Jenna
Jenna
Jenna slips her coat from her shoulders, hangs it up on one of the pegs by the front door, eases her feet from her shoes.
Walking into the lounge, she calls Callum’s name, is met by silence. Glancing down at her watch, she sees it is almost a quarter past seven. Awakening the screen of her phone, she types out a message, asks him where he is, whether he will be home for dinner.
In less than a minute, her phone pings with a reply.
Stayed in the library til 7. Heading home now, but just missed a bus and there’s not another one for 12 minutes. See you in a bit. X
She allows herself a moment of relief that he is at the library, being diligent. Since her phone call with Mr Marlowe four days ago, she has been hyper-vigilant about Callum’s behaviour, his attitude, any references he makes to school. All he needs to do is keep his head down, work hard, and hopefully the stigma surrounding him at Collingswood will eventually subside.
Heading into the kitchen and opening the freezer to find something for dinner from her stack of batch-cooked meals, she chooses a chilli con carne – one of Callum’s favourites – and is about to defrost it in the microwave when the doorbell rings.
As she answers the door, time seems to reverse and comes to a halt in a place Jenna had hoped never to revisit.
‘Alright, Mrs J. Callum around?’
Jenna stares at the young man standing on her doorstep, heart hammering in her chest. ‘What are you doing here?’
The young man grins. ‘That’s not a very nice greeting. Just wanna see Callum. He in?’
For a moment, Jenna is speechless. She has not seen Liam Walsh since the day he and Callum appeared together before the youth magistrates’ court, charged with aiding and abetting. She has not seen Liam since he was issued with a two-year youth rehabilitation order for being a passenger – alongside Callum – in the stolen car that Ryan Marsh had been driving when he killed a woman. She had hoped never to see him again.
‘You gonna ask me in? I could murder a cuppa.’ A corner of Liam’s mouth curls into a goading smile.
‘Callum doesn’t want you here and neither do I.’ Pulse racing, she moves to close the door, but Liam jams his foot against the frame, pushes against it.
‘That’s a bit rude. I just wanna see Callum. Can you get him for me?’
Jenna shakes her head. ‘Callum doesn’t want anything to do with you.’
Liam smirks, his open palm pushing at the door. ‘Really? That’s not the impression I got when I saw him a few weeks ago.’
For a moment, Jenna is speechless. ‘What are you talking about?’
He raises his eyebrows with faux-innocence. ‘Didn’t he tell you? Maybe he’s not such a mummy’s boy after all.’
Liam cocks his head provocatively, and it takes all Jenna’s self-control not to shove him hard, get him away from her flat. But he is tall, strong, his heavily tattooed biceps well defined beneath the sleeves of his t-shirt.
‘Just leave Callum alone. I mean it. I don’t want you anywhere near him.’ She had hoped her voice would sound threatening but she can hear the tremor in it.
Liam eyes her for a moment, unblinking. And then he laughs, shrugs. ‘No worries. I’ll catch up with him another time. I know that posh school he goes to.’
Jenna breathes deeply against the pounding beneath her ribcage. ‘Don’t you go near him. Do you hear me? I don’t want you anywhere near Callum’s school.’ Images spool through her mind in accelerated time: Liam turning up at Collingswood, causing trouble; Mr Marlowe intervening; the school being handed the excuse they need to expel Callum once and for all. Given the knife edge on which Callum’s standing at school already balances, she cannot allow it to happen. ‘I mean it. Stay away from my son.’
Liam’s eyes narrow at the edges, his smile flattening into a tight, menacing line. Fear prickles Jenna’s skin and for a few seconds she is scared – genuinely scared – about what he might do next.
But then he removes his hand suddenly from her front door and begins to swagger away, calling over his shoulder. ‘You look after yourself, Mrs J. And tell Callum I’ll catch up with him soon, yeah?’
Jenna slams the door closed, pulls the chain across, takes a step back as though, perhaps, Liam is about to burst through. Her hands are clammy and she wipes them on her trousers, tries to steady her breathing.
That’s not the impression I got when I saw him a few weeks ago. Liam’s taunt echoes in her ears and Jenna tries to tell herself that he was lying, that it cannot be true. Callum is too sensible – too aware of the opportunity he has been given at Collingswood – to jeopardise his future.
But even as she repeats the self-assurances, she cannot silence the other voice in her head, the one reminding her how withdrawn Callum has been of late, not just since Isla’s death but before that too. The break-up had knocked his confidence in ways Jenna hadn’t anticipated; reigniting his insecurities about Collingswood, about whether he really belonged, about whether he deserved to be there.
The question niggles at Jenna like a pestering child; if Callum was feeling vulnerable about his place at Collingswood, perhaps the obvious place he would seek refuge – the place to which he would retreat for familiarity and security, however perverse it may seem, given the trouble they got him into before – would be with his former school friends. With Liam Walsh.
She recalls Callum returning home the night of Isla’s death, the lie he told about the mark across his face – clearly not the result of walking into a door – and wonders what other untruths he may be telling. She recollects the self-satisfied smirk on Liam’s face, and the question appears as if by the flick of a switch: how does Liam know where they live if Callum hasn’t told him? They moved after Callum got the place at Collingswood. There is no reason Liam should know.
Leaning against the wall, Jenna closes her eyes, tries to regain some semblance of composure before Callum gets home. She will not tell him of Liam’s visit, of that much she is sure. If Liam is lying – if his appearance this evening was nothing more than false bravura – she would be playing into his hands by telling Callum.
But doubts continue to circle like vultures over a carcass: perhaps Liam is telling the truth. Perhaps Callum has been spending time with him again.
Jenna’s fists curl into tight balls. Because she knows there is only one place that a friendship with Liam might lead for Callum, and it is not a place she has any intention of allowing him to go.