Deep Wate - Sarah Epstein Page 0,70

moment to stroll up to their picnic rug.

Chloe folded her arms. ‘How many times are you going to do this?’

‘Do what, exactly?’

‘Lose control,’ she said. ‘Get violent.’

Mason glanced towards the beer garden where the damaged picket fence still lay on its side. ‘My mother—’

‘I’m not even talking about that!’ Chloe cried. ‘What about what happened at the reservoir?’

Here we go. Mason knew it would come up sometime.

‘Hey,’ Raf said, hanging back. ‘Come on guys …’

‘Do you even regret it?’ Chloe went on, as though Raf hadn’t spoken. ‘Because it doesn’t seem like you lost any sleep over it.’

God, he hated this. Her superiority was so grating.

‘Why don’t you tell me how you think I should feel,’ he said.

‘Okay then.’ Chloe sized him up. ‘You should feel sorry for what you did to Henry. You should feel awful.’

Mason shook his head at the ground. He felt awful all the time anyway, so it was hard to know where his old awful ended and his new awful began. Chloe could rest assured there was no chance he might have accidentally ever felt good about himself.

‘Back off, Chloe.’

Everybody turned at these words, surprised, as Rina stepped forwards, squaring her shoulders and staring Chloe down.

For a moment Chloe didn’t say anything. Then, ‘What?’

‘Everybody makes mistakes,’ Rina said. ‘You don’t need to keep having a go at Mason about what happened.’

Even in the dim light, the colour spreading across Chloe’s skin was immediate and obvious. ‘You weren’t there, Rina. You didn’t see what happened.’

‘Mason explained what happened,’ Rina said. ‘He had a brain snap and he’s sorry for what he did.’

Chloe’s gaze shifted to Mason. ‘I haven’t heard the word sorry come out of his mouth at all.’

‘Jesus,’ Rina snapped. ‘Let it go and move on!’ She looked beautiful and fierce, and Mason was both flattered and crushed by her loyalty. He knew he wasn’t worthy of it.

‘Chloe’s just watching out for Henry,’ Raf said to Rina in a placating tone. He was probably trying to defuse the situation, but Mason felt stung. Battlelines had been drawn and Raf was on the other team.

Mason glanced again at Tom, who was still hanging back.

‘Stop ruining our night,’ Rina said.

‘I’m not ruining anything,’ Chloe replied. ‘I wasn’t the one shoving Darren Foster around and almost getting into a brawl.’

‘He had his hands on my mother.’

‘What? So you lose control again?’ Chloe said. ‘Is there anything that doesn’t set you off?’

‘Guys!’ Sabeen said. ‘Please.’

Suddenly, the sky above them lit up with a glittering sphere, followed half a second later by a loud hollow boom. It vibrated through Mason’s chest and for a moment everything paused. Then the night came alive with brilliant explosions of colour. Mason stared at his friends’ upturned faces, long shadows dancing across their features as fireworks arced and shimmered across the sky.

He turned and walked away. Tom hurried towards him, reaching a hand out. His fingers brushed Mason’s arm as he strode past, but Mason didn’t stop. When he was clear of the park, he slid the hipflask from his pocket and unscrewed the lid, tipping it into his mouth, swallow after swallow, until he’d drained the lot.

‘Happy New Year,’ he muttered to no one.

Now

It’s weird being in Sydney more than a week before I’m due to come back. And even weirder having Raf here with me – a piece of my Shallows life in my other world. I always think of my two lives and homes as separate entities because they’re so different. In Sydney my mother works long hours and is often out with her work colleagues, while my own social life consists of a quiet trio of girls from school who took pity on me when I was new and let me hang around them on the periphery. We rarely do anything together outside of school, and I spend most weekends alone in my bedroom. My urban life has a transient vibe, as though I exist simply to move myself from one required activity to the next.

It’s also weird because my mother’s workplace is only a few blocks away, and even though it’s Saturday, it feels like I could bump into her at any second. Technically I’m not breaking any of her rules; I’m allowed to be here, although things would get tricky if she found out that Dad has no idea I’m here. He thinks Raf is taking me to the Bradman Cricket Museum in Bowral.

‘Why did you say we’re going there?’ Raf asked me on the train when I