Owen - All The Lonely People

David Owen resents the fact that he was not raised by wolves and was therefore robbed of a good story to tell at parties. He turned to fiction to compensate for his unremarkable existence. He studied creative writing at The University of Winchester, where he went on to teach for three years. David is the author of two novels: Panther (2015), which was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and The Fallen Children (2017). David works in the travel industry, and mostly thinks about biscuits.

ALSO BY DAVID OWEN

Panther

The Fallen Children

ATOM

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Atom

Copyright 2019 by David Owen

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-349-00319-1

Atom

An imprint of

Little, Brown Book Group

Carmelite House

50 Victoria Embankment

London EC4Y 0DZ

An Hachette UK Company

www.hachette.co.uk

www.atombooks.co.uk

For Hannah,
who is verr good.

I woke up and I had a big idea,

to buy a new soul at the start of every year.

I paid up, and it cost me pretty dear.

Heres a hymn to those that disappear.

Buying New Soul, Porcupine Tree

I think this is why loneliness is a darker thing than just being alone. Its a stillness that gives you a preview of death; its seeing the world carry on just fine without you in it.

Hayley Campbell

Youre ridiculous, and mens rights is nothing.

Leslie Knope

The photos transferred in a handful of seconds, morsels of naked flesh flickering across the progress bar as the three boys shielded the screen with their bodies. Every tab open in the browser was a weapon, armed, the images their ammunition. Target locked.

It seemed funny, that exposure could wipe somebody out of existence.

Wesley Graham couldnt stop jiggling his legs nerves, excitement, he didnt know as he glanced around at the half-empty study room, squinting against the early autumn sunshine that glowed in the scratches and finger-smears on the windows. Most of the school PCs were occupied, screens of half-finished essays or YouTube videos. Others in their class, apparently taking the final year of school seriously, had ranged their burden of early coursework across the tables in the centre of the room. Mr Buttercliff, charged with supervising, was much more invested in Clash of Clans on his phone.

Can you please stop that? said Luke, punching Wesleys leg.

The dull pain did little to help him hold it still. Although Wesley had been around during the last trolling campaign, one undoubtedly larger than this, he had been little more than a spectator. This time he was on the front line. They had somebody to impress, so this had to go off without a hitch. He willed his restless leg to stop betraying his gut full of nerves.

In the far corner of the room, hunched over her MacBook, was Kat Waldgrave. It was the first time theyd seen her in school for a few days, and her usual ponytail had gained a strand of plasticky pink that curled into the light brown skin of her neck. The sunlight conspired to hide her screen from Wesleys gaze, but he was sure her website would be open in a tab somewhere, just as it was on their screen.

Imagine if she actually looked like this, said Justin, sandwiched between them in front of the computer.

Luke plucked a USB stick from the PC and grinned. Well always have Photoshop.

Scrolling through the images, Justin sighed under his breath. I wish any actual girl looked like this.

Sounds like somebodys struggling with NoFap, said Wesley.

The joke was a risk. They hadnt been friends for long, and sometimes it took a while to earn the right to take the piss.

No way! said Justin, apparently not offended despite his protest. Its been three weeks and I swear my mind is clearer than its

Please dont start with that again. Luke brought up the login window for Kats site and typed in the password that had been stolen for them.

How longs it going to take? said Wesley, pressing his fists into his knees to keep them from bouncing. The Photoshopped pornography had been his idea, and he had felt elated when it was accepted. That had been tempered a little since by the reality of doing it, the fear of getting caught, but he still couldnt wait to deal this final blow. People like Kat deserved everything they got thats what TrumourPixel said.

Not long, said Luke, clicking to edit the home page. Lets give our snowflake something worth crying about.

Kat Waldgrave was only at school because of the email shed received complaining that she rarely went to school. It was an injustice, as far as she was concerned, that a mandatory attendance meeting should be allowed to upset her regular schedule of pretending to revise while actually watching Tinker videos and Doctor Backwash bloopers on YouTube. As if she hadnt seen them all a million times before.

She tabbed to one of her favourites, putting in her earphones and angling the screen away from the window glare. Tinker showing off her new hairstyle, a neat bob dyed electric pink, dusky eye shadow applied to match. God damn, she was beautiful. Kat fiddled with the pink extension she had added to her own hair yesterday. It was supposed to be a tribute to Tinker, borrowing a little of her boldness, but now it just felt pathetic.

The meeting had not gone well. Despite her being head of sixth form, Miss Jallohs office was the size of a bus shelter, and smelled even worse. Kat would gladly have not attended her attendance meeting, except the email had threatened to get in touch with her dad. A phone call from school would certainly contravene their unspoken accord to keep their lives as separate as possible.

Your attendance is nowhere near acceptable, had been Miss Jallohs opening line, peering over her half-moon glasses.

The word attendance had begun to lose all meaning. I still did fine in my exams, Kat pointed out. It was true too nothing below a B grade in her mocks.

Thats hardly the point! The bangles on Miss Jallohs wrists rattled as she slapped her hands on the desk, living up to her reputation for being expressive. Everybody knows youre a bright girl.

That was funny; as far as Kat could tell everybody hardly knew she existed.

Tinker had started out recording make-up tutorials perfectly shaped eyebrows were her trademark before moving on to discuss topics such as sexuality and feminism. She identified as pansexual, and was so open about everything it meant for her, posting regular videos on the impact it had on her dating and sex life. These were all mysteries to Kat, abstract ideas, and it was easy enough to pretend Tinkers life was her own. Pretend these regular updates fleshed her out with experience. In between those personal videos she still posted about make-up,