TOYL

the edge,’ Emma said. ‘I couldn’t tell him. Not yet, anyway.’
    ‘I understand. And anyway it’s your dad’s responsibility. So have you decided yet about tomorrow?’
    ‘Tomorrow?’ Emma was still watching Will, who looked to be getting unstable on his feet.
    ‘Yes, tomorrow!’ Lizzy nudged her playfully. ‘You know, Guy Roberts, famous casting director…’
    Emma continued watching her brother. He was leaning against the girl. ‘I’m not sure.’
    ‘But you said you’d go.’
    ‘I know, but now I’m not so sure.’
    ‘Go,’ Lizzy demanded. ‘Or I’ll never speak to you again, Emma Holden.’
    ‘Okay,’ Emma said, ‘if you put it like that, Little Miss Bossy, I’ll go.’

    ***

    It was well into the early hours when Will staggered over towards Emma.
    ‘I’m going.’ He turned and headed off through the crowds, not waiting for Emma to reply.
    ‘Wait,’ shouted Emma, pursuing him.
    She caught up with him at the top of the stairs.
    ‘Will,’ she said, pulling at his shoulder. ‘Hang on a minute.’
    ‘Time for me to go,’ he said, straining drunkenly against her grasp.
    ‘I’ll come with you.’
    ‘Why?’ he said, turning around. Up close it was clear just how drunk he was. His eyes were fiery red and his face was flushed.
    ‘Because I want to,’ she said. ‘We can get a cab.’
    ‘If you want.’
    ‘Let me just tell Lizzy. Wait there until I get back.’ She pointed at the spot where he was standing.
    He nodded, his head seemingly loose at the neck.
    When Emma got back, Will had gone. She dashed outside, wondering what might happen to him in that state, wandering around the West End. When the night air hit, she realised how much she, too, had drank.
    Will was wandering across the road, trying to flag down a cab.
    ‘Will!’ she shouted, sprinting up to him, dodging the traffic. She pulled him onto the pavement. He seemed amused by the attention, and completely unaware that he’d just been standing in the middle of the road. ‘I’m going to get you home, now.’
    ‘Okay,’ slurred Will. ‘Home sounds nice.’
    It was tricky hailing a cab with one hand whilst holding onto her brother with the other; Emma didn’t dare let go in case he ran out into the road, or fell and smacked his head on the concrete. Eventually she did succeed, and then managed to persuade the driver that Will was fit enough to travel back without vomiting. Ten minutes later they got back to Will’s flat. She struggled up the stairs, with Will maintaining the same silence as in the cab. She gave him a glass of water, and two paracetamol; his flight was taking off from Heathrow at ten the next morning, and he would need all the help he could get to avoid – or at least dampen – the hangover.
    ‘Thanks,’ he said, breaking his silence, slugging back the water and the tablets.
    Emma watched as he lay down on the sofa and covered his face with his hands.
    ‘Are you okay, Will?’
    ‘I don’t deserve you,’ he said, his voice muffled against his hands. ‘Not after what I’ve done to you.’
    ‘What’s the matter?’
    ‘I just want to forget,’ he said, before falling asleep.

30

    ‘You didn’t have to stay, you know,’ said Will, looking up from the sofa and grimacing against the light as, over in the small kitchen area, Emma poured a cup of tea.
    Emma popped a couple of rounds of bread into the toaster. ‘I wanted to. It wasn’t a problem.’
    ‘I appreciate it.’ Will attempted to sit up. ‘Ouch.’ He brought a hand to his head.
    Emma brought over the tea. ‘Hangover?’
    ‘One mother of a hangover,’ he complained, taking hold of the cup. ‘Feels like someone’s playing pinball inside my head.’
    ‘I don’t know about pinball. Last night you were playing Frogger with the traffic on Tottenham Court Road.’
    ‘Oh, bollocks.’ Will looked concerned and ashamed. ‘Was I really?’
    ‘Really.’
    ‘And you saved me from certain death?’
    ‘Most probably.’
    ‘I don’t deserve you,’ he said, taking a sip of the tea before breaking out into a cough.
    ‘That’s what you said last night,’ Emma replied.
    He looked up.
    ‘What else did I say? I didn’t say anything stupid, did I?’
    ‘I think you were still feeling guilty about what happened with Stephen.’
    ‘Oh, right.’ He looked down into the tea.
    ‘You really can’t remember any of that running about in the road?’
    ‘Can’t remember anything. Apart from dancing.’
    ‘You did do a lot of