Blue

Toby?

Silence

Tobs?

Mhmm.

Suddenly I felt guilty.

Were you asleep?

Of course he’d been asleep- it was 2.30 in the morning and I was lying in bed staring at the ceiling, watching the shadows grow and stretch into horribly distorted shapes. The only sound was the occasional whoosh as a car drove by outside, its headlights sending the shadowy shapes dancing and flickering across the awful textured paper that covered my ceiling.

Sorry.

’Sokay Annie. I’m awake now anyway. What’s on your mind- other than me?

Very funny.

It’s only the truth.

Whatever.

So you gonna tell me why you woke me up at 2 in the morning?

I paused.

Aren’t you scared?

Erm... Not at the moment. Should I be? What are you going to do to me?

You know what I mean.

Annie, it’s not our war.

That won’t stop them. Bitterness crept over me.

We’re still here aren’t we?

That’s just pure luck Tobs, and you know it.

I shivered as a gust of wind blew across my room.

Anna, I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.

I don’t need you protecting me Toby, I grumbled getting out of bed to close my open window.

If you say so.

I don’t! I snapped the window shut defensively.

Fine then. I just meant we need to stick together, look out for each other and all that.

I leant against the cool blue wall beside the window and crossed my arms smirking.
That’s just your way of saying you need me to protect you.

You’re so hard-headed sometimes, you know that?

I stared evenly into the cobalt eyes of the boy who had just appeared on my bed in front of me.

I wish you would stop doing that.

It was an accident.

Sure it was.

I padded across my carpet and clambered back into my bed, pulled the covers up around my chin and scowled at the figure sat by my feet.

It’s not my fault. You shouldn’t have got me annoyed.

I snorted, indignant.

You can go now.

Toby just shook his head.

I shoved him with my foot, which only made him go and sit in the chair in the corner of my room. We glared at each other as if we were eight again and having a ‘staring competition’, neither of us willing to give in.

I’m not leaving until you tell me what this is really about.

And you think I’m hard-headed.