A Heart Bent Out of Shape Read Online Free

was willowy, with pale hair falling across his forehead and a small, indignant mouth. One hand held a coffee cup, and the other a cigarette. He nodded at her briefly, before turning his back to send a sequence of perfect smoke rings out over the railing and beyond.
    ‘I just got here,’ Hadley said, to no one in particular but in the end alighting on Jenny.
    ‘Oh, great, you’re English too, that’s a relief,’ Jenny said, and smiled chummily.
    ‘And you?’ Hadley glanced across at Bruno, who was still rocking, the chair barely containing his bulk.
    ‘Guess!’
    ‘I’m not sure,’ she said, ‘Spain, maybe?’
    He screwed up his face in mock disgust. ‘Italia!,’ he roared, pronouncing each syllable with great satisfaction, ‘but you wouldn’t believe it; my mother’s British, she’s from London. I went to school there for three years so my English is basically perfect. You know St Alexander’s, I suppose? Everyone always does.’
    ‘Not me,’ said Hadley, checking her desire to laugh. She considered whether to take a seat at the table with them, or to walk out on to the balcony, ostensibly to admire the view but really to strike up conversation with the slightly more interesting-looking boy and his smoke rings. Jenny bit her nails, Bruno swung on his chair.
    ‘Wow, that view!’ Hadley exclaimed, and went outside.
    ‘Another Brit?’ the boy said, glancing sideways at her.
    ‘How can you tell?’
    ‘Because I just heard you talking. There are so many of you here, I might as well have gone to Oxford.’
    ‘Oh, are there? I was hoping to get away from them myself. And you’re American?’ She resisted the temptation to add, and why do you sound so cross?
    ‘New Jersey, through and through,’ he said.
    He lit another cigarette and leant on the railing. His shoulders stuck out like wings through the back of his T-shirt. His arms were long and faintly freckled.
    ‘Do you like it here so far?’ Hadley tried.
    ‘I’m still deciding,’ he said.
    Bruno had joined them on the balcony, and Jenny was behind him, her hands closing around a mug of tea.
    ‘You can go skiing about an hour from here,’ Jenny said, her voice expressing little enthusiasm for the idea.
    ‘Do you ski?’ Hadley asked, wondering if she needed to rearrange her quickly forming picture of her.
    ‘No,’ she said, ‘but people do.’
    ‘They certainly do,’ said the American boy.
    ‘What was your name again?’ Hadley asked him.
    ‘It’s Chase,’ he said.
    ‘I suppose this block’s full of lots of other students?’ She attempted to disguise the urgency of her question. So far, communal living wasn’t filling her with excitement.
    ‘Some are still arriving,’ said Bruno. ‘The room next to you, Kristina Hartmann, she’s not here yet.’
    ‘How do you know who she is?’ Hadley asked.
    ‘Haven’t you noticed? Our names are on all of our doors,’ said Jenny. ‘I think it’s creepy. Someone could come in off the street and find all the girls’ rooms.’
    ‘We’ll protect you, bella ,’ said Bruno, ‘won’t we, Chase?’
    ‘Something like that,’ said Chase.
    ‘I think we should all go to Mulligan’s tonight,’ said Bruno. ‘Hadley, you want to come?’
    ‘How do you know my name?’ she said.
    ‘He saw your door,’ said Jenny.
    ‘But how did he know that was my room?’
    ‘Lucky guess,’ said Bruno, with a wink.
    ‘You look like a Hadley,’ said Chase.
    ‘Does she?’ said Jenny. ‘I wouldn’t have the first idea what a Hadley was supposed to look like.’
    ‘And what’s Mulligan’s?’ Hadley asked. ‘It doesn’t sound very Swiss.’
    ‘It’s not,’ said Jenny, ‘it’s brilliant.’
    That first night Hadley thought they made a misshapen quartet. She learnt that Jenny had left a boyfriend behind in England, and was wondering whether to end things with him. I have to be here for my course , she said, in a flat and injured voice. I never chose to come, so where does that leave me and