ASBO: A Novel of Extreme Terror(26)

The boy nodded. “Thanks. I was probably to blame anyway. I was running across the road without looking.”

Andrew smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “Well, whoever’s to blame it was just an accident. You’re going to be okay and that’s the main thing. I’m happy to give you a ride home when you’re ready, pal?”

“No, no, that’s okay. I’ll make it home on my own.”

“Don’t be silly,” said Andrew. “I hit you five miles from here. I’m not letting you make your own way home with a concussion.”

“But-”

“No arguments. I’ll go talk to the nurses now and see if we can break you out of here. Then we can go get a McDonalds on the way home or something.”

The boy smiled, but then it dissolved into a frown. “They said I’m not allowed to eat for twenty-four hours.”

Andrew winked at the boy. “Who’s going to know?”

“Okay,” said Davie. “Thanks.”

“Sure thing. Where am I driving you to, anyway?”

The boy hesitated before he answered. “T-Tanner’s Avenue. You know it?”

Andrew raised an eyebrow. “Tanner’s Avenue? Great…I know the place well, actually. I’ll be waiting outside for you, okay?”

Andrew left Davie alone and exited the ward, wondering the whole way whether or not coincidences really existed.





Chapter Nine


Davie was almost certain that the man waiting for him outside the ward was the very same guy who had been on his doorstep earlier arguing with Frankie. While not one-hundred percent positive, Davie recognised the man’s neat brown hair and spindly posture.

Davie pulled on his jeans behind the plastic wraparound curtain of his cubicle. Every time he peeked through the gap in the sheet, he could see the man peering in at him through the long window of the ward.

Waiting to batter me to death and finish what he started when he ran me down with his car.

Davie didn’t believe that, though. The man – Andrew was it? – didn’t seem to mean him any harm. In fact it didn’t seem that the man even knew who Davie was – or who his brother happened to be. Davie thought about the word coincidence and decided that it was the correct one for the situation. Still, what would happen when the man dropped him off at the same house he’d been at earlier?

He’ll know I’m Frankie’s brother for sure, then.

There was no chance of the man letting Davie make his own way home – he felt too responsible – so the best plan would be to have him stop at the end of Tanner’s avenue and drop him off there. Davie could pretend to walk to another house then go home when the coast was clear.

Davie pushed his feet into his worn trainers and suddenly felt dizzy. He fell back onto the bed and closed his eyes until the feeling passed. The bump on his head throbbed rhythmically and each time it did Davie felt a little more nauseated. The thought of telling his mother or Frankie that he’d been in an accident made him feel even more ill.

Frankie will go mad if I tell him I got run over. Especially if I tell him who’s responsible.

After a few moments of remaining still, the sickness went away. Davie pulled aside the privacy curtain and stepped away from the bed. The man was still waiting outside and gave a little wave through the window as Davie approached. There was a young woman in a nurse’s uniform standing there, too.

Davie pushed through the ward’s double doors and the nurse held something out to him – a small plastic container.

“Take these pills every morning,” she said, “and at lunchtime. They should help with the headaches. You need absolute rest so get yourself in bed, sweetheart, and don’t leave for anything, you hear? You have someone to look after you?”

Davie lied. “Yeah, my mum.”

“Let’s get you home, then,” said the man, wrapping an arm around Davie’s shoulders and ushering him away. It made Davie uncomfortable to be touched by an adult, but he did not resist.

“You really don’t have to take me, Mr…”

“I do,” he said firmly, “and you can call me Andrew. You’re my responsibility until I get you home. Still fancy that McDonalds?”

Davie thought about the recurring sickness that constantly rose in his tummy and shook his head. “Thanks all the same, but I think it will just make me feel worse. I just want to go home to bed.”