Undeniable

by Liz Bankes

  ‘It’s Nish,’ she snaps.

  He is on the phone for ages. Everyone smiles politely and carries on the conversation, but I keep looking over at him, wondering when he’s planning on coming back over.

  I pick up pretend Mia from the lemonade bottle and text actual Mia.

  THIS IS AWFUL. THEY HATE HIM :(

  She replies in a few minutes. I love Mia.

  I’m sure it’s not that bad. You all hated Jamie at first. It will be fine, don’t worry! x

  She is right. For the first few times Jamie came out with us as Mia’s boyfriend, I would only glare at him. And make deliberate comments about how lovely Dan, Mia’s ex, was. Then he bought me some shoes after hearing me go on about how much I wanted them. So I said I hoped he didn’t think shoes would make me think he was a nice person (although I did keep them). I only really started liking him when we were in New Zealand and Mia was telling me what he’s like when he’s with her.

  I reply.

  He got Nish’s name wrong!!

  And so does she.

  I hope he’s made his will. x

  While I’m chatting I have my phone in my hand and I fire off a quick text to let Mum know that I’m back for the day. I’m sure we could fit in a visit to the house before we have to get the train back. She replies immediately as well. I do have them all well trained.

  GREAT PERHAPS NOT ROUND THE HOUSE YOUR DAD IS NOT WELL I CAN COME OUT AND MEET YOU FOR A COFFEE SORRY CANNOT TURN OFF CAPS LOVE MUM ZZ

  Spencer is over by a tree. Still talking on the phone. Then Rosie says she’s going to use the loo in the café. So I jump up as well. A good opportunity to check that she has definitely forgiven me.

  As she sees me get up, she smiles. So I give her a big hug and say, ‘You love me again, don’t you?’

  She says, ‘Yumf’, because her head is a bit trapped in my boobs. She frees herself. ‘Of course, it was fine. I just wanted you to be there! And you’ve got your exciting summer hanging with the celebs! I’m so happy for you, after the year you had.’

  ‘It has been SO COOL.’ I jump in quickly. ‘Specially as it’s turning into a summer of lurve!’

  Rosie doesn’t say anything.

  ‘What?’ I say, even though I know I shouldn’t push it.

  ‘Don’t you think it’s . . . a bit . . . insensitive?’

  The guilt is like a dead weight on my stomach.

  ‘Max has been doing really well,’ Rosie goes on. ‘I just think he’d be really upset if he knew you’d brought Spencer here.’

  I swallow. What I should say is, ‘I know. I haven’t been thinking about Max. Because it hurts to think about Max. And so I pretend there is nothing to think about.’

  What I do say is, ‘Why the hell are you contacting Max? You’re supposed to be my friend.’

  She looks really shocked. ‘Look, I wasn’t sure how to tell you . . .’

  ‘I don’t want to hear it!’

  She blinks and looks like she might cry. Again, no tears from me. Because I am clearly heartless. We get to the café, do our thing and come walking back really quickly, not saying a word. Just as Spencer walks over.

  I practically jump on him to get away from Rosie.

  ‘Spencer! My mum’s coming out for a coffee! You’ll love her – well, she’s a bit weird, but it’ll be fun!’

  ‘Ah.’ Spencer’s mouth twists to the side. ‘I’ve got to head back, actually. I just did an interview for this online magazine thing, over the phone. And I don’t have any photos they can use with it, so . . .’

  ‘Can’t you do it tomorrow?’ I can feel everyone at the picnic watching us.

  ‘No . . . Not really. They want to put the interview online soon as.’

  Each word jabs at me, but I try to keep calm.

  He shifts from foot to foot and then gestures towards the park entrance where we came in. ‘So I better . . .’

  I get a flash of annoyance and the words come out before I can stop them. ‘Why didn’t you invite me to the party last night?’ I snap.

  He laughs in an awkward, shocked kind of way and steers me away from the group so we are talking on our own. I’ve definitely pushed it too far.

  ‘Look, I’m sorry, but my agent is going to get me an audition for an advert. If I get it, that’s six grand. I kind of want to show her I’m prepared to make the effort. And the party was a work thing.’

  I insist on walking him back to the station even though I’m sure he can find his own way. I want to avoid the questions from everyone about what we were arguing about. Nish’s eyes flash daggers at me when I tell her we are leaving. We’ve only been here twenty minutes. I tell her I’ll come back, but even as I’m saying it I’m thinking that I’ll get Mum to meet me earlier.

  Spencer doesn’t say anything. He goes to take my hand and I move it away.

  ‘Don’t be silly about this!’ he says.

  ‘I’m not!’

  I see him raise an eyebrow and a horrible thought strikes me. There’s nothing forcing him to stay with me. If I get stroppy, he could just decide he doesn’t want to do this any more.

  We’re almost at the station now and he takes my hand again. He stops and pulls me into him and kisses me.

  ‘Come on, grump,’ he says.

  I break into a smile as a warm, tingly feeling floats down from my chest to my stomach.

  And then a figure behind him comes into focus.

  It’s Max.

  Chapter 33

  Max stands rooted to the spot just outside the station entrance and Spencer sets off towards him, turning back when he realises I’ve pulled my hand away.

  Then Max’s mum appears. She’s just got tickets from the machine outside the station and comes over to hand him one. She turns round to see what Max is looking at.

  ‘Gabi!’ she says, a bit too brightly.

  Spencer looks from me to Max, no idea what is going on.

  Max looks different. He’s wearing a more tight-fitting T-shirt than usual and his jeans aren’t as low slung. But he still hitches them up, the way he does when he’s nervous. He’s looking at Spencer now, like he’s taking in every detail. Spencer looks so relaxed. And confident. And older. My heart goes out to Max and I can’t do anything. I take a step forward and see the way his mum is looking at me. It is an absolute look of death.

  ‘How are you?’ I say, way too cheerfully.

  ‘Um, I . . .’ Max’s voice wobbles. He stops and goes bright red and then breathes in to try again.

  ‘Excellent!’ his mum cuts in. ‘I’m sure you’ve heard we’ve got him back on the Leeds course. Just heading up there now to sort out the accommodation.’ She’s beaming at me, but the look of death is still twinkling in her eyes.

  ‘Right . . .’ Spencer says, turning to me. ‘I’d better go.’

  ‘Okay.’ I nod.

  ‘Bye,’ he says and turns back towards the station. He nods at Max and says, ‘All right, mate,’ and then he’s almost at the entrance.

  I wave, but a bit too vigorously, and my ring flies off my hand and bounces on the pavement. Both Spencer and Max step towards it. Max hesitates but then carries on determinedly. Spencer puts his hands up and hangs back.

  Max comes over, holding out the ring.

  ‘Here you go,’ he says in a low voice.

  ‘It’s Granny’s!’ I tell him. ‘It’s really old and precious.’

  ‘Then you probably shouldn’t throw it on the ground,’ he says, smiling a bit.

  He shuffles off, hitching up his jeans. I always used to give him wedgies, just to point out how much boxer there was on show. That probably wouldn’t be appropriate now.

  Just then the train pulls in and everyone snaps out of the awkward moment, because they need to get on to the platform. Spencer waves and then I see him going off to the opposite end of the train to Max and his mum.

  Then they’re both gone. And I’m on my own. Which I never am, if I can help it. Nobody would know who knows me, but when I’m on my own I th
ink too much. If it’s silent when I’m with someone, then I’ll fill it by saying loads of stupid stuff. But I can’t do that when I’m alone. Passers-by would think I was a nutter. I get out my phone to push away all the thoughts creeping in. I text Mia.

  OMG. Spencer and Max met. SO AWKWARD!!!

  She rings me.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  I shake my head and sniff. I’ve got that stupid rock in my throat again and can’t speak. But she just stays on the phone and waits till I can talk.

  I tell her how being with Spencer can make me go from being excited to uncertain in the space of a moment.

  I hang up when I see my mum across the road, coming to meet me for coffee, and realise I got a text while I was on the phone.

  Sorry about today. When’s your next day off? I have a treat planned. Spencer x

  Chapter 34

  Johnny Green is there when I’m waiting outside one of the offices at the studio to meet the editor and the writer the next day. He has his head bent down, looking at his phone, and his amazing sweepy fringe is falling over his face. Even though I’m much more into Bad Boy Hugh these days, it would still be cool if Johnny Green was my famous friend. I only have a few days left of the internship, so time is running out to make celebrity pals. And I’d kind of forgotten that the people here are famous. I’m more excited to be meeting the writers. It could be my chance to make them really remember me. When Johnny glances up, I try flashing him a smile, but he just frowns and then slouches off, his eyes glued to his phone again. I don’t think we’ll be staying in touch.

  There are noises behind the door. They must be ready to see me. Maybe I should admit I’m not very good at spelling?

  I’ve brought my notebook with the thing I was writing that is probably rubbish. The door opens and a friendly face appears. Her name is Emily and she’s the writer. The editor is Hazel. I was expecting scary old people, but they both look like they are in their mid-twenties.

  ‘Come in!’ she says. The office looks really cosy. There is a wall of half-naked men posters, which I definitely approve of, and dotted around one of the computers – a swanky-looking Mac – are an assortment of plastic and porcelain ducks.

  ‘They bring me luck,’ says Emily. ‘Well, except when I’m pulling an all-nighter and I start talking to them.’

  ‘Like the recent last-minute rewrites!’ mutters Hazel. She clears some papers off a sofa.

  ‘I’m not very good at spelling,’ I say as I sit down.

  They look at each other and shrug.

  ‘We find the best starting point is talking,’ says Emily.

  ‘And tea,’ adds Hazel.

  ‘So all the writers sit down and talk about what we want from this series,’ Emily carries on, showing me a big sheet of paper with loads of scribbles and arrows and crossings out on it. ‘What worked well in the last series, what sort of journeys we want the characters to go on, so we can structure the series into episodes, which we then go off and write.’

  She says that she shows the scenes to Hazel as she writes them and together they make sure that the structure works for a thirty-minute episode, as well as tying in with the characters’ storylines for the series. And then they go over the dialogue to check it fits exactly with how the characters speak.

  Then they show me examples of scenes where dialogue is ‘too expositiony’ and how they would change it.

  I am massively excited to discover that Emily has written loads of the scenes with Tom and Priya in and I tell her that they were my favourite couple in the first series. She’s delighted and she says that they wanted to make it so that the audience were absolutely desperate for them to get back together by the time it happens in series two. Then Hazel nudges her because it is clear from my face that I don’t know what happens in the finale. Everyone’s being really cagey about it. I tell Hazel and Emily that they have my solemn vow of secrecy, although I don’t tell then my solemn vow of secrecy doesn’t include Mia and Max. Well, just Mia now.

  I take a deep breath and summon the courage to turn to the page of my notebook that has my idea on it. It’s a story about a boyband, who all go to school together, and then they hit the big time and girls everywhere go crazy for them. My main thoughts initially when I was writing it were that I could hold the auditions for the boyband members. But then I started thinking it could be really good – the band could have actual songs that people could download. Max was going to write the raps.

  Hazel and Emily are really nice about it and we brainstorm some ideas for scenes and bits of dialogue, getting me to think about what I would put in a pilot episode.

  Without noticing, I’ve been there for two hours and I suddenly realise I need to get back to actual work. I practically skip out into the hall, absolutely buzzing with how fun and exciting that was. I’m definitely bringing in biscuits to say thank you to Hazel and Emily.

  Spencer is lurking in the corridor outside their office. I didn’t think I was seeing him until later, when he has our treat planned.

  ‘Hey,’ he says, grinning and holding out his phone with a web page loaded. ‘My interview’s up!’

  Talent spotted!

  We’ve caught up with The Halls’ hot new hunk, bad boy Hugh St Clair, played by sexy Spencer Black.

  Name: Spencer Edward Black

  Age: 20

  Lives: In Clapham with some mates – I have one year left at uni, so that’s one more year of a party house!

  How does it feel to be The Halls’ new resident hottie?

  I’m not gonna lie – it’s awesome! Before this my biggest fan was my mum, so it is great to know there will be a few more people watching me now!

  Will you and Johnny Green be performing a battle of the haircuts?

  Do you think I can compete with that fringe? But seriously, Johnny better up his game. He’s got competition now!

  Can you tell us a bit about Hugh St Clair?

  Hugh is rich, brooding and – so it says in my script – dangerously attractive. He’s at NLU on false pretences, after being expelled from his school, for reasons that will become clear. He’s on a self-destructive path and out to cause trouble for the other students.

  Rumour has it you’ve been filming some steamy scenes with Halls geek-turned-hottie Jas (aka Heidi Adams) – any romance of the real-life sort blossoming there?

  Oh, I couldn’t possibly comment . . .

  Does that mean you can make our day and tell us that you’re still available?

  Both my character and I are young, free and single. Hugh is trying to avoid getting tied down and have as much fun as possible, whereas I’m keeping a lookout for Miss Right.

  Click here to go to The Halls’ YouTube channel, where you can watch episode one of Spencer’s exclusive Behind the Scenes video blogs.

  Chapter 35

  Oh, I couldn’t possibly comment . . .

  I shouldn’t bring it up. I know I shouldn’t. It’s just stayed in my brain since I saw it yesterday. I signed up for email alerts featuring Spencer Black as well, so I’ve been sent more articles saying how great it is that sexy Spence is single. Spencer’s already said that his agent told him what to say. She wants to create a buzz round him, so he needs to be ‘single with a whiff of possible romance’, apparently.

  And what would he say, anyway? ‘Actually I have been meeting a girl in a cupboard recently and she came round and had spaghetti Bolognaise with my mum?’ Although I would have preferred it if he had said that.

  I could change my Facebook status to In a Relationship and see what he does . . . An imaginary Mia pops into my head at that point and just says, ‘NO.’ And I know I can’t do that because Max might see. We are still friends on there because neither of us wanted to delete the other. We’ve both changed our profile picture from that black-and-white one of us kissing like we didn’t know the camera was there – which took about twenty goes to get right.

  I could just ask Spencer. Casually drop it in. So, young, free and single and on the lo
okout for Miss Right, ARE WE?

  I turn and look at him from the side, with the shimmering water behind him. I just can’t work him out at all. He’s chewing his lip and frowning slightly. Does that mean he’s enjoying this and thinks we are an item? Or he’s wondering where Miss Right might be hiding? Or he’s hungry?

  I need to turn off my brain and enjoy the treat. Spencer booked us tickets on the waterbus from Little Venice to Camden and it’s lovely floating past all the trees and under the little bridges. Or it would be, if I could chill the hell out. I don’t even look at London Zoo properly when we go past that. Mia would be ashamed.

  When we get into Camden, Spencer wants to go to a pub. I’m about to tell him he’ll need to sneak me in, but then I think I don’t want to remind him of my age. I try to go in subtly instead but Spencer asks me why I’m creeping like a cartoon burglar. I just tell him I have cramp.

  We sit on a sofa, hidden away in the corner of the pub, and Spencer puts his arm round me, pulling me towards him. We kiss and his hands are on my waist. He moves his thumb back and forth over my hip and the waistband of my jeans. Despite the thoughts buzzing round my brain, I get a surge so strong it almost makes me shiver and I press myself closer to him. He draws his head back so our foreheads are touching and says, ‘Are you coming back to mine?’

  Getting back from Spencer’s takes extra long because the trains are delayed. I told myself it would be fine to go back with him as long as I wasn’t late home. But we got carried away. And I couldn’t text Granny because my phone died on the boat trip. I’m hoping she won’t have noticed. She’s been a bit mad lately and will probably be off doing windsurfing or mud-wrestling or something like that.

  I’m distracted by that thought as I walk into the house and so at first I don’t notice that Granny is sitting on a chair directly facing the door and watching me. With a drop-dead gorgeous Spanish man.