AllFreeNovel
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“Wrong. You’re the one that’s got it all wrong. Gavin could turn it on for anyone he thought would advance his career. But I would like you to leave now. Go on. Get out.”
“If this is what you want. But I think I should stay, and we should talk properly.”
“No. You have no right to be here in my room like this. You’re my teacher, nothing else now. So, fuck off.”
There followed a shocked silence, as if neither of us could quite believe what I’d just said. I never used the f-word. But it felt like the right term for this moment of finality, and for this man.
Loud footsteps sounded on the steps outside, and knocking cut through the volatile atmosphere of the room.
“Malph!” Will called through the door. “It’s only gone and snowed!”
I looked up. The ceiling window was topped with crystalline folds of ice.
“We’ve gotta go out in it, babe.”
“Yeah, we do,” I agreed, as he turned the handle. “Don’t come in here, Hearse.”
“You naked, or something?”
“Umm…” I said, not sure whether to tell that lie. The door opened a crack. “I mean it, Will. Don’t come in.”
“I’m kidding. Hurry up and get dressed. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
I pulled clothes on top of pyjamas as Will’s feet clattered away.
“You are running off in the snow with your friend?” exclaimed Aleks. “You will not stay to sort this out?”
“You’ve sorted everything out this week,” I told him. “But you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Revelations flowed fast, burning like whisky. “You tried to isolate me from my friends, silencing my phone like that before we came here.”
“That was absolutely not my intention.”
“It could have been the result, though, couldn’t it? But my friends are too good for that. Justin? Still right there for me. Will getting shut in that cupboard overnight was my fault. Does he bear me any grudge?”
I gestured towards the door in answer, and sought boots and jacket. “I’m blessed with true friendship. What do you have, Aleks? A stupid game, and Simone. Makes sense. They all look like her, don’t they? Your exes.” Jacket zipped up, the facts flowed on. “You’ve been with her all along, haven’t you? That last time, here with me; your eyes were shut because you were thinking about her.”
He raised his hand, finger pointed upwards. “Is completely not how—”
“More experienced than me, is she, Aleks? The giver of sophisticated blow-jobs? Check... mate!” I shouted over his protestation and then fled.
“Finally,” said Will as I arrived at the bottom of the stairs and stepped onto the black-and-white chessboard floor of the foyer.
“Don’t start,” I requested. “I’ve just had an almighty row with…”
“The prick.”
“Yes. When the adrenaline and anger wear off, I may crumble and fall to pieces. So this better be fun and distracting, Hearst.”
We opened the door and were half blinded by the low morning sun. The snow was dazzling beneath the orangey light; glittering sparks shone here and there on the fresh and pristine surface. The day had a clean cold smell to it. This was no grey city winter.
We ran out, all negativity banished by the white brilliance. I scooped some snow up and found it joyously easy to squeeze together and lob at the back of Will’s head.
“I’ll get you for that, Treadwell!”
I ran. He caught up. I tried to push snow down his neck, and we fell, rolling over and over on the ground like children. I sat astride him and laughed, surprised by the happy and carefree turn life had suddenly taken.
A movement to the left had us turn our heads and behold a small deer. We stayed very still so as not to scare her. Another one leapt out of the trees, the larger horned male, majestic and powerful. The doe gave flight, and the stag chased her through a gap in the trees.
We struggled to our feet and sprinted after them. We’d found the path I’d seen that first morning. It took us uphill, through a mature pine plantation. This was a darker and pricklier trail than the other woodland path that led to the pool. The thuds of our feet were muted by layer upon layer of old pine needles, the scent in the air subtle and resinous. Just as I started to fear that we had lost the deer, we stepped out onto a sunny hillside that had several large stones lying around it. They were placed in a circle, some fallen, some pointing up to the sky. A particularly huge boulder was flanked by two flat upright rocks.
