‘It’s OK,’ she said quietly. ‘I don’t really mind.’
She suddenly looked very small and hunched, and I felt a wave of sympathy for her. Ella had a way of making people feel very small, especially people like Grace who just let her walk all over them.
‘You should mind,’ I heard myself saying. ‘You should have more confidence. Stand up for yourself a bit.’
‘I know.’ She nodded, but she said it in a way that didn’t sound like she believed it.
‘Look,’ I began sternly, ‘she wouldn’t keep hanging out with you if she didn’t like you.’
It was a lie, but at least it would stop her from looking so sad.
‘You think?’ She blinked up at me gratefully.
‘Yeah. Now, let’s go. I’m starving.’
She followed me across the cafeteria and we slid our trays on to Ella and Olly’s table. They all looked up to say hey when Grace and I sat down, before Olly and his friend, Liam, returned to their heated debate about a book I hadn’t read, while Ella concentrated on lapping up every word that came out of Olly’s mouth. I let my mind dreamily drift off to Ethan and appearing on his vlog, which annoyingly sparked a string of nervous thoughts, thanks to something stupid Cal had said.
I hadn’t told him about appearing on Ethan’s vlog on purpose. He had overheard the conversation I was having with Matthew and Fritz, and had found the whole concept hilarious.
‘What is so funny?’ I’d said grumpily, as he came round the back of the reception desk, where I was sitting with Fritz on my lap. The silver tag had fallen off his favourite collar and I had taken it to Matthew to see if it was fixable or if I’d have to ring up Tiffany’s and ask them to send him another.
‘You going on Ethan Duke’s vlog,’ Cal said, rummaging through his bag, which he’d left with his dad behind the counter, and pulling out a bag of crisps.
‘I think it sounds interesting,’ Matthew said, fiddling with the delicate clasp of the dog tag.
‘Thank you, Matthew,’ I replied, tickling Fritz’s belly until he heard the rustle of the crisp bag and flew off my lap to go and paw innocently at Cal’s leg.
‘What are you going to talk about? How you can’t even make a bed without getting stuck in the sheets?’ Cal asked, shoving several crisps into his mouth at one time, ignoring the pool of drool from Fritz forming at his feet.
‘I will be talking about my life.’
‘Aren’t you saving that intriguing topic of conversation for your own vlogs, which are yet to make an appearance?’ Cal snorted.
I narrowed my eyes at him as Matthew smiled to himself.
‘I’ll use Ethan’s vlog appearance to launch my OWN vlog. It will be like . . . a teaser.’
Cal let out a loud ‘HA’ causing bits of crisp to fly everywhere.
‘Ew! Matthew, look! We’ll have to bleach the desk now.’
Matthew sighed. ‘Go and eat those somewhere else, please, Callum.’
‘Yes,Callum,’ I sneered.
‘Fine by me.’ He smiled, offering Fritz a crisp and almost losing his fingers in the process.
‘When are you going to train this mutt?’
‘He’s perfectly trained,’ I said defensively, as Fritz took Cal’s shoelaces in his feet and started pulling them. ‘And don’t call him a mutt.’
‘He’s the worst-trained dog I’ve ever met.’
‘And you’re an expert, are you?’ I folded my arms. Cal scrunched up his empty crisp packet, lobbed it into the bin and then picked up Fritz and tickled his chin.
‘I might not be an expert, but I do know that dogs shouldn’t pee behind the reception desk.’
Matthew’s head jerked up.
