Candelo by Georgia Blain

and grabbed her
, he said.
    And it was me who backed him up.
So quick I didn’t know what was happening
.
    Vi put Evie down, her glasses dropping to the ground as she bent low. I watched as she reached to pick them up, thin fingers brushing Mitchell’s hand as he, too, tried to retrieve them.
    I had seen the alarm on her face, the fear when she had first come out to find Mitchell holding Evie. A flicker. A moment. But enough.
    She was embarrassed.
    So was he.
    She thanked him as he gave the glasses back to her. She thanked him again as he went back down into the garden to pick up the trail of Evie’s pillows and helped her stuff them back into her shirt.
    And over lunch she told him she would think about him taking the car into town to do the shopping.
    And to the beach?
Simon asked, his open mouth full of food as he waited for her response.
    Maybe
, she said.
As long as you’re careful
, and she looked at Mitchell, who nodded, solemnly.
    Wouldn’t be anything but
, he promised.

fifteen

    Despite the fact that so many girls were interested in Simon, there was only ever one who went out with him.
    Rebecca Hickson.
    Thirteen years old, tall, blonde, captain of the softball and netball teams, popular, and always certain of getting her own way; she cornered me outside the canteen and told me that she liked my brother.
    So?
With my arms folded across my chest, I stared back at her.
    I want to go to the Saturday dance with him
.
    Well, ask him
, and I moved to push past her, but she put her hand firmly on mine, the chain of her charm bracelet cold against my wrist.
    I have
, and her stare was cool as she repeated Simon’s words, as she told me that he didn’t want to go.
    Well, there’s your answer
, but as I spoke I knew there was more to this than I had at first realised, that I was not going to be allowed to leave so easily.
    I want you to change his mind
, and with her hand still on mine, her body still barring my way, she told me that I had until Friday. I had to get Simon to agree or she would make it known that I was the one who broke into the chemistry lab.
    There was no point in telling her that I had never done anything of the kind. Rebecca Hickson’s powers, coupled with my reputation, were such that she would be believed. Despite the fact that she was lying.
    And knowing I had no choice, I begged Simon to go to the dance with her.
    I pleaded with him.
    I don’t like those things
, and he did not lift his gaze from the television as I told him that that wasn’t the point. The point was that she would make my life hell. The point was that it was only a small sacrifice. To save his sister. To save me.
    Eventually he agreed. And on Friday, at three o’clock, he told her he had changed his mind.
    I remember seeing the triumph on her face, the sheer satisfaction at having got what she wanted, what she had been denied. It did not matter that Simon left her as soon as they arrived, that he spent the night sitting outside watching Michael Arnold get so drunk that he took all his clothes off and danced naked under the flagpole; all that mattered was that she had said she was going with Simon and she had.
    Anton was waiting awkwardly just inside my flat, a pool of water at his feet, dark on the floorboards, seeping into the edge of the rug, and as I looked at him, I wished I hadn’t asked him to come in.
    I wished I didn’t have to say what I had to say.
    The rain was heavy now. Loud and relentless. I knew I would need to put pots out to catch the drips from all the spots in the ceiling that leaked in downpours such as this, but I would do it later.
    As we stood opposite each other, uncomfortable and without words, I remembered my determination in pursuing him and I could not help but wonder whether I deserved the situation in which I had found myself.
    Because I had been determined.
    Each morning, I would wake early, and extricate myself, limb by limb, from the heaviness of