Reading Online Novel

Bad Company(18)



‘You don’t know how cruel Ralph Aird can be. He deserved it.’ I refused to feel sorry for Ralph now, or guilty. He had brought it all on himself.

When I said that J.B. jumped to his feet. ‘Deserved it!’ he yelled at me. ‘Deserved to have his hard work ruined, something he’d put so much of his time into ripped to shreds.’ I could have answered him then, told him about what I’d put up with from Ralph, all the time he was in prison. Told him how he’d made a fool of him for working in Burgers A GoGo. But he didn’t wait for an answer. Didn’t want one. He took a step toward me. ‘What could he have possibly done to deserve the wrath of you and your snobbish little friend?’

‘Don’t you say that about Diane.’

He didn’t listen. ‘Maybe you both suddenly realised he was better than you. And he was going to prove it by winning that competition.’

‘He’s not better than me,’ I shouted. ‘Ralph Aird’s the scum of the earth.’

I sounded like Diane when I said that. Scum of the earth.

‘And what does that make you?’ he shouted back.

There was no arguing with him. No getting round him.

‘I won’t tell, and you can’t make me.’

‘Yes, I can.’ He held up the diary. ‘If you refuse to confess of your own accord, I’ll hand this over.’

That was the worst threat of all. All my feelings, my hopes, everything was locked in the pages of that diary. I had no doubt he’d do what he threatened.

‘You’re the one that’s despicable. Reading someone else’s private diary. No wonder I hate you.’

That got to him. He sank on to the arm of the chair. ‘Hate me then. I shouldn’t have read it, I know that. But when I saw it lying there I thought maybe inside I’d find the key that might get me through to you. I just wanted us at least to begin to respect each other again, Lissa. I didn’t know you hated me that much. I didn’t expect to find anything like this.’

‘I’ll never respect you again. I hate you.’ I was crying now. Didn’t want to but couldn’t help it. I didn’t see any way out of the nightmare he was creating for me.

‘Don’t say that, Lissa.’ Mum put her arm gently on my shoulder but I shrugged it off.

‘I’ll go with you to school tomorrow,’ J.B. said quietly.

‘To make sure I go?’ I snapped.

‘No. I want to support you.’

That almost made me laugh. ‘You! An ex-con. Oh yes, I really need your support.’

‘I’ll go anyway,’ he said.

‘But Jonny … your interview,’ Mum reminded him.

He looked up at her and managed a smile. He could always manage a smile at Mum. ‘I’ll go after. It’ll be all right.’

But it wasn’t all right. It was the most humiliating day of my life. To stand in the headmaster’s office and have to admit to him, my voice shaking, exactly what I’d done. Murdo was there too, and that made it a hundred times worse. His eyes were hard and cold as he stared at me. I tried not to look at him, but as a vampire in a ghost story his eyes pulled me towards them.

‘But why would you do such a terrible thing?’ he asked when I’d finished.

‘He was always horrible to me.’ It sounded stupid even as I said it. I wanted to get back at Ralph Aird, but that would have meant telling them about J.B.’s stupid job and Ralph’s dad in the same prison as he was and I just couldn’t say it. I wanted to cry, but I held the tears back and only said again, ‘He’s horrible.’

Murdo sighed. For once he didn’t fly into a rage or throw things or pull at his hair. He only said in a soft Highland lilt, ‘You weren’t in this alone.’

I glanced at J.B. I had already expected this question. So had he. And I had told him again and again that I wouldn’t bring Diane into it. That was the least I could do for her.

‘But why not?’ he had yelled at me. ‘She’s every bit as bad as you. She egged you on, I could tell that in the diary.’

But I wouldn’t tell on her. It was the one thing I could do that was right.

I swallowed and lied. ‘There was no one else involved.’

Murdo shook his head violently. ‘No. No. She was in it with you. Tell me, Lissa.’

But I wouldn’t budge. You don’t grass on your friends.


I was suspended from school for a week. That was bad enough, but worse was to come. As I was walking through the empty playground on my own (I refused to leave with J.B. and he had hurried on for his interview), Diane came rushing up to me. Her lips were white with anger.

‘Where have you been?’ she demanded. But she knew. The news had travelled through the school like an inferno. ‘If you’ve been telling on me, I’ll say you lied. I’ll never forgive you.’