Everything We Keep, Di Walker [best pdf reader for ebooks txt] 📗

to live here, Tully,’ Agatha continued. ‘But I don’t want to leave them either. I don’t know how to fix it, to fix them.’

‘I don’t know what to say, Agatha, really I don’t. Just, that . . . this doesn’t change anything for me. We’re still friends. Always.’

Agatha realised that for the entire trip, it was like she had been waiting for this moment, holding her breath for this moment.

‘So, we can still be friends?’ she asked Tully nervously.

Tully smiled. ‘Of course! Being friends with you Agatha is easy.’

Agatha nodded. She turned to her bedroom door and closed it. Without another word, the two made their way, sideways, along the hall to the front door. Once outside, Agatha pulled it gently closed, listening for the lock to click.

‘A bus and two trains,’ Tully said, having a sip of water from the drink bottle she had been carrying in her backpack, then sprinkling some over her hands.

‘Yeah. We can call Katherine from the train, so she knows we’re okay.’

Tully nodded. As they walked to the front gate to head back along Pendula Place, Tully looked over at the house across the street. The woman was still in the window watching. Seeing the two girls leave she put her hand to her chest, looked up and the sky and said something Tully couldn’t make out.

Tully shrugged.

As they walked along Pendula Place, Tully could hear her phone buzz in her backpack. She pulled it out and stopped dead in her tracks. Agatha was a couple of steps ahead before she realised.

‘What’s wrong?’

Tully’s face had gone white.

‘Tully? What’s wrong?’

‘There’s like a hundred missed calls from my mum and a text from Morgan,’ said Tully, looking up from her phone. ‘We’ve been caught. My mum knows we’re here.’

32

Agatha and Tully sat silently on the train station platform, waiting for the next city bound train.

They had run from Pendula place all the way to the bus stop and, hot and flustered, waited impatiently for the next bus and after the many turns and stops, it finally made it to the station. They hadn’t said a word.

The station platform was like a hot wind tunnel. The day had heated up fast and Agatha took the last sip from her water bottle. ‘What’s she going to say?’ she asked Tully.

Tully shook her head, ‘I don’t know. All Morgan’s text said is that she knows and she’s mad.’

The train arrived, and the pair found seats away from the other passengers. ‘Blame me for everything,’ Agatha suggested. ‘Tell her I made you do it. She already thinks I’m no good, so she’ll believe you.’

‘But you didn’t make me. I wanted to go. I’m not doing that, Agatha. Friends don’t do that.’

‘Yes, they do. You and Cora and Morgan cover for each other all the time.’

‘Yeah, but we don’t let one take all the blame. We wouldn’t be friends if we did that.’

Tully passed her the phone. ‘You better call Katherine and let her know. She’s going to be at the station and so is my mum.’

Agatha’s eyes widened. She hadn’t thought about Katherine. It hadn’t occurred to her that Tully’s mum would be angry at Katherine too. Reluctantly she dialled the number. When Katherine answered Agatha explained what had happened and where they were. When they finished the conversation, she handed the phone back to Tully. ‘She wants me to text her the time we leave Flinders Street. She says not to worry about your mum.’

Tully chuckled. ‘Katherine doesn’t know my mum.’

The swaying of the train carriage and the sound of the metal wheels railing against the metal tracks overtook Agatha’s mind. She picked up her backpack and opened it. Taking out a muesli bar Katherine had packed for her, she opened it, took a small bite and put the bar back in, keeping the wrapper in her hand. She dropped the backpack between her feet and looked at the wrapper.

Its edges had been dented from being tossed around, and it there were a few sesame seeds stuck to the inside. Agatha noticed that the writing wasn’t quite aligned with the sealed edge, as her fingers began to smooth out the corners and work meticulously along.

She became so absorbed in what she was doing that she didn’t notice Tully watching every movement.

‘Next stop Flinders Street,’ a voice said over the crackly speaker. Agatha put the wrapper in the front pocket of her backpack.

It was a slow walk from one platform to the next. Both seemed to have realised that their initial hurry to get home wasn’t going to lessen what was waiting for them. ‘Just our luck,’ said Tully, looking at the departure screen hanging over the platform. ‘The next train is express, only three stops and then it’s our station.’ She didn’t sound like it was lucky at all.

When the boarded the final train, Tully sent a text to Katherine with the time they would be arriving, and Agatha resumed working on the wrapper she had saved. ‘What are you going to say?’ she asked Tully, without looking up from the wrapper.

‘I’m going to say the truth. That we decided to go to your place, so you could get a few things. Simple.’

‘What about . . . ?’

‘What do you want me to say?’ Tully looked at her friend.

‘The truth, Tully. She’s going to find out eventually.’

Tully nodded. ‘With my mum, the more you try and hide it the worse it gets. She hates lying more than anything else. Boy, I’m in big trouble this time. She’s going to ground me for the rest of the year.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘She won’t let me out of my room, except for school, and sport and family things and stuff.’

Agatha’s fingers had not stopped working on the wrapper. It was now completely smooth. ‘Better being grounded in your bedroom than mine.’

‘Whatever happens, Agatha, I mean with my mum, it was worth it, you know, today. I’m glad we did it.’ Tully smiled at Agatha, gently bumping her shoulder into hers.

When