BooksBarbecue
Back Bad Friends
Chapters (59)
  1. Bad Friends
  2. Copyright
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. AFTER: DECEMBER
  6. BEFORE: JUNE
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. Chapter Ten
  17. Chapter Eleven
  18. Chapter Twelve
  19. Chapter Thirteen
  20. Chapter Fourteen
  21. Chapter Fifteen
  22. Chapter Sixteen
  23. Chapter Seventeen
  24. Chapter Eighteen
  25. Chapter Nineteen
  26. Chapter Twenty
  27. Chapter Twenty-One
  28. Chapter Twenty-Two
  29. Chapter Twenty-Three
  30. Chapter Twenty-Four
  31. Chapter Twenty-Five
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Chapter Thirty-Three
  40. Chapter Thirty-Four
  41. Chapter Thirty-Five
  42. Chapter Thirty-Six
  43. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  44. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  45. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  46. Chapter Forty
  47. Chapter Forty-One
  48. Chapter Forty-Two
  49. Chapter Forty-Three
  50. Chapter Forty-Four
  51. Chapter Forty-Five
  52. Chapter Forty-Six
  53. Chapter Forty-Seven
  54. Chapter Forty-Eight
  55. A CONVERSATION WITH CLAIRE SEEBER
  56. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  57. About the Author
  58. By the same author:
  59. About the Publisher

I hoiked myself up in my bed and reached for a weapon, but all that came to hand was the water-jug. My tummy felt like it was being squeezed through an old-fashioned mangle. Then I heard whispering outside, and before I could grab the jug, a little face popped round the door.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I croaked, and in response she smiled, rather timidly for her, I thought afterwards.

‘Just come to see if you’re okay, Maggie.’

And then, from behind Fay, another taller figure appeared. Alex. He stood there with a hand on her shoulder, and he too was smiling rather oddly. Grimacing was a better word, in fact.

‘Come in,’ I said rather hysterically, ‘come in and join the party, why don’t you? I can show you my war-wounds if you like.’

They stepped nervously into the room. They. Fay and Alex – my stalker and my ex. A perfect combination – a veritable match made in heaven.

‘So,’ I mumbled, feeling rather peculiar again, ‘what can I do for you? Other than thank you, Alex, obviously.’

‘We were worried about you. Thank goodness you’re all right,’ Fay murmured, blinking a lot.

‘Have you come to break the news?’ I tried to pull myself up on the pillows. God, my arm hurt.

‘News?’ Alex shook his head in confusion as Fay looked up at him, bewilderment in those great violet eyes. ‘What news?’

I decided I should get up now; I felt like a trussed-up chicken ready for the oven lying there while they both gaped at me. Slowly I swung my legs out and stood – pain shot up my ankle like a surge of electricity so that I stumbled onto a chair, Fay and Alex both rushing forwards to support me. I gazed up at them.

‘You make a lovely couple, actually,’ I mumbled, and promptly collapsed again.

Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter Forty-Six

However hard you try, sometimes you can’t escape yourself. I sat in the room on the hill by the sea and I tried to hide from the horrors that haunted me; I tried to remember the person I’d been before all this began. But I lived in the midst of flashbacks and a perpetual ache in my injured ankle, waking from night-sweats terrified that Seb had come for me again, my ears constantly straining for the faithful patter of Digby’s feet.