I breathed a sigh of relief that Terry hadn’t grassed and dropped me in anything. “Awesome.”

“Yeah, there is something you need to be aware of though. Apparently, they pulled Terry’s phone log and your number came up as calling him at the time of the crash. Delete all your shit and ditch your phone, okay? You didn’t call Terry at all, you were tucked up in bed with your girlfriend all night, understand?” he coached.

I could feel the sweat starting to slicken the palms of my hands because there was something, however small, connecting me and Terry. Now that I had Ellie in on it, willing to lie for me, I needed to make sure nothing went wrong.

“How do you know that?” I asked, itching to get off the call so I could smash up my cell phone.

Brett laughed. “My lawyer, he’s a good guy, he keeps me informed about stuff. Arthur Barrington is the best defence lawyer out there; he’s willing to go above and beyond for his best clients. He’s been with me for a while now. It’s a real shame that I didn’t have him in my employment when you went down, Kid, he probably could’ve negotiated you a shorter sentence,” he said wistfully.

I cringed, thinking about how close I was standing to Ellie whilst I was having this conversation.

Sure, she knew I was into bad stuff, but she had no idea that I’d been inside for it - she definitely didn’t know that I was a convicted murderer, and it needed to stay that way.

“Right, well, thanks for letting me know. I’ll get rid of my cell straight after this call,” I agreed.

“I’ve already had a new one sent over to your place so that we can keep in touch, it should be there now waiting for you. Take a few days off, Kid. Lie low, chill. I’ll keep you informed.” He disconnected the call so I looked back at Ellie. She was chewing on her nails, looking extremely jumpy and nervous. I smiled sadly. Just two more months then we’d be travelling. I couldn’t freaking wait, it was going to be incredible.

The cell phone felt like it weighed a hundred pounds in my hand so I turned it off, slipping the casing off and pulling out my memory card, pushing it into my pocket carefully. I had a lot of photos on there of Ellie that I didn’t want to lose. I fiddled with the back until I managed to get the SIM card out, then snapped the card into two before dropping the phone that’s I’d owned for less than a month, and stamping on it as hard as I could.

Ellie gasped. “Jamie, what on earth are you doing?”

“I called Terry on the boost last night, so I need a new phone and number,” I replied. She looked at me with wide eyes as I stamped on the pile of broken plastic and glass again for good measure.

“Everything’s fine, I promise,” I assured her.

She frowned. “Really?”

I nodded in confirmation. “Yep. He should be out tonight, he hasn’t blabbed to anyone. Brett said it hopefully won’t get to trial but if it does then he’ll pay off the judge. I’m hoping his lawyer is as good as Brett claims he is,” I replied, bending and picking up the mess and throwing it in the nearest trash can.

She rubbed at her forehead and closed her eyes. “I’ll be glad when this is all over and I can stop worrying so hard about you,” she pouted.

I grinned, wrapping my arms around her tightly, crushing her against my chest. “Stop worrying about me, you have more important things to worry about,” I countered.

She winced. “My finals?”

I shook my head. “You have nothing to worry about there, you’ll ace them all, I have every confidence in you.”

“Aww,” she murmured, looking at me like I was the cutest puppy in the world. “Well, what then?”

I kissed the tip of her nose. “What clothes you’re gonna pack for our yearlong trek around the world,” I teased.

She made a little squealing sound and bounced on the spot, making her chest rub against mine, driving me insane. “Oh God, don’t even get me started on that. I’m already way too excited and we have to wait a whole two months. Plus, we have to break it to my mom first too. I have a feeling she’s gonna freak out and tell me I can’t go or something,” she said, frowning. “I can see big fights happening in our near future.”

I grinned and nodded to the restaurant. “Okay, I’m up for a fight, as long as I get to eat some egg rolls first.”

She grinned and kissed me fiercely before pulling back and immediately starting to gush and plan out all the places we could go to as she tugged me into the restaurant. I just let her talk my ear off about it all night. The more excited she got about it, the more excited it made me. Seeing her so happy made my heart physically ache.

Chapter 21

~ Ellie ~

His hand was too tight in mine, making my fingers go a little numb. I squeezed gently and winced in his direction, nodding towards our intertwined hands, silently telling him to chill. Jamie smiled apologetically and loosened his death grip, moving my hand into his lap, rubbing the back of it with his thumb.

My gaze flicked up to my parents who were sitting opposite us on the other sofa. Both of them looked shocked, my mom’s shock was mingled with horror, my dad’s with worry.

“So let me get this straight. When you finish school, you two are planning on travelling the world.

That’s what you just said, right?” my mom asked incredulously.

I nodded in confirmation, trying to appear confident even though she looked like she was three seconds away from throwing me in the cellar and changing my name to Lily like I’d read in a novel once. Admittedly, we didn’t have a cellar, but judging by angry look that was etched on her face she was probably considering having one built if it would stop me leaving with Jamie.