Part 3 (1/2)

RUBY.

How can Kaz fancy someone with such appalling trousers?

Oblivious to the awkward, Tom gives Kaz a hug before turning to me as I take a quick step back and nearly stack it on a guy rope. I can fake friendly on a phone call, but Tom is not a person I am prepared to hug. Which definitely puts him in the minority, because I am usually all about the hugs.

”h.e.l.lo, Tom,” I say.

There's a moment in which Tom and I communicate our feelings without having to say a word. He knows that I would quite happily strangle him with the rogue guy rope I've just dislodged and I know that he doesn't think he deserves it.

Tom Selkirk buys into his own reputation as a nice guy. One who helps little old ladies with their shopping and gives up his seat on the bus to pregnant women. A reputation that isn't a reality.

Tom has known Kaz longer than I have they spent summers together, shared hiding places and secrets and sweets and a healthy resentment of Naomi. They have the kind of history that should have been worth more than an evening's conversation and the eternally s.h.i.+t sentence ”I just don't see you like that any more.”

When I am wizened and old and have forgotten how to use a hairbrush, I'll still remember the look on my best mate's face as I sat on the sofa with her that same night, and the tears she couldn't stop as she endlessly, endlessly asked me what was wrong with her. The answer is nothing. She is Kaz. She is perfect and this boy, this normal, ”nice” boy, who was meant to be as much friend as boyfriend, made her feel worthless.

Tell me how I'm ever supposed to forgive that.

KAZ.

Tom introduces me to the three girls from the camp next to theirs (the one with the Jolly Roger) and the girls make polite noises, whilst looking not entirely happy to have Ruby bowl up and sit down between Roly and Naj and take a handful of crisps from the bag Naj has just opened. Tom and his friends might be the year above us at Canterbury College, but Ruby's as comfortable in their company as if she was sitting with girls she sees every day at Flickers.

”So how've you been?” Tom pa.s.ses me a coffee brewed on their gas stove. I like that it's exactly the way I take it without me having to ask.

”Fine.” I smile at the surface of my drink, thinking how peculiar it is to be seeing him for the first time in a field a hundred miles from the town where we both live. ”How was France?” Every year Tom and his cousins stay with his grandparents in Brittany. This year I was supposed to go too.

”Bof,” Tom says, before changing the subject. ”Speaking of French, Dad said you got a set of insanely good results?”

”I did better than I expected.”

”Some of us always knew you were a genius,” he says. I elbow him in the side and he b.u.mps me back. It feels nice. ”What about Ruby?”

I look over to where Ruby is sitting, trying (failing) to hide how much she wants to leave.

It would feel wrong to talk about it to anyone else. But this is Tom. ”Not brilliantly. Not well enough.”

He knows what I mean, and I can feel him looking at me as I look at Ruby. She's been my best friend since I started at Flickers in Year 7 even if she's there to resit, she won't be in any of my cla.s.ses, she won't be sitting in the common room in the sixth-form block, wearing her own clothes, but back in the school, forced into a uniform that she couldn't wait to get out of.

Or there's the other option that neither of us have talked about that Ruby won't be at Flickers at all.

I can be Kaz without Tom if I have to. I don't know whether I can be Kaz without Ruby.

RUBY.

I message Lee.

Oh my G.o.d, I'm so bored.

His reply: Ungrateful much? I buy you a ticket, sort out your ride, buy your booze...

I'm paying you back for all those things. Anyway, that was supposed to be a HINT FOR YOU TO RING ME. I need an excuse here.

Turning the volume up, I put my phone down and wait.

The girl next to Roly t.i.tters and twirls a strand of her hair round like a little helicopter I'm sure she thinks she looks cute. She looks like an idiot. Not that Roly seems to mind.

I'm still waiting...

Naj shakes a fresh bag of crisps at me an act that irritates one of the other girls next to him, who I think must fancy him, judging by the death glares she's been giving me.

Waiting...

I don't want to commit to more crisps and that girl is welcome to- Finally my phone blares out Lee's signature Game of Thrones theme tune and I stand up to answer it.

”THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME,” Lee bellows into my ear. ”Get your a.s.s back here, Ruby Slipper.” And then he hangs up.

”OK.” I smile, pretending he's still there. ”Will do.” Then I look up at my audience. ”That was my brother. I've got to go.”

Kaz hasn't even noticed I've stood up, and when I call out her name, she looks dazed and confused, as if she's surprised to find I'm here at all.

”You coming?” I ask, watching the panic of indecision in her eyes: p.i.s.s me off or deny herself some bonus Tom time?

”Five minutes?” Kaz looks hopeful, but when she says minutes she means hours, and there's no way I can manage that long with only Tom's friends and the girls who want to pull them for company. I don't want to leave Kaz here either, but if I make a fuss, I'll be acting all ogre-ish, which is apparently something I do and I am not prepared to be the bad guy here.

”Lee wants me for something” which is the lamest of all the lies ”so I'll head off now. See you when you're done?”

KAZ.