Read Megan 3 for Free Online Page A

time before Jack saw what was on offer and starting wailing for something.
    With three chocolate buttons placed along my tongue, I started back down the road. As I neared the flats, though, my feet began to drag. Everyone else in the world was looking forward to the weekend, but all the weekend meant to me was a trip into town to buythe biggest batch of disposable nappies for the smallest possible price.
    A red BMW was parked outside our flats. I might not have noticed it except that when I got closer I saw that the registration number was LET 2, and wondered vaguely whose it was and why it had that on it.
    I then noticed Mum was in the passenger seat.
    I stopped, pretending to examine one of the dusty bushes on the pavement. What was she doing? We didn’t have a car of our own and she always went to work by bus. Then I thought: LET 2 –
estate agents
! It had to be someone from work who’d given her a lift. Was this the man, then? Was this the mysterious George Simpson and his car?
    I climbed over the low wall that led into the flats and walked up towards the fire escape. Mum –
with a boyfriend
. I just couldn’t imagine it. But maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was just someone giving her a lift home from work.
    Half-hidden behind the fire escape stairs, I watched their heads in the car. His was moving around a lot, as if he was talking animatedly. Then I saw that he was laughing, and so was Mum. After a moment his head tipped sideways towards hers, as if he was resting his cheek on her head.
    I stared disbelievingly. It
wasn’t
just a lift home; I could see that even from a distance. As I watched, their heads moved towards each other: they were talking quietly and intimately. Closer … closer … my eyes nearly popped out of my head… don’t say they were going to kiss! I couldn’t believe it. Mum and snogging – the two words just didn’t go together. First Ellie, then her. Everyone in my family was snogging except me.
    I didn’t want to see any more. I nipped up the fire escape and into the flats, bursting in on Ellie and telling her what I’d seen.
    ‘I don’t believe it!’ she said, and we ran into the kitchen to see if we could glimpse any bit of the car out of the window. ‘Why doesn’t she bring him in? Why hasn’t she said anything to us about him?’
    ‘Dunno,’ I said. I shook my head wonderingly. ‘Is it serious, d’you think?’ I went back into our bedroom and grabbed Jack, who was quietly sorting out the contents of the wastepaper bin. I brought him into the kitchen and found him Josie’s toy duck to play with. Jack beamed at me, pleased. The duck was a treat – I usually tried to hide it because its quacking drove me mad.
    ‘Maybe it’s just a casual date,’ Ellie said.
    ‘Mum –
snogging
,’ I said. ‘She wouldn’t do that unless it was serious.’ I flicked the switch on the kettle again for a cuppa and looked round the kitchen. It
was
a mess, but if I let Jack keep the duck and if Mum could just stay outside in that car for about another twenty minutes, I reckoned I could fix it.
    She was half an hour, as it happened, and by this time the kitchen was reasonably clear, one load of washing was on and there were potatoes in their jackets ready to cook in the microwave.
    I thought I’d say straightaway that I’d seen her. ‘Nice car,’ I said.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘I saw you in that Beamer,’ I said casually. ‘Someone give you a lift home, did they?’
    ‘What d’you mean, you saw me? Have you been spying on me?’
    ‘Don’t get paranoid,’ I said. ‘I was just coming back from the shop and I saw you sitting in there. I wondered who you were with, that was all.’
    ‘None of your business,’ she said, but then after a moment added, ‘Well, I suppose I might as well tell you. It’s a friend of mine from work. His name’s George – George Simpson.’
    ‘Oh,’ I said. Ha! I thought. It
was
him. ‘Is he nice, then?’
    ‘Very nice indeed,’ she said