Roadkill (LiveWire) Read Online Free Page A

to delete this contact. Just do it, I tell myself. I am shaking with emotion, and bite my lip hard, before hitting ‘no’. No I don’t want her deleted, no I don’t want her dead. I can’t do this by myself.
    It might be summer, but I shiver in my thin T- shirt. Perhaps Rose just walked over my grave. No that would be wrong….it’s not me that’s dead. I have walked to the fringes of the Estate, and the shadowy bushes that screen us from The Road are bright with headlights. Deliberately I turn right, carefully skirting the bridge, heading like a homing pigeon for Leo’s flat.
    Shortcutting down the narrow footpath I dodge a couple of muscular blokes on bikes, and even though it’s dark, memory sears my brain. Because as usual Rose is closer at night.
    “Are you okay?” Rose was in front as usual, and she leapt off to kneel beside the injured cyclist.
    “Yeah. Just my leg,” the boy winced, geeky blonde hair a curtain over his pinched pale face. There was a deep cut on his right ankle, where the chain had apparently come off. Smart beige trousers were torn and his over large red check shirt was draped across skinny shoulders. He looked like a grubby scarecrow.
    “Hey, it’s Leo,” I dismounted more slowly and propped my bike against a lamppost. It was only the second time I’d seen Leo, although we’d texted a lot since we met a week previous at the fair. I offered to show him around, help him settle into the area. It was the first day back after half term, a weird time to start a new school, but he didn’t seem much bothered.
    “Lots of blood, not much damage,” Rose announced, deftly hauling Leo to his feet.
    We had been in to town first and grabbed a Macdonald’s breakfast, before forcing our way over the rickety wooden bridge and through the edge of the park, to college. Rose obviously enjoyed the terrain but my new jeans were ripped by the brambles, and I was not in a good mood.
    The twisting, muddy footpath was dotted with tree roots and dog poo.
    “Oh. Hi Caz. Sorry, I know I said I’d see you in the canteen, but hey, I couldn’t wait!” He was struggling to his feet, and I remember Rose flashing us both a look.
    Efficiently, scornfully, she fixed Leo’s bike and the three of us headed off for the first day of term.
    It’s very dark, and this side road is quiet, leading past looming stinky recycling bins. I wrinkle my nose, fiddling with my phone as a bus chugs past in a cloud of smog and dust. A noise from the undergrowth makes me jump, and sets my heart crashing against my ribs. Rustling, a thud of feet and I feel a hand on my bare arm. Spinning round, I raise a feeble elbow, cringing away from my attacker.
    “Caz! Are you okay?”
    Narrowing my eyes against the glare of a flashlight I draw a long quivering breath, “Matt?”
    Dimly registering his companion I lower my arm “Ashley? What the hell are you two doing here?”

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
    It is indeed Rose’s boyfriend and sexy Matt. Relief makes me angry, and they look shamefaced.
    “Sorry. We were just sitting down there,” Ashley indicates the long slope, tangled with brambles and crappy yellow flowering weeds. At the bottom of the slope The Road beckons.
    “Why?” I demand, gripping my phone like a weapon. Crazy thoughts are rushing through my admittedly exhausted mind. Like did Ashley and Matt kill Rose? Maybe they pushed her in the road, and the hit and run driver didn’t see her…..
    Then I look properly at Ashley’s devastated face. He looks like the kind of thin weedy kid Rose would despise, but with him it’s deceptive, and hides a catlike athletism. Ashley is like the perfect match for Rose, despite being a year younger, and he was only waiting to finish college before he and Rose were off travelling.
    Anyway the point is his normally spiky blonde hair is plastered over his thin face, red eyes etched with purple shadows. His lips are rigid and clenched as though to stop from crying out. He looks