Jude left him alone a bit for the rest of the day, apart from lunchtime when he simply squeezed Anton’s hand in front of all the others and offered a small smile. But he didn’t say much, and Anton was grateful for the space. He’d overreacted, and the fear of telling Jude was getting too big. If he kept quiet any longer, Jude was going to find out some other way, or—like Mum and Aunt Kerry had said—get the wrong idea. And Anton didn’t want things to go any more wrong than they already had.
So he swallowed as much of his fear as possible, and sought Jude out at the end of school, cornering him at the lockers and saying, “Come over?”
Jude paused. “You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry about this morning.”
“It’s okay.”
“Honestly, I don’t actually know what upset you, so…”
“Um, I’ll explain that
