The Marriage by K.L. Slater (any book recommendations TXT) 📕

nan had insisted that Tom walk home from school with him last Friday, and it had made Ellis furious. He’d refuse to let Tom walk with him later today if he turned up, cramping his style. Ellis knew what she was up to, she was hoping that time spent together would mean they grew closer. How twisted was that? His nan expected Ellis to become friendly with the man who was responsible for murdering Jesse, his own dad?

Ellis hated Tom with all his heart. Hated him. He strutted about his nan’s house as if he owned the place, and kept grabbing her and kissing her, jumping out like a big kid from round corners so she squealed like a young girl. It was gross and pathetic.

Ellis didn’t really care if Tom had killed his dad by accident like his nan had told him. The fact was, he had punched him and his dad had fallen and hit his head and died. Whichever way you looked at it, the fact that he was dead was all Tom’s doing.

Ellis had tried to talk to his mum about not wanting to see Tom, but she’d got stressed out about it.

‘I don’t want to go to Nan’s any more,’ he’d said decisively. ‘Not if he’s there.’

His mum had held her head as if she had a splitting pain.

‘Can’t you see, I’m between a rock and a hard place, Ellis. I’d like nothing more than to walk away from what your nan’s doing, but I can’t afford those gaming subscriptions, or that Jack Wills stuff you like to wear now. But it won’t be for long, I promise. I’m working on it and soon things are going to get much better.’

Her hands had scrunched into tight fists, though, and Ellis knew she felt as angry as he did. Tom was affecting his mum’s life in a bad way too. But she never mentioned the other thing about him. The thing Ellis wasn’t allowed to talk about.

Everything had been so much better when Tom had still been in prison.

Ellis sometimes lay in bed at night planning how he might get revenge on Tom for what he’d done. His head used to be full of his gaming tactics before he dropped off to sleep, but now that had all changed. He’d lost count of the number of times he’d fallen asleep with a picture in his mind of Tom hanging by the neck from a tree or left a bloody mess in the middle of the road after Ellis had pushed him under a passing truck.

It had been horrible on Friday night, having to be with them all in the same house for that stupid dinner. His mum had ended up being upset, too. He loved his nan, but everything was messed up because she’d brought Tom Billinghurst into all their lives.

Ellis did feel a bit sorry for Tom’s mum, Jill. It wasn’t her fault that Tom had turned out to be a murderer. She was a nice lady and Ellis sensed from her dull eyes that she felt as sad as he was underneath. His mum said it was because Jill thought Nan would end up hurting Tom in some way.

Ellis hoped she did. If his nan made sure Tom got what he deserved for what he’d done, everything would be cool again, go back to normal.

The new boy leaned against a wall with one leg bent so that the heel of his shoe tapped against the brickwork. This was an attempt to look cool, as if he wasn’t bothered he had no one to stand with. But Ellis knew the signs of feeling nervous. He remembered from his own first days in school.

The boy kept biting the inside of his cheek, inspecting his fingernails. The kid acted like he was too cool to get involved with the other boys’ activities, but Ellis knew it was just a show. He recalled how rotten it felt.

Like the new boy putting on an act, Ellis had tried to do the same with his nan when Tom had first moved in. But it was so hard to pull it off. Tom Billinghurst was a convicted killer and nothing he did would ever change that. Not offering to set up a PlayStation on the TV or asking Ellis lame questions about his Nintendo Switch games. Ellis saw through his tricks.

Ellis’s nan was a smart woman, everybody round here said so. When Jesse had died, instead of moping around, his nan had started the Young Men Matter charity in his dad’s memory. Now she had a much better life. She lived in her big new house and Ellis had his own bedroom there. His nan also drove a really cool car. She’d let Ellis play his favourite rap music loud in the summer when they had the roof down.

Ellis loved his nan but it was impossible to understand why she’d married Tom. His mum said she didn’t know, either.

‘Maybe she’s having a midlife crisis and thinks she’s got herself a toy boy,’ his mum had said. ‘She’ll be sick of him soon, wait and see.’

Before Tom was released from the nick, his nan had put her arms around Ellis and held him tight until he squirmed.

‘I can’t expect you to understand yet, but you’ll see soon enough. Everyone will,’ she’d whispered. ‘I loved your dad more than anything in the world and that will never change. That’s all you need to know for now.’

It was all a bit weird, and Ellis was glad to be at school, away from all the screwed-up adults.

Ellis wasn’t one of the most popular boys in school. He didn’t belong to the sporty set like Henry Farmer, who played rugby and lived in a massive house with an indoor swimming pool. But he was tall for his age and he handled himself well. He had a natural disrespect for the teachers – like his nan said Jesse used to – and backchatted them in class like