Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

‘Just leave me alone, Treen. Okay? I can’t do it.’
‘Hey,’ I said. I stepped in front of her so that she couldn’t keep walking.
Thomas was talking to a pigeon, a few paces up ahead. ‘This is exactly the time
you have to think about it. This is the time when, like it or not, you finally have
to work out what you are going to do with the rest of your life.’
We were blocking the path. Now the tourists had to separate to walk around us
– they did so, heads down or eyeing with mild curiosity the arguing sisters.
‘I can’t.’
‘Well, tough. Because, in case you forgot, you have no job any more. No
Patrick to pick up the pieces. And if you miss this interview, then in two days’
time you are headed back down the Job Centre to decide whether you want to be
a chicken processor or a lap dancer or wipe some other person’s bum for a
living. And believe it or not, because you are now headed for thirty, that’s your
life pretty well mapped out. And all of this – everything you’ve learnt over the
past six months – will have been a waste of time. All of it.’
She stared at me, wearing that look of mute fury she wears when she knows I
am right and she can’t say anything back. Thomas appeared beside us now and
pulled at my hand.
‘Mum … you said bum.’
My sister was still glaring at me. But I could see her thinking.
I turned to my son. ‘No, sweetheart, I said bun. We’re going to go home for
tea now – aren’t we, Lou? – and see if we can have some buns. And then, while
Granny gives you a bath, I’m going to help Auntie Lou do her homework.’
I went to the library the next day, and Mum looked after Thomas, so I saw Lou
off on the bus and knew I wouldn’t see her again till teatime. I didn’t hold out a
lot of hope for the interview, but from the moment I left her I didn’t actually give
her another thought.
It might sound a bit selfish, but I don’t like getting behind with my
coursework, and it was a bit of a relief to have a break from Lou’s misery. Being
around someone that depressed is a bit of a drain. You might feel sorry for them,
but you can’t help wanting to tell them to pull themselves together too. I shoved
my family, my sister, the epic mess she had got herself into, into a mental file,
shut the drawer, and focused my attention on VAT exemptions. I got the second-