Between the Lives Read Online Free

of my worlds then I had to really embrace them. Accept my place. The Sabine in this world had to deal with a twenty-two-year-old jerk of a brother called Ryan – a guy who, when I was eleven, oncelocked me in the garage for five hours while he had a bunch of friends over – and that was the only way to do it.
    I slid into the passenger seat beside Miriam.
    ‘Your brother is hot,’ Miriam said, her eyes fixed on the dust storm Ryan’s car had left behind.
    ‘Yeah, well you see hot, I see pain in my ass. He’s just –’ A frustrated noise escaped my lips. ‘He’s so selfish . He never helps Mom out, never … anything. All he has to do is turn up at the house for a few days each month. Get this, he can’t stand to be without his drinking buddies for more than a day, so next month he’s bringing one of them with him.’
    ‘Ooh, is he cute?’ Miriam asked, her face lighting up at the thought of potential eye-candy.
    I shrugged. ‘Don’t know, don’t care. All I know is that next month I’ll have to deal with two of them.’
    As we drove through the village centre my mind suddenly flashed back to yesterday – well, my version of yesterday. ‘Hey, can you stop. I … I want to grab some fruit.’
    Miriam didn’t slow down. ‘You can get fruit at school.’
    Already my subconscious was niggling uncomfortably, but before I’d thought it through, my mouth was open again.
    ‘Yeah, but I want this fruit. Just stop. There. Just outside the fruit shop.’
    Miriam looked at me like I was mad. I gave myself a mental check and yep … it was mad. This was exactly the type of thing I worked obsessively every day to avoid, and here Iwas slipping right into the kind of behaviour that earned me crazy stares.
    Shit.
    I was about to tell Miriam to forget it when she swerved into a parking spot out the front of the shop.
    ‘If you’re going on a fruit diet, there’s no way you’re doing it without me.’
    ‘Oh.’ I opened my mouth to explain that wasn’t what I was doing and then realised I’d been thrown a safety net. I stopped fidgeting and raised an eyebrow. ‘Party season is upon us, Miriam,’ I said, with a tone that told her she should have already been prepared.
    She nodded solemnly. ‘I’ll have whatever you’re having.’
    I took my chance and jumped out of her SUV.
    Inside the shop, everything was demoralisingly normal. No sign that anything was any different from how it had always been. Then, through the multi-coloured plastic strips hanging from the internal doorway, came fruit shop guy. Tubby, balding, wearing oversized jeans and flashing an unwelcome glimpse of his butt-crack when he bent over a stack of apples. The same guy who’d owned the store for as long as I could remember.
    ‘Can I get you something, missy?’ he asked, casting me a quick glance before returning to his apple pyramid.
    ‘Oh, um, yeah. Just, um, just some apples and strawberries, please.’
    He grabbed a paper bag. ‘How many of each?’
    I felt sick. ‘Two apples and two punnets of strawberries, thanks.’
    He had them bagged within a few seconds and was at the register.
    As I paid him, I cleared my throat. ‘I’m … I think I saw you yesterday. Coming out of the subway … in Boston.’
    He glanced at me briefly. A crazy-stare. ‘Not me, missy.’
    ‘Um, oh, well, it looked like you and I was just wondering if you saw me too. You were, um, you were in a light-brown suit coming up the stairs. You, um, you walked right by me.’
    Fruit shop guy passed me the bag and gave me another crazy-stare on the house. ‘Not me. I don’t even own a suit and I haven’t been in the city for, oh …’ He thought about it. ‘At least a month since my last visit. Must’ve been someone else.’
    I nodded vigorously. ‘Yeah, yeah. I was probably … It was getting dark and I couldn’t see clearly.’
    ‘Young girl like you shouldn’t be in the city late like that. You should be careful.’
    I nodded again, backing out of the