AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No,” Amelia said, reaching out and pulling her back down again. “I’m not done yet.”
Billie pressed her lips closed but didn’t dare move.
“You want to know what I see when I look at Jules?” Amelia asked. “I see an eleven year old girl waiting for her mum to come home after school. I see a twelve year old sure that her mum’s going to turn up for her birthday party, I see a sixteen year old certain that her mum will find out about her GCSE results and come running to find her.”
Billie swallowed hard, feeling the prick of tears in her eyes.
Amelia sighed. “She’s not as confident and together as you think, Billie. Not that you wouldn’t deserve her if she were. She likes you. I don’t know why and I’m not going to interfere. But if you don’t feel the same then you need to tell her, you need to face her and tell her. Not walk out never saying a word. Do you understand that? Do you understand that Jules couldn’t deal with that?”
And Billie finally found her voice. “Who says I don’t feel the same?” Why had she said that?
Amelia’s eyes twinkled a little. “Right, I sort of thought you might.” She sniffed. “Maybe I should go into couples counseling rather than spray tanning.”
“It’s just… she looks so happy,” Billie said, looking down at her hands in her lap.
“Has she told you about this prophecy?”
“What?”
“This thing that our mum said to her about getting married?”
“Oh that, yes, she did.”
“She truly believes that, you know,” said Amelia. “She honestly thinks that mum’s going to show up, even after being let down so many times before.”
“I’d sort of thought as much.”
“But you didn’t say it, did you, Billie Brooke?” Amelia said with half a grin. “And that’s my point, I think. If you can be there for her, if you can stand by and watch that happen without calling her childish or stupid, if you can wait for the inevitable heartbreak and be there to help her piece herself back together again, then you’re the one for her, regardless of anything else.”
Billie wiped a tear away as it tried to trickle down the side of her nose. “Why me?”
“Why not you?” Amelia said. “It’s obvious that the two of you have some chemistry, that’s just how it is, I suppose. One day you meet someone and something clicks and that’s it. I can’t explain these things. But I can explain that doubting things, which you always have done, is normal. But if there’s one thing that I know about you, Billie, it’s that when you do something, you do it well. That includes making my sister happy.”
“I make her happy?”
“Now you’re just fishing for compliments,” Amelia said gruffly. “But she seems to like you, you seem to like her, the rest of this shit is… just that. Shit. Just get on with things and figure them out, it’ll all fall into place.”
“She likes me.”
“You think she shows up at people’s houses to learn random skills for weeks at a time all the time?” Amelia said. “She’s not queuing up to learn crochet or bridge, you know.”
“She’s learning to play the piano because of this girl.”
“Oh, Alea, yes, so I’ve heard. That’s what Jules thinks, anyway. But I’ve known Jules a long time and if Alea were the only reason this was happening she’d have given up and told the truth weeks ago.” Amelia shook her head. “No, Jules is showing up for one reason and one reason only, that’s you.”
“It is?” Billie said, quite unable to believe it.
Amelia sighed. “Yes. It is. And I’ll tell you something else for free. You hate walking into that pub because you think that everyone’s sitting around judging you for being isolated when you lived here and then for coming home with your tail between your legs.”
“Yeah,” Billie said, heart starting to hammer in her chest.
“Well, you’re right,” said Amelia.
“Right?” Not what she’d been expecting.
“Yep. One hundred percent. But people’ll get over it, they always do. It’d be helpful if you were a bit more friendly and open, but they’ll get over it nevertheless, something else will happen to take the attention off you. Until then, keep your head up and ignore it, that’s my advice.”
“Right,” Billie said again, unsurely. “Um, thanks.”
