The next day Hannah and I and my two other best friends from Dublin, Sophie and Ross, sat on the grass in a circle in St Stephen’s Green, enjoying the evening sunshine.
Hannah, Ross and I had been friends since primary school. And then in first year we’d tacked a poster to the noticeboard saying BAND MEMBERS WANTED. I sang and played guitar, Ross played lead and Hannah played saxophone, but we needed a drummer and a bassist. Ross had insisted on putting the poster up on the very first day of secondary school. ‘What’s the rush?’ I’d said.
‘Jacki, we can’t let any Travis Barkers or Cliff Burtons slip through our fingers.’ Funnily enough, ours was the only band notice up there. We’d held auditions in the auditorium at lunch.
After a half-hour of us sitting there, staring at the door, a short girl with a purple streak in her hair walked in. She was wearing black patent Doc Martens with her grey uniform, the sleeves of her jumper were rolled up and she was carrying two battered drumsticks.
‘Hey, I’m Sophie,’ she said.‘I hear you need a drummer?’
‘Yeah, but you’ll need to audition,’ said Ross, eyeing her suspiciously. She then played an awesome drum solo, and we offered her the position on the spot. It turned out she’d done a ‘Drum Skills for Beginners’ class when she was seven, then taught herself the rest. We’d all been friends ever since.
Electric had been fairly uneventful that day – Dillon and I had been split up and given different tasks. I’d stuffed lots of envelopes with invitations for the Electric Unsigned gig, and Dillon had helped with the album reviews. The sun had shone all day and the office, with its huge windows, was unbearably warm. I was happy to be outside now. While we chatted, Sophie laid back with the sun on her face, Hannah made a daisy chain and Ross checked out any girl who walked by in shorts. Luckily his and Hannah’s brief romance last year hadn’t affected their friendship – they sort of acted like it had never happened, which Sophie and I were happy to go along with.
The Green was packed. Some people sat by themselves, reading or relaxing; others sat in twos or lay side by side, their fingers intertwined, and the rest sat in groups like ours – pockets of people dotted across the grass. Kids ran past carrying ice pops, and tourists examined maps, trying to decide on their next stop. The super-prepared had packed sandwiches and picnic blankets; Ross let us sit on his jacket as the grass was still damp from yesterday’s rain. It was perfect, but I wished Nick could have been there. I really missed him and wanted to see him, especially now that everything was all right between us.
‘All I’m saying,’ said Ross, ‘is that you’d probably be the first to go.’ Sophie had made the mistake, on this fine evening, of posing the question, ‘Which one of us do you think would be most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse?’
‘I would not be the first to go,’ said Hannah, abandoning her daisy chain and dropping it on to her lap. ‘And why the hell does everyone think Ross would be the last one standing?’
‘He can run pretty fast,’ I said, batting away a wasp that was buzzing dangerously close to Ross’s head.
‘And he has the whole height thing going on,’ added Sophie. Ross is six feet tall, although at one point in primary school I actually towered above him. I like to remind him of that sometimes.
‘Right, who do you think would be the second last to die?’ asked Hannah.
‘Sophie,’ said Ross and I in unison.
‘She’s got the whole brain thing going on,’ I said. Sophie was always getting top marks in school. I was good at maths and pretty good at music too, but Sophie was good at everything.
‘Then Jacki,’ said Ross, ‘because you know there’s something tough beneath that cute exterior. Sorry, Hannah, but you just don’t have the street smarts.’ I didn’t mind them thinking I’d be third; the idea of wandering round the world with hardly anybody to share it with didn’t appeal to me much anyway.
‘I would too survive a zombie apocalypse!’ whined Hannah. Ross looked back at her blankly.
‘Say I’d survive a zombie apocalypse!’ she said sulkily. ‘SAY IT!’
‘I’m not gonna lie…’
‘Say iii-t,’ she said, adding in some fake crying for effect.
‘Fine,’ said Ross, in the most unconvincing tone ever. ‘You’d survive a zombie apocalypse.’
‘Why, thank you,’ said Hannah. ‘I’d have to agree.’
I could see him in the distance, walking alone in our direction. I sat up straighter and pushed my shades on top of my head. The others hadn’t seen him yet, but he’d spotted me, and he was smiling.
‘I’ve taken a stage-combat class, you know,’ said Hannah.
‘Yeah, that zombie won’t know what to do when you fake drop-kick him,’ said Ross with a snort.
‘I’m just sayin’,’ said Hannah.
‘Please, Hannah,’ said Ross. ‘Don’t fake karate-chop me, pleeeease.’ He and Sophie burst into giggles. They were still giggling when Dillon arrived at our side.
‘Hey,’ I said.
‘Oh, hey, Dillon,’ said Hannah, throwing Ross one final glare.
‘Hey, guys,’ he said, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with his white T-shirt, exposing his bare stomach for a second. I looked away quickly, realizing I’d been staring. I don’t think anyone had noticed.
‘What you up to?’ said Hannah.
‘I was just picking some stuff up for my mum. I’m heading home now.’
‘Wanna hang out for a while?’ said Ross.
‘Nah, I can’t, I told Mum I’d clean the car. I better go.’ I plucked at the grass, trying not to think about the fact that I would actually have quite liked him to stay. Honestly, I don’t know what was wrong with me. I must have been missing Nick too much.
‘See ya tomorrow, Jacki,’ Dillon said.
‘Yep.’ I looked up to see him smiling. ‘Tomorrow.’
I watched him walk away, across the grass and down the path, until he was out of sight.
‘Did you hear he kissed Maggie at her party the other night?’ said Sophie.
‘God, that girl thinks she’s it,’ said Hannah.
I knew Maggie, but not very well. She was pretty, but unbearably loud.
‘I heard they’re going out now,’ said Ross, grabbing Hannah’s daisy chain and wearing it on his head like a crown.
I frowned. I didn’t think Maggie was the kind of girl he’d go for, but he was single and perfectly entitled to kiss anybody he wanted to.
‘I heard he called it off,’ said Sophie.
‘Really?’ said Hannah, snatching the daisy chain back. ‘Who cares?’
‘So, what classes are you taking this term?’ I asked Sophie, eager to change the subject. Her dad is head of the extramural programme at a university, and Sophie has been sitting in on night classes since she was four.
‘Astronomy, divination and criminal psychology,’ she said.
‘Sophie,’ said Ross, ‘you do know that one of these days your brain is going to get so big that it will actually explode?’
‘Yes, because that’s clearly how knowledge works,’ said Hannah.
‘Don’t worry, Han,’ said Ross. ‘Absolutely no danger of explosion with you.’
Hannah gave him the finger. I laughed. It was good to be back.
‘We’re studying psychopaths at the minute,’ said Sophie. ‘Learning their traits and stuff.’
‘Cool,’ I said. ‘What are they?’
‘They show very little or no remorse, they have a fluctuating self-image, they often engage in self-mutilation, they experience fear of abandonment… that sort of thing.’
‘Sounds fascinating,’ I said. ‘Dark, but fascinating.’
‘Oh, and they have such confidence in their work, and such belief that they can’t do anything wrong, that it sometimes makes them reckless. It’s, like, their downfall.’
‘Are those night classes not just like school though?’ said Ross. ‘Except you don’t actually have to be there?’
‘Not really,’ said Sophie. ‘I love them. People just learning for the sake of it, with no end goal but to gain knowledge… it’s beautiful.’
‘No, that’s beautiful,’ said Ross, staring at a group of girls in sundresses strolling past.
‘We learned about tarot cards in divination last week,’ said Sophie. ‘That was just as interesting. I know you don’t believe in that sort of stuff, Jacki, but -’
Sophie was preparing herself for a rant, which I probably would have launched into a year ago.
‘I dunno,’ I said. ‘Maybe I do.’
‘You’ve certainly changed your tune,’ said Ross.
I shrugged. I couldn’t really tell them that the reason I’d become open to the idea of the paranormal was because it was literally part of my life now.
‘Well, as they say, the purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one!’ said Sophie with a smile.
I missed hanging out like this. It was amazing how easy it was to slot back in, like I’d never left.
‘Jacki,’ said Ross suddenly. ‘What’s up with your arm?’
‘What do you mean?’ I said. I looked down and saw a huge scratch, running right round in a circle from one side of my elbow to the other. It looked new, like I’d cut it on something. I took off my sunglasses and inspected it more closely. I couldn’t think when it had happened – I didn’t remember seeing it earlier.
‘Whoa, that looks nasty!’ said Hannah. It really did. It definitely looked like the kind of injury you would feel happening. But then I suddenly thought of last summer, when I’d woken up one morning with my body covered in bruises. Ger had told me that it was nothing to be frightened of, that it was simply another way that Beth was communicating with me – giving me a sign. This cut was equally inexplicable. I thought maybe this was a sign from Kayla. I wasn’t sure what she meant by it though.
‘Oh, that’s nothing,’ I said, trying to brush it off before too many other questions were asked. ‘Just a scratch – it happened a few days ago.’ I ran my finger along the broken skin.
‘It looks painful,’ said Sophie, sounding concerned.
‘Yeah, is it sore?’ asked Hannah.
‘Not really,’ I said. ‘It’s OK.’
‘Jeez,’ said Ross. ‘Maybe you would survive a zombie apocalypse after all.’