Somehow, I made it out of Matthew’s office. But as soon as I was safely on the street, I collapsed into a huddle against the wall of the building, not sure whether I was going to pass out or throw up, my body reacting about as well as it had the time they made us do one of those beep test things in PE.
But I got over it, and quite a bit faster than I had the beep test, which had left me so emotionally and physically traumatised my mother had stormed into school and got it banned.
Shame she couldn’t do that to Steve, really. Although probably part of being a responsible grown-up and s**t meant you couldn’t get your mum to handle all your problems for you.
At any rate, I was starting to get funny looks. I was already way out of place in this part of London—probably I was the only person
