Read Perfectly Reflected for Free Online Page B

let go, but some, if not actually leaping away from each other, looked vaguely embarrassed.
    Grace and Jack sauntered towards me. “Hi, Alex, had fun?” Jack asked, ruffling my hair, which made Grace shriek in horror. “You girls wait here for a minute and I’ll walk you to the car.” He wandered off in the direction of the Gents. Grace and I started on the usual hunt for the bags and various bits and pieces we had distributed round the room during the evening. We ended up behind the bar, looking through a pile of jumpers that had been dumped in a corner.
    “What were you and the gorgeous Rob talking about earlier?” asked Grace, her eyes twinkling mischievously. “Are you guys friends again now?”
    “You must be kidding; he’s such a loser. I can’t believe he’streating Ashley so badly. And anyway, after what he did, trying to come between us over Jack and letting people think I was suicidal because of him, I don’t want to be anywhere near the creep!”
    “He couldn’t tempt you away from Callum then?”
    “Absolutely not! Callum is a decent guy with morals, unlike slimeball Rob Underwood.”
    “It’s such a shame Callum’s not here. I’d really like to meet him.”
    “Callum, eh? I’d like to meet him too.” The unexpected voice made us both jump. Rob was standing in the doorway, looking very smug. “Secret boyfriend, is he?”
    “He’s hardly a secret, just none of your business,” I retorted. “We were actually having a private conversation, if you don’t mind.”
    “It wasn’t that private. I was just standing here, keeping myself to myself. You mentioned Callum!”
    “But not to you.” I turned my back on him. “Grace, have you got everything? I can see Jack waiting for us,” I added pointedly.
    Rob whipped around to look for Jack, clearly still nervous about what he might do. Grace and I exchanged a conspiratorial glance. “Oh, good,” said Grace, winking at me. “I think he wanted a word with you, Rob.”
    “Yeah, well, some other time. Got to go now,” he mumbled, heading off quickly in the other direction. I hoped he could hear us laughing.
     
    It took a while to get home as Grace drove very slowly, anxious not to make any mistakes. She pulled up outside my house but couldn’t park in her usual spot; an unfamiliar car was already there, and we could see someone sitting inside it.
    “Hmm, I’ll watch until you’re in the house, I think. Shamewe didn’t bring Jack with us,” she said, peering over her steering wheel at the back of the stranger’s head.
    “I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thanks for waiting.” I gave her a swift hug, then got out of the car, calling back to her. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Night.”
    “Goodni—” She broke off suddenly. “I don’t believe it! It’s Geeky Graham!”
    I spun around and looked at the figure getting out of the car parked just in front of us. It was a boy who had been in the same class as Jack and the others at school, but who had left a year before to go to the local sixth-form college. He was known as Geeky Graham as he only seemed able to relate to a computer screen. He had spent his entire childhood, as far as any of us knew, plugged into the Internet, hacking into other people’s networks, playing online war games and never getting involved with anything in the real world. A year or so back, and much to my surprise, he had plucked up the courage to ask me out. I had turned him down as gently as I knew how, but he had got pretty upset about it. Shortly after that there had been a scandal at the boys’ school when he had hacked into their systems and been discovered after a random audit with the entire set of forthcoming exam papers in his account. He had been promptly expelled. I’d been really relieved when he had left and there was no chance of bumping into him any more.
    He had gained a brief notoriety as a result of the expulsion, as most of us thought it was over the top, but he had few actual