Read Tabitha for Free Online Page A

‘That’s the only way I can see it.’ He
sighed, frustrated. Lindsey said nothing. God, she hated the smell of his
coffee breath. He slurped it too. Every single time. Just one of her pet hates
about him, on a list that had grown and grown. She didn’t like that t-shirt on
him either. Lindsey checked her phone then crossed her arms again with an angry
sigh, looking out of the window at the world. Wishing she was out there in it
somewhere, minus Alex. She used to love his impulsiveness; his ups and downs
and his surfer-blonde hair. He was still hot, but somehow she couldn’t stand
anything about him any more . His brother couldn’t
come fast enough to meet up with him as far as she was concerned. Then she
might even be able to leave them to it, and go talk to Mike in peace. She
checked her hair in her phone camera. Outside the cafe window, people on the
street stopped and stared into the sky, raising their phones to take pictures.
The bright summer sky had filled with shooting stars, strangely slow and
graceful. Heavenly papercuts in the blue. Lindsey and
Alex didn’t notice.
    ‘Look,
I’m sick of wondering about this,’ said Alex. Pausing, thinking. Chewing over
the words in his head. Running through the consequences if he was wrong. Best
to just come out and say it. He sighed. ‘…Is there someone else?’ Lindsey felt
a hot heavy rush at the question, like her blood had turned to molten lead. Her
stomach twisted. She couldn’t find the words. Just what was her thing with
Mike, anyway? Was he going to be ok with her moving in? Or was she just a toy
to him? She lost track of time in her silence. Trying to work out an answer.
Why not just tell him?
    ‘Lindsey.
Answer me,’ Alex demanded, fixing her with a stare.
    ‘Yeah,’
she blurted out. She hadn’t even thought this through.
    ‘Yeah
what?’ said Alex.
    ‘I’ve
met someone,’ she replied, looking down at the table. Alex laughed,
incredulous.
    ‘You’ve
been cheating on me?’ he said, smiling in disbelief. She’d never seen him
stare like this before. Intense. She couldn’t look him in the eye. She moved
her finger through spilled sugar on the table top; coarse grains that tumbled
under her touch.
    ‘Yes,’
she said quietly. Alex said nothing; he just stared. ‘I met him at the party,’
Lindsey added.
    ‘I
don’t want to know where you met him,’ Alex scoffed, sipping his coffee. ‘I
don’t care.’ Lindsey had expected a shouting match. Alex was good at those. But
this new indifference… she didn’t know how to react. By reflex she looked down
at her phone. Alex grabbed it out of her hands and smashed the screen against
the table corner. Lindsey jumped, watched him cautiously. People were staring.
    ‘How
about a real conversation?’ he suggested, smiling at her. ‘You know, where
you’re not looking at this fucking thing?’ Alex dropped the shattered phone
into Lindsey’s drink and sat back, savouring the look on her face. She stared
at the corpse of her phone.
    ‘Look
at me,’ he said quietly. Lindsey hesitated, opened her mouth to speak. This was
a new side to him.
    ‘I
think…’ Lindsey began. ‘I think –
    ‘No,
you don’t,’ Alex cut in, grinning. ‘You just spread your legs.’ He sipped his
coffee. The lights went out, and the music stopped. Alex didn’t even get to see
the look on her face, it was so dark in here suddenly. There was a car crash
outside the window, a shrill sudden bang. Screeching brakes. More cars smashed
together behind it, all the way up the street.
    ‘What
the hell?’ Alex mumbled. Lindsey’s mind strayed from what she was about to yell
at him; there was suddenly a lot of shouting and screaming outside. People got
up from their tables and wandered outside. Lindsey and Alex watched by the
window. A couple of women on the street were helping an old man from his car;
blood ran from his forehead. Pale with shock, he stared wide-eyed as they sat
him down on the kerb. The cups and cafe windows