Me Before You: A Novel

living, someone who was far cleverer and funnier than I would ever be and who still couldn’t see a better future than to obliterate himself. And finally, my head pressed into the pillow, I cried, because my life suddenly seemed so much darker and more complicated than I could ever have imagined, and I wished I could go back, back to when my biggest worry was whether Frank and I had ordered in enough Chelsea buns.
    There was a knock on the door.
    I blew my nose. ‘Piss off, Katrina.’
    ‘I’m sorry.’
    I stared at the door.
    Her voice was muffled, as if her lips were close up to the keyhole. ‘I’ve got wine. Look, let me in for God’s sake, or Mum will hear me. I’ve got two Bob the Builder mugs stuck up my jumper, and you know how she gets about us drinking upstairs.’
    I climbed off the bed and opened the door.
    She glanced up at my tear-stained face, and swiftly closed the bedroom door behind her. ‘Okay,’ she said, wrenching off the screw top and pouring me a mug of wine, ‘what really happened?’
    I looked at my sister hard. ‘You mustn’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you. Not Dad. Especially not Mum.’
    Then I told her.
    I had to tell someone
    There were many ways in which I disliked my sister. A few years ago I could have shown you whole scribbled lists I had written on that very topic. I hated her for the fact that she got thick, straight hair, while mine breaks off if it grows beyond my shoulders. I hated her for the fact that you can never tell her anything that she doesn’t already know. I hated the fact that for my whole school career teachers insisted on telling me in hushed tones how bright she was, as if her brilliance wouldn’t mean that by default I lived in a permanent shadow. I hated her for the fact that at the age of twenty-six I lived in a box room in a semi-detached house just so she could have her illegitimate son in with her in the bigger bedroom. But every now and then I was very glad indeed that she was my sister.
    Because Katrina didn’t shriek in horror. She didn’t lookshocked, or insist that I tell Mum and Dad. She didn’t once tell me I’d done the wrong thing by walking away.
    She took a huge swig of her drink. ‘Jeez.’
    ‘Exactly.’
    ‘It’s legal as well. It’s not as if they can stop him.’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘Fuck. I can’t even get my head around it.’
    We had downed two glasses just in the telling of it, and I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks. ‘I hate the thought of leaving him. But I can’t be part of this, Treen. I can’t.’
    ‘Mmm.’ She was thinking. My sister actually has a ‘thinking face’. It makes people wait before speaking to her. Dad says my thinking face makes it look like I want to go to the loo.
    ‘I don’t know what to do,’ I said.
    She looked up at me, her face suddenly brightening. ‘It’s simple.’
    ‘Simple.’
    She poured us another glass each. ‘Oops. We seem to have finished this already. Yes. Simple. They’ve got money, right?’
    ‘I don’t want their money. She offered me a raise. It’s not the point.’
    ‘Shut up. Not for you, idiot girl. They’ll have their own money. And he’s probably got a shedload of insurance from the accident. Well, you tell them that you want a budget and then you use that money, and you use the – what was it? – four months you’ve got left. And you change Will Traynor’s mind.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘You change his mind. You said he spends most of histime indoors, right? Well, start with something small, then once you’ve got him out and about again, you think of every fabulous thing you could do for him, everything that might make him want to live – adventures, foreign travel, swimming with dolphins, whatever – and then you do it. I can help you. I’ll look things up on the internet at the library. I bet we could come up with some brilliant things for him to do. Things that would really make him happy.’
    I stared at her.
    ‘Katrina –’
    ‘Yeah. I know.’ She grinned, as I started to smile. ‘I’m a fucking genius.’

10
    They looked a bit surprised. Actually, that’s an understatement. Mrs Traynor looked stunned, and then a bit disconcerted, and then her whole face closed off. Her daughter, curled up next to her on the sofa, just glowered – the kind of face Mum used to warn me would stick in place if the wind changed. It wasn’t quite the enthusiastic response I’d been hoping for.
    ‘But what is it you actually want to