Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

had assumed for weeks that this was because he felt the cold more than we did.
Another lie.
‘Clark?’
‘Yes?’
I was glad I was behind him. I didn’t want him to see my face.
He hesitated. Where the back of his neck had been covered by hair, it was
even paler than the rest of his skin. It looked soft and white and oddly
vulnerable.
‘Look, I’m sorry about my sister. She was … she was very upset, but it didn’t
give her the right to be rude. She’s a bit direct sometimes. Doesn’t know how
much she rubs people up the wrong way.’ He paused. ‘It’s why she likes living in
Australia, I think.’
‘You mean, they tell each other the truth?’
‘What?’
‘Nothing. Lift your head up, please.’
I snipped and combed, working my way methodically around his head until
every single hair was chopped or trimmed and all that remained was a fine
sprinkling around his feet.
It all became clear to me by the end of the day. While Will was watching
television with his father, I took a sheet of A4 paper from the printer and a pen
from the jar by the kitchen window and wrote down what I wanted to say. I
folded the paper, found an envelope, and left it on the kitchen table, addressed to
his mother.
When I left for the evening, Will and his father were talking. Actually, Will
was laughing. I paused in the hallway, my bag over my shoulder, listening. Why
would he laugh? What could possibly provoke mirth given that he had just a
matter of weeks before he took his own life?
‘I’m off,’ I called through the doorway, and started walking.
‘Hey, Clark –’ he began, but I had already closed the door behind me.
I spent the short bus ride trying to work out what I was going to tell my
parents. They would be furious that I had left what they would see as a perfectly
suitable and well-paid job. After her initial shock my mother would look pained
and defend me, suggesting that it had all been too much. My father would