The rose played on my mind all morning after that. I tried to read in the round house but my eyes would drift to the rose before the end of every paragraph. Who was it for? Was it for me or in memorial for someone? Or was it simply to pay respect to a place that once was? I couldn’t help it; it made me wistful.
In the end, I gave up reading, grabbed my crutches and went to get ready for Tallulah’s arrival. Something told me I was going to get today.
I opted for ripped black jeans that I’d ripped further down the sides to accommodate my cast, a laced-up flat boot for the other foot and an oversized Marilyn Manson t-shirt. It was kind of my signature uniform back home. I scraped my white hair back into a ponytail and left two strands on either side of my temples.
My skin was pale and clear, so I had no need to cover it. I coal-blacked my eyes and just used a little lip-gloss to emphasize my pale look.
My jacket was woefully inadequate here. That had to be first on my list after a new laptop and phone. I’d put my old in to be fixed. My whole life was on that hard drive—memories of Pete, photos, music, everything, but I didn’t hold out much hope.
Tallulah was already in Burt’s car when she texted for me to come down. Burt got out to stow my crutches away and she gave me a quick smile and went back to texting when I got in the back seat. In fact, she texted the whole journey.
Burt went on about making the roof safe on the round house. “I might ‘ave some greenhouse glass in one of the sheds somewhere. I’ll start putting some glass in … bit at a time, you know? Once the roof’s done, of course.”
I thanked him. He hadn’t once hinted about the rose, although I’d already discounted him. “Does anyone else go in there?” I said.
Tallulah ignored me or didn’t hear.
“Don’t believe so, miss. Her ladyship would need me to wheel her out there and she’s never asked for that.”
I wondered if Sarah really was a or Burt was just having a joke at his employer’s expense.
Before long, we drove through an endless car park to a retail outlet with barn-like buildings. Each had huge signs for retailers I’d never heard of. We pulled up in front of one called PC Planet.
“‘ere we are,” Burt said. “It’s a short walk to the shopping center over there,” and he bobbed his head to the right, away from the building.
“I know where it is,” Tallulah said, finally putting her phone in her bag.
“Call me fifteen minutes before you want to come home and I’ll pick you up at the entrance.”
Tallulah rudely got out while he was still talking.
“Thank you, Burt.”
He smiled and winked, then got out to get my crutches.
As we walked in through the wall of glass doors, it lived up to its name. Rows, the length of the building and all the way around the outside, of computers, monitors, laptops and phones. This was exactly the place I needed.
All the staff looked under the age of twenty and wore headsets, blue polo shirts and black pants.
Tallulah waved at some guy behind the desk and went to go and speak to him. A pretty young girl came up and asked me if she could help. She had honey-blonde hair in a ponytail, too much makeup and only came up to my chest. At first glance she looked about twelve until you took in the size of her boobs and ass. She was friendly enough though, so I went to tell her what I needed.
A peal of laughter interrupted my tho and I turned round to see Tallulah and the boy laughing together at the service desk. It was too far away to hear what they were saying, but Tallulah sure found whatever it was funny.
“I need an iPhone and a MacBook. It was the most expensive, and the least that Mommy and Daddy could do. The girl’s eyes widened, but she wasn’t going to argue a sale and spoke the order into her headset. She beamed a smile at me and told me to meet her at the desk where Tallulah was. “Wait!” I said, before she could run off. I got my old cumbersome laptop out of my bag. “Is there someone that can take a look at this? It just blue screened and won’t turn on. I need it to work or get my stuff off it or something.” She turned it over in her hands as if the outside would reveal something to her. Then she passed it back to me. “Yeah, give it in at the desk. They’ll write you out a ticket.”
Tallulah was still laughing with the boy when I went over to join them. I wasn’t expecting him to be as nearly as cool or good-looking. I don’t know what I expected of English boys, exactly.
His hair was dark, almost black, and swept forward in wisps to frame his face. It was a style a lot of the metal boys wore back home. Except his face was young and angelic-looking with long dark lashes around mahogany eyes. He couldn’t be that young because he had several piercings in his ears and one in his nose. He had a navy sports jacket on over his polo shirt but I could clearly see the tattoos on the backs of his hands. “And who do we have here, Tallulah?”
His accent was very cute on him but the way his eyes raked the length of my body spoke of way too much confidence. It reminded me instantly of the popular boys back home, who would shout for me to show them my —hence the baggy t-shirts. I’d always been well developed for my age and hated it.
“Becca, Ollie. Ollie, Becca,” Tallulah said, by way of introduction. “He’s at the same sixth form as us.” His name badge said Ollie Black.
I smiled, a little surprised. He didn’t exactly fit the Hogwarts image I had in my mind of St Barts.
“You start Monday?” he said.
I nodded. “My laptop died on me.” I frowned the minute the lame comment left my mouth. At least I had the old one in my hands so I didn’t look such an idiot. “She said you’d write up a ticket, or something.”
He nodded, took out a pad and started writing without asking me anything further about it. “Well, you came to the right place. It’s your life, right?” He stuck a label on it and put it on a shelf behind him. Then he accepted the boxes of my new stuff handed to him by a runner to put through the register. He beeped them and I handed over my credit card.
He looked at Tallulah with a smirk. “Loaded!”
She laughed.
I wasn’t exactly sure what meant, but I had a good idea. It irritated me. My brother Pete and I both had trust funds. His reverted to me on his death, and of course there was my parent’s guilt money. It had become a game to see how much I could spend before they actually spoke up to tell me, enough. It hadn’t happened yet. Ollie seemed oblivious to my annoyance with them, put the boxes into a large carrier bag and pushed them towards me across the counter.
I adjusted my bag on my shoulder to accommodate my crutches. He hadn’t even remarked on my leg so I knew Tallulah had filled him in. It made my face flush with anger, even more. “Bye,” I said, flatly, and went to turn away, but he stopped me.
“Wait! Listen. I’m having a few friends over to my house next Saturday. It’s Halloween and we thought it’d be fun. You know, dress up and that. You should come.”
I looked at Tallulah, a little unsure. She shrugged. “Yeah, you should.”
I was still not convinced.
“It’s up to you, but your aunt goes to bed at, like, five o’clock. She won’t even know,” Tallulah said with a another shrug.
She was right. After Gerty went home of an evening I had literally no adult supervision.
I looked at Ollie, who waggled his eyebrows at me playfully. Oh, what the hell. He seemed fun.
“Wait … your aunt?”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot. She’s the long-lost Blackwood niece from America,” she said, giggling.
He raised his eyebrows and nodded slowly in understanding. Then he laughed and said, shaking his head, “Maybe you shouldn’t come.” But he still seemed playful.
Tallulah laughed loudly at some “in” joke. I suspected she fancied him as she laughed at literally everything he said. Then she stopped and looked puzzled. He continued to stare at her, widening his eyes as if she should know. Then he rolled them when she finally caught on with an, “Oh, yeah! I forgot … the Blackwood Curse.”