Twenty Four

'What the hell happened to you?' I asked.

'It's nothing-' began Lisa.

I turned on the light. 'A great big red nothing.'

Lisa didn't fob me any further; raising her hands and then jigging her shoulders making a gesture of complete loss.

I shuddered when a single tear rippled down her cheek. I wanted to rush over and wrap in my arms, and not just 'cause it would feel good. But something stopped me. Maybe it was the emotional overload of having two girls cry in my presence in one day. Maybe it was confusion of how much Lisa's distress was disturbing my emotions. Maybe I was just a jerk.

The moment trickled away like her tear. She perched herself on the nearest sofa cushion. 'I shouldn't have come here... Mike's your friend.'

Alarm bells clanged in my mind - and not the Hermione kind. 'Mike did that to you?'

Twenty Five