Chapter 46

• She had made it out of the house and was disgruntled to find that even beyond those four constricting walls, she didn’t breathe that much easier outside of them. The slow, steady approach of the night had made it so there were no beams of sunlight filtering through fragile tree branches, no errant breeze disrupting neatly raked piles of leaves, sending them into flight like a murmuration of starlings. Everything, apart from dogs barking in the distance, was quiet and still but Roxanne’s legs felt restless, full of fire that she didn’t know how to snuff out.
• She dawdled down the street, knowing full well that grandfather would be distracted by maintaining his social airs before the time she returned, praying that by the time that came around, they could painlessly leave.
• She wandered a few blocks down the street, far enough away from Mrs. Hannigan’s home that she didn’t stop to think, or even check whether someone else might’ve seen her, following her. It wasn’t until she had sat herself down on the edge of the sidewalk in front of a bright yellow house with pale yellow skirtings that she saw Heather’s silhouette. She lazily followed in Roxanne’s footsteps, a fair few paces behind. She was putting one foot in front of the other, toe to heel, swaying a little as she tried to walk straight down an imaginary line. The adolescence of it all was counteracted by the unlit cigarette dangling out of the corner of her mouth as if only the moisture of her lips seeping through the paper was keeping the cigarette steady.