Chapter 19

Joel:

I barely slept a wink last night. I stared at myself in the mirror and hardly recognised the face looking back at me. My skin looked pale, which seemed to highlight the massive bags under my eyes. My hair was a mess, but then again, that wasn’t unusual.

I stepped out of the bathroom and ran right into my mum.

“Oh Joel! You look terrible! Are you feeling ok?” she said, putting her hand on my forehead in the way that mothers always do when they think their child is sick.

“Yeah I’m……” I paused as I suddenly saw the opportunity that had presented itself to me.

“...I’m feeling a bit sick.” I said.

“You get yourself back to bed,” my mum said. “I’ll give Duncan a call. There’s no way I’m letting you go to work in that condition,” she said before hurrying away.

I smiled with relief, but quickly felt the guilt creeping in. I hated lying. Especially to my mum, but I suppose desperate times called for desperate measures, and I was definitely classing myself as desperate at the mome