Falling by Anthony McGowan Page 2
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Nicko didn't have the faintest idea how you got a phone chipped, or even what it really meant. He just didn't want Iggy to chuck it out of the window. And it wasn't because he needed a phone. His mum would have bought him one if he asked her. He was the last kid in school without one. He liked it that way. He didn't want to wait for the calls and the texts that never came.
He wanted this phone because of the girl.
In that second their eyes met, he felt something. It was a wave of sickness deep in his stomach and an intense prickling all over his skin. Lying in bed he could summon up the ghost of the feeling, but it wasn't enough. He wanted to feel it again.
He lay in bed that night holding the phone. He could hear the sound of the telly downstairs. His mum watching the lottery draw. Traffic outside going some place, going nowhere.
Iggy was right about the phone. Even Nicko could see that it was an old brick. The kind you couldn't even buy any more, with a greyscale screen. It was as heavy as a bowling ball, as cool as snot on your face. Yeah, he thought - the kind of thing you mugged someone with, not for.
He turned it on.
The dark grey became light grey and a dotted line showed the battery was at about half-charge. It made him feel close to the girl. She was out there, thinking about it. She might be thinking about him, remembering his look the way he remembered hers.
He fell asleep on top of his bed, still in his clothes, thinking about her face looking down, looking up.
