorry Jacob was such a dickhead earlier," she says, rubbing her forehead.

"I'm getting used to him."

"Shouldn't have to, really. And at his age, he shouldn't have to be told how much of an utter cock weasel he is."

I shrug. I can't get too excited about that dumb kid, who I'd rather not be thinking about when Sukie's sitting next to me in my house. "Do you want a drink?" I ask.

She laughs. "Bit of role reversal, eh? Can I have a water?"

I fill a couple of glasses from the tap and return to her, tucking my feet up under myself and pulling my bag over to pass her the book.

"I noticed something else when I was reading it."

"Oh?" She sits forward, head tilted. "Oh, god, please don't tell me you found a paragraph where Mary mentions four best friends whose initials spell out Jane."

"No." I laugh. "Don't worry, that's still a mystery. One we'll figure out, but yeah, still a mystery for now."

"What was it?"

"I reread the bit about 1994," I say. She nods, lips pressed together. "Mary mentioned your brother, but she called him Kieran Jennings. Is that right?"

"Oh, yeah." Sukie chuckles and rolls her eyes. "My name isn't really Sukie Watanabe."

"What?"

"It's Suzanna Jennings," she says, pulling a face. "But that's so ... boring. And I can't stand my dad, so I took Mum's maiden name after he left, and I've been Sukie for as long as I can remember. Dad's the only one who ever called me Suzanna, or Suzie."

"Oh my god. It doesn't fit you at all," I blurt out, instant embarrassment creeping over my face. "Sorry! I didn't mean th—"

"It really doesn't," she says. "I'm a Sukie through and through, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm one hundred percent Watanabe. Plus, Suzanna Jennings sounds like a total Karen. A real I want to talk to the manager kind of boring middle-aged white woman."

I splutter a laugh at the image, the total opposite of Sukie. She's a ray of sunlight, the human expression of a hug. "You're a total Sukie," I say. She grins.

"And you're a total Blaire."

I pause. For nearly twenty years, I wasn't Blaire. It's only the past, what, five weeks that I've adopted it as my name, and now I feel bad for hiding it. "My real name's Liberty."

Sukie's jaw drops. She looks like a cartoon image of shock. "Hold on a minute ... what?"

"Blaire's my middle name," I say, refusing to shy away from her stare. "I wanted a change when I got here, but my real name's Liberty."