Page 128 of Pure Recklessness

Debatable.

Whilst I’d benefitted from lots of personalised attention, now I realised I’d missed out on so much, including having more friends.

I didn’t know about the films, music or celebrities people my age talked about.

I’d missed out on the conversations about boys, school dances and excursions and going on girls’ holidays abroad.

All of the things that were normal to everyone were foreign to me.

Thanks to all the research I’d done since arriving at Sated and making friends with people like Dana and Joe, now I was much more familiar with the ‘outside world’ so to speak. But I still had a long way to go.

Thank goodness Joe had sent me that list of all the films I needed to watch and music to listen to.

‘Will you be coming back to the village soon?’ Dad asked. ‘You’ve been in London for months. You’ve had your fun. It’s time to come back home. I’m sure Jarvis would love to see you again.’

‘Such a shame you broke up,’ Mum added. ‘If you’re quick, maybe you can convince him to take you back.’

‘I don’t want to date Jarvis.’ Frustration bubbled in my chest. ‘And I just told you, I’ve been given a big project, so I’ll be here for a while.’

‘How long?’ Dad said.

‘It’s a good thing,’ I replied, ignoring his question. ‘I’m getting lots of experience.’

And not just the professional kind.

I couldn’t see myself ever returning to the village.

There was so much to see, discover and experience and I’d only just scratched the surface.

But baby steps. I needed to ease them into this transition.

As suffocating as they could be at times, I knew their hearts were in the right place. They’d done so much for me and had been through a lot.

Even though the tragedy happened almost two decades ago, it still weighed heavily on their hearts.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, pushing the painful memories away.

Just like I always did.

‘You’ll come and visit soon?’ Dad asked.

‘It’s going to be really busy getting this app off the ground.’

‘Maybe we could visit you?’ Mum suggested.

As if. There was no way Dad would be up for that.

‘In London?’ Dad gasped. ‘It’s far too dangerous. We might get mugged, beaten up, or worse!’

‘It’s really not so terrible,’ I said. ‘And bad things can happen everywhere.’

‘Not in our village,’ Dad said.

We all knew that wasn’t true, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to upset them.

‘I’d better get back to work.’ I couldn’t get into a discussion about how wonderful everything was in the village compared to the big, bad city.

‘Oh, yes, of course,’ Mum said. ‘Love you.’