"Ben Jeapes - Pages Out Of Order" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jeapes Ben)

"It could be the shampoo, of course," he said.
I finished throwing up an hour later; it took a day for the retching to
die down. During that time, Tom was more agitated than he had ever been.
He couldn't sit still but paced about constantly. Word circulated; one of
the three boys I'd been with was in hospital, intensive care. The other
two, apparently, hadn't been caught.
So what was the problem? I was sober, no one had seen me, it was a day
later, and anyway, friends don't rat on friends, do they?
The long hand of the housemaster, Mr Buckingham -- Bugsy -- caught up with
me at tea time the next day. I was summoned to his study.
"You've heard about Langton?"
"Um -- yes, sir," I said, trying to sound puzzled. Langton was the
hospital case.
"He's named names, Sutton." I gulped; Buckingham scowled at me. "Morgan,
Robson and ... you. I know you're not a troublemaker and I think I can
trust you. So I'll ask you to your face. Were you drinking yesterday?"
Oh, please! All I had to say was-- But ... he was looking at me just a bit
askance, just a bit too carefully. I lowered my head.
"Yes, sir," I said. He nodded.
"I'm glad you said that, Sutton, because that's what Morgan said too." Was
there sympathy in his look? "I'll see what I can do with the headmaster
because I don't think you deserve expulsion, but don't hold your breath."

I had never seen Tom so upset. He seemed to fold in on himself as though
all his strength had left him; as though he had been hit by a terrible
tragedy.
"But it's not so bad," I said foolishly. "He's going to speak up for me,
they won't sack me for one offence--"
He was almost in tears.
"They will, they will. I'm so sorry, Will! I tried to get to you in time,
I really did, I tried to change it, but I got held up and I couldn't get
away ... I'm sorry!" When he looked up there were tears in his eyes. He
seemed so convinced of my fate that I began to believe it too, despite all
my desperate optimism to the contrary.
"You weren't to know, Tom! I mean, I was stupid ..."
"You were," he agreed. We held each other's gaze.
"Thank you for sobering me up," I said eventually.
"A pleasure."
"You don't seem surprised."
"No."
I was silent for a bit more. Then-- "You really think they'll throw me
out?"
"Yup."
And they did.

We stayed in touch, of course, and still exchanged visits during the
holidays. His last words to me as a co-pupil of the same school were:
"If you had a choice, I'd advise you to go to a decent sixth form college
and unlearn the damage this place has done. But since you don't, I expect
you'll be sent to somewhere just like this."