Running Shoes (The Shades of Northwood) (2 page)

“I’m moving on
my own actually.”

“All the more
reason not to take your money then. I never rang it up.” She leaned
in as though she were sharing a great secret. “No-one will ever
know.”

Katie dug in
her wallet and pressed a handful of loose change into the woman’s
hand. “Give it to charity then. I’d just go away feeling as though
I had a debt to pay.” Katie moved to a seat and put her tray down
while she tried to work the zips on the jacket pockets. Dan had
gunked them up with God-knows-what again. “Little sisters. Glitter
glue.”

“So I see. My
own younger sister used to steal my clothes. Of course, they were
my big sisters before mine.”

“Yeah, we
learned about hand me down culture in history. But it turned out
some nice people like you.”

“I’m glad you
think so. Well, my kitty won’t wait forever for his dinner so I’ll
be off. I treated him to fresh salmon tonight.” She shrugged her
handbag into the bend of her elbow and tottered off towards the
gate. And then she was gone.

Katie sat and
swirled her straw around the clear plastic cup, picking at her
crisps, and thinking about what the old lady had said to her a few
minutes ago. What actually
was
she doing leaving home at 16?
Apart from a week long family holiday every couple of years and
some school trips, she had never really left the city. And now she
was going to try to make it alone in some town she’d never heard of
before. No, this was not the time to get nostalgic and needy. Katie
had been looking forward to this change for months and she was
going to make the most of it. Of course there were going to be
times when she felt homesick… but she would get over that. Just
like she would soon forget this night. Her last night at home.

“Don’t you
start crying. I’m no good with crying girls.”

“Huh? I’m not
crying.” Katie looked up to see a boy – well, maybe a young man, it
was hard to tell in the deepening dark. “Who are you?”

“You’re about
to cry. I know the signs.”

The newcomer
had bright green eyes – Katie could tell that because the moonlight
bounced off them and made them shine – so big and round she might
have played marbles with them. He sat down before she could see
what he was wearing but there was a creak when he moved like
leather that hadn’t been fully broken in. A cowboy had dangled from
a string over his wrist and he rested his hat on the table and
folded his arms on top. “Now you’re starin’ at me. I think I’m
uncomfortable with this too.”

“I’m not
staring. At least, I don’t mean to be.” The boy just came up and
spoke to her without ever seeing her before so Katie reasoned she
had good reason to stare. She told him as much.

“I just saw you
here and I felt like I wanted to talk to you. Boys get lonely
too.”

“I know.” Boy,
did she. “You know it’s junkie central round the corner?”

“I can handle
myself but you’re just a kid. Why are you here?”

“I’m saying
nothing until you tell me who you are and why you’re talking to
me.”

The reasons for
talking to this girl were many, so many he couldn’t think of
one.

“Let’s keep our
secrets secret, okay?” Katie glanced at the boy and nearly swore.
It was the eyes. They begged her to look deep into them and tell
him everything she refused to admit to even herself. She swung her
arms into her jacket, picked her chocolate off the tray and
wandered away from the table, leaving her rubbish on the table. A
few yards away, she risked a peek back to see if the boy had gotten
bored and disappeared but no such luck. He was watching her walk
away and making no move to empty her tray into the nearest bin.
Maybe she shouldn’t have left it – littering was a bit of a pet
hate – but she wanted to see what he would do. Katie faced forward
to step over a flower bed and when she turned back, the table was
empty and he was standing by the bin. Then he started moving slowly
towards her. It almost looked as though he was gliding but she
could hear, if not see, every footstep. So she started walking
forwards. The footsteps kept coming. Walk a bit faster. The steps
sped up just a fraction… then a fraction more. Katie turned and
started walking backwards, looking behind her every few steps to
make sure there was nothing to fall over but never taking more than
one eye off he person following her. She didn’t like the way he was
chasing after her – matching her step for step, copying every
minute turn and waver in direction. It was almost as though he were
tailgating her. The thought made her turn around again, walk faster
and faster, stopping every so often just to see if he would, and
then break into a run. She was a good runner and had run cross
country for the city but this required sprinting which she was no
better at than the average person. Her legs got in a muddle as she
heaved herself to the top of the hill overlooking the city below
and she fell to the ground hard.

“Bollocks.”
Katie yelped when she tried to move her legs back into a rising
position. She was propped up on her elbows and breathing hard –
more panicked than breathless. The man was still coming towards her
but slowly now. Evidently, having a girl lying helpless in a
deserted park was not exciting enough to hurry himself but he still
seemed determined to get to her. Katie even tried to use her arms
to scramble away from him. Not that that got her far.

He seemed to be
enjoying watching her struggle. Then he was standing right in front
of her so Katie did the only thing she could thing of. She laughed
in his face.

Screaming would
do no good because there was no-one close enough to hear – not
counting the ducks on the lake. Why she laughed – no idea. It just
seemed like the only thing she wanted to do. And suddenly, the
green-eyed boy was crumpled on the grass beside her giggling like a
loon.

“Why are we
laughing?” he managed to get out between fits of laughter. Which
only made Katie laugh harder. Maybe it was because she had no
answer to his question. Fear and shrieking was the appropriate
thing to do but right now, she didn’t feel frightened or even
alarmed. She felt like she was giggling over something stupid with
a boy she met in the park. She took several deep breaths to stop
laughing – the longer she giggled, the harder it would be to stop
any time soon. Plus, she was getting a painful stitch. At least she
was not on the verge of tears any more. Well she was but these felt
like happy tears.

The boy glanced
over at the lake and, all in a moment, his laughter dried up. "Why
did you run?”

Katie shrugged.
The reasoning she’d held when he started following her seemed all a
bit too far away. “Habit.”

“Sensible habit
to have”

“When there’s a
strange guy following you, you run.”

“I heard you
talking to that woman. Why are you leaving?”

“You ask a lot
of questions for some-one who hasn’t even told me his name.”

“Jack. Why are
you leaving?”

“Don’t do well
with small talk either, do you?” Katie stretched her legs out and
worked her ankle. It was not painful as such. Just a bit sore.
Maybe a bruise would start coming out in the morning. “So many
reasons. I was –“ a tiny voice in the back of her mind reminded her
that spilling everything to Jack was a bad idea but she decided to
just talk over it. She wanted to tell him why she was leaving.
After all, there was no-one else she could, or wanted to, tell. But
only the stuff she wanted him to know. Some stuff Katie wasn’t
ready to say out loud yet. “I was offered a place at some academy
because some bloke saw me run. So I’m moving to this town I’ve
never heard of with a group of students at the college.”

“You seem quite
calm about it.”

“I’m happy.
It’ll give me freedom and I really need to get out of this place.
But I’m scared.” Leaving her family behind was a massive step. It
had to happen sooner or later though. “I want to go. I really do
and I’m really looking forward to going away and being a grown
woman instead of somebody’s kid. A few months ago when I decided to
go, there was an age of summer to get ready and then it came on all
of a sudden.”

“Won’t they
keep your place for a few weeks until you’ve had more time to
prepare? Return library books and say goodbye to your friends.”

“I don’t have
friends. I hang out with people from school but I can’t say I’ll
miss any of them when I go.” Katie got up and bounced on the balls
of her feet, mentally plotting a circuit around the open areas of
the park which would bring her back to the gates. “I’m going to
walk this off before my ankle seizes up.” She limped down the mound
towards the lake and was walking normally by the time she reached
the waters edge. She was suddenly aware of jack walking a few steps
behind her. The shadow on the ground showed only Katie’s stretching
off behind but as Jack was behind her too, she couldn’t see his
without looking back. And that would have informed him that she
wanted him to follow.

“You’ve got me.
I’ll be your friend.”

Katie stopped
and let him catch up to her. “You just met me.” Those eyes though…
there was honesty in them and Katie found herself believing him.
“And that means I’ll have to say goodbye to you.”

“Is that so
bad? There’ll be at least one person who’ll miss you. It’s one more
than you had before.” Jack shrugged.

“Tomorrow
morning, my dad takes me to my new house and then I’m on my own. My
own cooking and cleaning and paying all my own bills. My parents
will help me out until I’m eighteen and then I guess I’ll try and
get a job. I’m trying to think of it as an adventure but it’s a
damn scary one.”

“I know. When
people have taken care of you all your life and then
bam
,
you’ve only got yourself to rely on. But I know you’ll do fine out
there.”

And she
believed that too.

“You ran from
me – even when you hurt your ankle. You barely spoke to me until
you knew my name. Engaging somebody in conversation, knowing their
identity, trying to distract them by being beautiful.” Katie raised
her hand to her bumpy hairstyle and ran her fingers through the
ends. “Yes, even though. It’s clever, minimises the risk of an
attack.”

“It’s getting
late. I should go home.”

“Where’s
home?”

Katie jerked
her thumb towards her house. “Just over the road. As long as I’m
back soon, we can still hang out.”

They carried on
walking for a few more minutes, watching the sky get darker and
darker. Although Jack was closer to the lake than she was, Katie
could almost feel him watching her. It made her want to say
something just to fill up the silence. Having no more she wanted to
say posed a problem. Stopping for s second and turning her head,
Katie found herself looking straight into huge green eyes than
nearly swallowed her up. She suddenly felt a flush rise up on her
face and she felt quite warm even though the night had cooled her
to the point of being chilled. It was horribly embarrassing to be
caught staring at someone with no words or reason for gawping. But
wait – hadn’t Jack been doing the same thing?

“This is… yeah,
I’m humiliated.”

“Don’t feel
bad, Katie.” Jack started walking again. Katie started watching his
cowboy hat swing from his arm. Then her eyes dipped to his gorgeous
backside. “Snap out of it, girl. You’re never gonna see him again.”
She slapped herself lightly and then jogged up beside him.

The tiniest
grin crept onto his face. “Stare away. I’m going to.”

“You’re not
some weird stalker type are you?”

“I’m only here
for the night and you’re leaving tomorrow. You might never see me
again so let’s just have a nice, friendly walk.”

“A midnight
stroll with a stranger. What could be safer?” Only she did feel
safe. They had reached the gates – had they circled the park
already? “This is my stop.”

“I’d like to
walk you home.”

“It’s not far.”
Nothing would happen to her tonight, or nothing that she really
feared. Besides, when Jack took her hand with a grip so air-light
he was barely touching her, she knew he was taking her home and
that he would even chase the shadows away if they scared her.

“I insist.”

CHAPTER
TWO

Although Katie
had been so bone tired a few hours ago that she could have easily
fallen asleep standing up, it was impossible to sleep. The walk in
the fresh are must have woken her up a little – cleared the
cobwebs, Mom liked to say. Her parents had gone to bed a few
minutes ago, she could hear her fathers cleaning his teeth, and Dan
had been in bed for over an hour when she got home. After another
minute, faint light from the bathroom blinked out, footsteps
clunked across and a door clicked shut. And everything was
silent.

Nervous energy
buzzed around inside of Katie like a tiny pinball of electricity.
It was probably excitement about the move in the morning. The light
up dial on her watch – even the digital clock had found its’ way
into a box – told her it was just a couple of minutes shy of
midnight. She had not gotten home until ten and the obligatory
round of tears and ‘are you sure you’ll be okay?’s had put her
appointment with bed back another hour.

The bed she
slept in was wrenched away from the wall so her skeletal-looking
furniture could be stacked against it. Somehow though, maybe it was
being in the middle of the room, maybe it was because the dolphin
duvet cover and seascape sheets had been stripped off, but it
didn’t feel comfortable any more. It didn’t feel like
hers
.
And an uncomfortable bed seemed to mean that sleep was not going to
visit its occupant tonight. No problem. Mom had packed away the
last of her clothes while she was out, everything she owned and
wanted to keep was ready to. Now she could let herself get excited
about her new life. There would be a host of new challenges at the
academy – new courses to study, friends to make. Everything would
change and the only people she wanted to talk to wouldn’t be
there.