Lull before the Storm?

Marz is being nice to me, giving me money to buy food, sometimes even shopping and cooking so there’s something ready when I get home. Trouble is, she tries to make me eat too much, watches every mouthful. And it’s unnerving – part of me likes this almost normal Marz but the other part (the bigger one) knows she’s going to blow eventually and just wants to get it over and done with. If I didn’t know her better I’d say maybe she’s feeling guilty about filching Danny, not that he was ever really mine. Danny himself’s much the same as the Danny I knew at Middleton once I’d let him know how I felt about him. He doesn’t speak much, mostly ignores me, comes and goes. I told him about Pete, asked how he knew.

‘That guy in the trench coat? Yeah,’ he said, ‘met him at the Day Centre. His girlfriend’s crazy.’

‘Why d’you go to the Day Centre?’ I asked him, ‘and how did he know who you were?’

‘I get hungry,’ says Danny, and there’s not always food here. They give you a free meal. Don’t keep asking me stuff, Jazz, you know it does my head in.’

So I just handed him the omega 3 caps I’d bought in my lunchbreak, not a word, and went to my room.

I’ve been thinking too. Maybe I won’t go back to college. Maybe I’ll just get a job in a shop or something – Hennes, maybe even Monsoon, somewhere I can get stuff at a discount. Let’s get Christmas over first tho.

I’ve bought Danny a sweatshirt, got Marz a bottle of Poison from some guy selling them on the street. She’ll never know the difference.