AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Do you want to tell me why you did it?’ Sophie pulled the gauze away briefly to see if the bleeding had stopped. It hadn’t. Concerned, she pressed it back down again.
‘She was being mean to me again, and I wanted her to stop. I thought if I took her pencil case she’d think it was someone else and be mean to them instead.’ She wiped a sleeve across her face, snot smearing across her jawbone and onto the jumper itself.
Sophie handed her a tissue, and she blew her nose loudly.
There was a slightly strange logic behind Cassie’s plan, thought Sophie, but then reminded herself that despite Lily’s misdemeanours, Cassie was also in the wrong here. She couldn’t let her feelings for Liam cloud her judgement.
‘So, what was happening outside a moment ago?’ Sophie asked.
‘Someone told Lily they’d seen me take her pencil case, and she wanted to fight me. I was trying to get away.’
‘Cassie, you know better than to do any of the things you did today. It’s wrong to steal, and it’s wrong to get into fights,’ Sophie said, keeping eye contact to try to relay the seriousness of it all.
‘I know,’ she said, sniffling and crossing and uncrossing her legs over and over. ‘Will you tell my dad?’
‘I’ll need to speak to him, yes.’
A fresh wave of tears shook Cassie’s body. ‘But it’s not my fault,’ Cassie said through her snorts.
‘I know it doesn’t feel like that, but it’s important to talk about these things with your dad so he and I can try to help you. Stealing and fighting are wrong, but that’s not what this is about. This is about you being unhappy because Lily is unkind to you. That’s why I need to talk to him. Lily’s teacher will talk to her parents too.’
Cassie looked up and steadied her breath.
Sophie pulled the gauze away again. It had grown warm under her hand and when she looked at it, she could see the whole thing was bright red. She was going to have to go to A&E.
‘Cassie, I think we’re going to have to pop down to the hospital and get someone to have a look at this. It’s a bit stubborn and won’t stop bleeding. It might just need a bigger plaster than the ones we’ve got here,’ she said, trying to allay any panic that Cassie might have felt at the mention of the hospital. ‘Come on.’
Cassie sniffed loudly. ‘Will you come with me?’ she asked quietly.
Sophie looked at Cassie’s red eyes. She looked so small. Someone else would have to cover her afternoon lesson. ‘Of course I can. You stay there a minute. I just need to find Miss Davies.’
Liam growled. ‘Soph, why can’t you just answer the damn phone?’ Since she’d left the message about Cassie half an hour earlier, he’d called five times and still not managed to get through. He pulled to a stop by the traffic lights and tapped at the steering wheel for something to do with his hands. Reaching over for his phone, while stationary, he tapped to listen to the message Sophie had left once again.
‘Liam, I’m sorry to have to leave a message. There’s been a bit of an incident with Cassie.’
The message sounded tinny, like she was calling from a car – hands free, he hoped. He shivered at the thought of it and swallowed, finding it hard to breathe with the heater blowing directly into his face. He fiddled with the dials in the front of the Land Rover and looked up to see the traffic had moved.
‘She’s fine,’ the message continued. ‘There’s just been a bit of an accident and I need to take her down to A&E. There was another fight. I’m just on my way to the hospital with her, no ambulance or anything,’ she’d added, as if that would make things better.
He felt a fresh wave of annoyance as she withheld the damage and focused on the scenario. It was just like Sophie to think about the bad behaviour and not the consequences.
‘Apparently, Cassie took something belonging to another child and when that other child found out, they got into a fight. Anyway, you don’t need to know all of that. I’m driving and I’m getting into the busy bit of town. Call me when you get this, or meet us down there.’
As the message finished, Liam could hear Sophie react to something on the road, exclaiming something inaudible before the phone clicked off. Even having listened to the message several times over, his breath caught in his chest. Emily.
Just the journey to the hospital was bringing back horrible memories. On that day five years ago, he’d rushed to A&E as soon as he’d heard of Emily’s accident, driving recklessly himself to get there as fast as possible. The most vivid part of the memory, though, was rushing through the automatic doors of the hospital and being hit with the acidic smell of antiseptic and antibacterial cleaner. When he thought about that day for too long, the sting in the back of his nose and throat was palpable. When he smelt those things for real, he would almost black out at the memory, his brain unable to think back and process the hideousness of it all.
And now he was going back. And Cassie was hurt. And he was being forced to drive recklessly across town, to the one place he’d vowed never to step foot inside again. And it was all Sophie’s fault.
‘Where is she?’
Sophie stepped back to avoid Liam as he stormed past her to the empty reception window in the hospital foyer.
‘She’s just finishing up with the doctor.’ Sophie clasped her hands together in front of her and took a step towards Liam. When he turned and she saw the rage and worry in his eyes, she took a step back again. ‘She’s going to be fine. It was just a cut across her eyebrow. Apparently the skin is fragile there. I wanted to be sure it was all OK.’
‘She’s going to be fine? That’s really not the point. Once again, Cassie has been attacked by another pupil at school and this time it’s even worse than the times before.’ Liam held out his arms to the waiting room. ‘We’re in hospital.’
‘Yes, I know that, Liam. And I’m sorry.’
