She went out of the room and came back in with the thermometer. Fortunately it was the one that you stick under your tongue, not the one you put in your bottom. She’s given me that one before, when she suspected me of faking illness to avoid school. ‘Now open your mouth and say ahhh.’
‘Ahhhh.’
‘Right, I’ll be back in a minute. And no putting it on the radiator or in a cup of tea while I’m out the room.’ Damn my mother, I thought, she knows all the tricks.
I lay in bed, patiently, with the thermometer balanced under my tongue, waiting for Mum to return. She came back in with a glass of water and slid the thermometer out of my mouth. ‘Your temperature is actually up slightly,’ she said, with a hint of surprise. ‘Maybe you really are ill.’
Really? Result, I thought. It must be the anxiety. I’ve worried myself sick, literally.
‘Best thing to do is stay in bed today and rest. Lots of fluids. Then we’ll see how you are tomorrow.’
‘But,’ I said, preparing to launch into my rehearsed speech. ‘But it’s the gig at KOKO tonight.’
‘That’s a shame, but I really don’t think you should go. Not even with a slight fever. Do you want me to call someone for you?’
‘Yes please, Mum. Could you call Max? Tell him I’m really sorry but there’s no way I can make it. Tell him that I’m giving his “plus one” ticket to Vix. I hope he doesn’t mind.’
‘OK,’ said Mum. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to speak to him?’
‘No, honestly. Please call him for me. I don’t feel up to it.’
‘OK, then. Gosh, Rosie, you really must feel ill. I know how much you’ve been looking forward to that gig.’
Yes,’ I said, mournfully. ‘I’ve been looking forward to it for weeks. I guess it just wasn’t to be.’
What Mum didn’t know was that I’d already given Vix the ticket, the night before. Vix needed some persuading at first, but when I explained why I was doing it, she agreed.
‘I really can’t go,’ I said. ‘I don’t deserve the ticket. I don’t deserve Max. I know for a fact now that I’m going to dump him – as soon as I can – and going to the gig and pretending everything is great wouldn’t be fair or right. And, to be honest, I don’t really want to see him. It will make it harder. But I can’t just let him go on his own, not at the last minute. He likes you, so he’ll have a good time with you.’
‘OK,’ said Vix. ‘I can’t say I don’t want to go. But you love Fieldstar far more than I do. It’s an exclusive gig. You’re going to have a miserable night, knowing you could be there having a great time.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘I’ll find something to do to cheer myself up, don’t worry.’
‘And what if Max doesn’t want to go with me?’
‘He will,’ I said.
And, of course, he did.
Now I’m waiting for him to come around to see me. I called him earlier and said I was feeling better, but we needed to talk.
Wish me luck, this is going to be horrible.
Chapter 22
Goodbyes . . . and Hellos
Max is no longer my boyfriend. But I didn’t finish with him; in the end he dumped me. Funny how things turn out.
I had a whole speech prepared: how much I liked him, how sweet he was, how much fun I’d had with him, how I wished it could be different … but we’d be better off as friends. I didn’t get a chance to say any of it. From the moment he arrived at my house, I could tell something had changed. He didn’t give me a kiss, not even on the cheek, and he didn’t grin as much as usual. He seemed quiet, nervous, lost in his own thoughts. We made small talk about the gig, and how performing with Fieldstar seemed to have cured Rufus of his depression, and then he came out with it.
‘Listen, Rosie,’ he said, once he’d made sure that I was feeling better and probably wouldn’t die anytime soon. ‘I’m just going to say this, before I lose my nerve.’ He swallowed, hard. That’s when I knew he had his own speech prepared. ‘Look,’ he continued, ‘I don’t know about you, but I don’t think this is working. Something doesn’t feel right. It hasn’t for a while. I’m sorry, Rosie, but I’m going back to school soon and I’ll be miles away, and I’m not sure what we’ve got will last the distance.’
Speech over, he sighed and looked at me, expectantly.
All I could manage was, ‘Oh.’ To tell the truth, I was stunned and – this is weird – sad. I had a lump in my throat and I genuinely felt like I might start crying. Stupid, I know, but realising he didn’t want me any more suddenly made me feel like I wanted him. It felt like I’d lost something, even though when I had it, I didn’t want it.
‘I don’t want to hurt you, Rosie,’ he said, softly. ‘You’re a lovely girl. But you deserve more.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘You too.’
‘Friends?’
‘Always.’
‘I’ll come and see you when I visit Rufus, I promise. And we can email if you like.’
‘That would be nice.’
‘So,’ he said. ‘I guess this is goodbye, then. I’m going to go back home for a few days, before school starts, to sort stuff out.’
‘OK.’ I wasn’t sure what else to say, or what to do.
‘Bye, Rosie.’ He leaned over and, putting his arms gently around my back, gave me one final kiss. For the first and the last time with Max, my stomach did a little somersault. And I didn’t think about Adam Grigson at all.
So, Max has gone. And Rufus is going away too, tomorrow. Fieldstar are off on a six-month world tour to promote their new album. There’s a van outside the house right now, being loaded with Rufus’s stuff. Isabella is going on the road with him this time, so the house will be empty. There won’t be a celebrity living next door, at least for a while.
Sky is back. She feels terrible about what happened, although nobody really cares about it any more. It turns out that she accidentally told a friend from school who’d emailed her, and that friend told someone else, who told their sister, who knew someone who works at Sizzling. She says the reason she didn’t reply to my email was because her mum fell out with the yogi at the retreat over ‘idealogical differences’, whatever that means. Instead of coming home, Sky’s mum made the family go on a trek around the island. She got to ride on an elephant and sleep under the stars on the beach. The downside was she didn’t have internet access.
I’m with Sky and Vix now, sitting on the roof terrace of a café on Parkway called Tupelo Honey, where you can have home-made cakes and smoothies. We’re talking about how rubbish it is that we have to go back to school next week, and how the summer holidays are always far too short. Sky has had her nose pierced. She and her mum both had it done in Goa, and now there’s a little red jewel on the side of her right nostril. I think it looks cool (although she’ll have to take it out for school), but Sky says she regrets it. She thinks it draws attention to her big nose. Sky doesn’t have a big nose. I think she’s feeling insecure because she’s having problems with Rich again, even though she hoped that a month away would sort everything out. She keeps saying she’s not sure how much he missed her. Vix thinks Rich is bad news. She’d never say that to Sky, though.
It’s almost seven o’clock now, and I’ve promised my parents I’ll be home for dinner tonight. Linking arms, we leave the café and head back down Parkway, past the cinema, where I saw the weird Japanese romance with Max, and across Britannia Junction. As always, Camden is buzzing. There’s a crowd of people standing around outside the tube station, waiting for friends or busking. I can hear the chatter of several different languages and the strains of live music coming from a pub somewhere on the high street. A bearded man wanders around holding a megaphone and shouting that only Jesus Christ can save us. No one takes any notice of him.
We’ve just turned into Camden Road and are walking past the bus stop outside Sainsbury’s when I hear someone, a guy, shout my name. I can’t place the voice.
‘Rosie?’
Dropping my friends’ a
rms, I stop and turn around. The bus stop is jammed with people and it takes me a moment to see him. When I do, I can’t stop myself from smiling. ‘Laurie? Hi.’
He’s just as gorgeous as I remember and my stomach is suddenly filled with swooping butterflies. I’m aware that Sky and Vix are up ahead, waiting for me, looking intrigued. I gesture to them to go home and make a telephone shape with my hand.
‘Hey, I thought it was you,’ says Laurie, coming over to me. He steers me away from the queue. ‘Great to bump into you again. How are you?’
‘I’m good, thanks. You? Where are you off to?’
‘I’m just going to visit a friend. Up in Holloway. Where are you going?’
‘Just home,’ I say. ‘Nothing special.’
‘Not going to see the boyfriend tonight, then?’
I feel my face flush. ‘Actually, there is no boyfriend. Not any more.’
His eyes twinkle. ‘Oh right, that’s good. I mean, sorry to hear that.’
‘Don’t be,’ I say. ‘It wasn’t meant to be. I’m fine about it.’
‘Well,’ he says, peering at me through his floppy fringe. ‘In that case, how about giving me your number?’
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Brenda Gardner, Anne Clark, Elaine McQuade, Melissa Hyder, Natasha Barnden, Simon Davis, Sue Hellard and everyone at Piccadilly Press. Thanks to Stephanie Thwaites and Catherine Saunders at Curtis Brown. Love and unending gratitude to all my family and friends for your support – notably Steve Somerset, Claire Fry, Bibi Lynch, Anthony McGowan, Judy Corre, Anna Corre, Anna Smith, Rachel Baird, Janet Smith and Luisa Plaja of Chicklish. Thanks to everyone at the Citea Nice Magnan, especially Marlene, Julie and Mickael. One of these days, you’ll be able to read one of my books!
And finally (well, it would be rude not to), thank you to Camden Town, the inspiration for this series, where I have lived happily for seventeen years. If you didn’t exist, I’d have to invent you.
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Stuck
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Hilary Freeman
When Sky starts fixating on the size of her nose, Rosie and Vix realise they’ve got their work cut out to boost her self-confidence and stop her doing anything drastic. Little do they know that Sky’s obsession will take them on a life-changing journey through parts of Camden Town they’ve never seen before.
The Celeb Next Door Page 13