A Little Rain Read Online Free Page A

on.  I don’t wake Rob.  I will leave him be.  Best
not to disturb him.  He’ll phone me when he’s ready.  I kiss his forehead
goodbye and breathe him deep.  I don’t make a sound.  I go back to mum to say
to call me or text me, if she needs anything.  I hug her, and quietly whisper
goodbye and she softly squeezes my hand as she dozes in her chair.  Back in the
kitchen, I wash up my cup and put the blue plastic bowl in the fridge.  Regretfully,
I leave.
    I trip-toe down the dark stairs.   Bounce bounce,
bounce bounce, down the thirty two stone steps.  I’m not getting in the lift
again.  It smells like a men’s toilet, although sometimes the stairwell doesn’t
smell too fresh either.  I can tell it is cold outside.  I can see the rain is light
and misty.  I can smell the damp of the concrete walls.  I’m not quite down the
stairs when my phone rings.  It’s Benny.  I answer.  “Hey.  Where you at babe?” 
I’m a little shocked.  He’s in a good mood. 
    “Just getting to see you of course.”  He doesn’t ask
me how college was.  He doesn’t care.
    “So you coming over?” he says.
    “Want to pay for my cab?”  I cheek .  I’ve got
money.  He’s richer than me though.  He doesn’t say anything.  It’s raining
harder now and I just know the son of a gun would rather make me walk.
    “No chance.”  He says.  So I call a cab anyway.  I
cannot be bothered to get soaked in the rain.  I light up a cigarette while I’m
waiting in the smelly stairwell.  In less than three minutes some dude pulls up
in a silver saloon busting some fat reggae beats that rattle the glass even
before he bibs his horn for me.  I soon realise how he got to pick me up so
fast.  Benny lives about a ten minute drive away from mum.  This cab driver
does it in five.
    Rob’s flat is not far from mum.  It is near shops.  Benny
does not live near shops, which is just typical, as Benny is a man who keeps no
food at his home.  Not like my mum, who has a packed fridge-freezer and
cupboards full, packets of crisps burst out of the doors whenever you open them,
tins of beans roll on the floor.  Benny never has food.  I am always hungry.  The
instant coffee and custard creams I hide in the shoe box in the wardrobe are
mine.  I think sometimes he just doesn’t need to eat.  He is one skinny mashup.
 He is very cute and I love the way his skinny hips duck in under his six-pack.
 His jeans have trouble staying up.  I don’t have a problem with that.  He’s
not that tall, five six, seven maybe.  His hair is shaved very short.  When he
grows it, it gets all thick and bushy but he knows I wouldn’t go near him if he
grew stinky dreads.  His skin is the colour of caramel, like sticky toffee
sauce.  Although he’s short and skinny, he has the face of a pretty boy, sharp
edge jaw and cheekbones.  He has yellow-green eyes like a dragon, slit pupils, unblinking.
    We met at school when I was a shy girl.  I hung out
with the trendy kids, but was always the quiet one.  I didn’t think schoolwork
was important.  I failed my exams at 16 and had to retake them all.  I
eventually left school a year later.  My friends had moved on.  They didn’t
wait for me and went their separate ways, getting jobs, doing A-levels and planning
their futures.  When I got kept back a year, so did Benny.  He was one of the
cool crowd too, only before then I was too shy to speak to him.  When we were put
in the same boat we were forced together.  I think he liked that I was a bit
different, that I started going raving and drinking with my brother at 17.  In
fact, I think he was jealous of Rob from the start.  It’s a shame Rob didn’t
like him either, thought he was a waster with no manners and no respect.  When Benny
did leave school he had no plans to do anything but his dad made him get a
job.  His uncle hired him and he works as a mechanic now.  Rob had higher hopes
for me, unrealistic hopes.  I