Her father ushered Tim into the kitchen and her mother followed behind. For a moment she reminded Jasmine of the girls in school who would follow the boys around and hang on their every word. She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.

Jasmine gleaned from the conversation that Tim was going to be moving into the guest house in the garden, which made her feel uneasy. She also noticed that he seemed to know her mother better than her father; Lisa had worked with him before in some capacity. None of them addressed Jasmine as they talked, as if she wasn’t there. But as soon as her parents looked at each other, or were distracted, Tim threw quick glances towards Jasmine, as though he didn’t want her there. When his eyes met hers, she looked away. There was something so intense about him and she didn’t know why her parents couldn’t see it. They were kind and expected everyone else to be kind as well, always seeming so shocked when they read the papers or heard the news. Her mother wouldn’t listen to the radio because it upset her. They were always looking for ways to help other people, and Jasmine could see that Tim was just their latest project. They were determined to try to change the world one person at a time again.

Jasmine slipped out of the kitchen and went back to her room. She decided to shower, partly because she hadn’t already that day and partly to cool down. They were in the midst of a heatwave, which always filled her with a certain amount of excitement but also dread. Considering her family spent every summer south of the equator, the heat shouldn’t have been an issue. Maybe it wasn’t the heat that was getting to her after all, but the presence of a stranger in their house.

When her parents told her they were getting a lodger this wasn’t what she had expected. She wondered how long he planned to stay. There was something about him she didn’t trust.

Chapter Three

Over the next few days Jasmine settled in to her new home, the smell of fresh paint gradually replaced by the smell of the musky perfume her mother wore and the shampoos and soaps they used. It was starting to smell like home. Jasmine had tinkered with her room, putting up a Donnie Darko poster. She hadn’t seen the film, but her friend Felicity had given her the poster. She tacked it on the back of the door, where her parents wouldn’t see it. They weren’t controlling, but Frank and Lisa were such positive people that they really didn’t understand Jasmine’s fascination with morbid things. Lisa always said if you surrounded yourself with negativity then negative things would happen to you. Jasmine wasn’t sure the world worked like that.