‘If you say so.’
As he stood up to leave, our gaze broke and I was able to pull my brain into gear.
‘Olly,’ I said quickly, ‘she won’t like it. I mean, you need to really think about it, if you sit with me at lunch. She’ll be cross with you and probably won’t talk to you again. Trust me, I know what she’s like. I completely understand if you don’t want to risk that.’
He sighed.
‘Flick, I no longer have any hairs on my arm due to her constant possessive stroking. Her not talking to me would be a good thing.’
And he walked away, leaving me to my pasta. I just wasn’t feeling so hungry any more.
He must have told Grace about it because that evening I was giving Fritz his weekly bubble bath, when the landline rang. It was Matthew, telling me that Grace was in reception, asking for me. I told him she could come up and as I wrapped Fritz in his favourite fluffy towel, I hugged him close, suddenly feeling sick with nerves. I opened the door when the bell rang to see Grace sheepishly holding several packs of microwave popcorn and two tubs of ice cream.
‘Movie night? Since you missed last weekend’s.’
I didn’t know what to say, so I just stood aside to let her come in. She went to perch on the sofa. I followed her and sat opposite, placing Fritz, who was now fast asleep in his little towel, next to me, and waiting for her to speak.
‘I’m so sorry about school,’ she wailed. ‘I’ve hated everything this week and I just really want us to be friends again!’
I passed her a tissue. ‘We are friends, Grace.’
‘Ella’s been so mean and I told her not to say horrible things about you and then she snapped at me and said that you had never liked me in the first place and had always said nasty things about me behind my back, so I didn’t know what to do. And then Olly broke up with her and now she hates me even more, and then Olly said I’d been a really bad friend to you, and . . .’ Her lip quivered. ‘Everything is awful!’
I held out another tissue and waited patiently while she mopped herself up and blew her nose, which woke Fritz up. He growled and then buried himself back into the towel.
‘It’s OK,’ I said, coming to sit next to her and giving her a comforting pat on the knee.
‘It’s not OK,’ she whined.
‘Yeah, it is. You haven’t been a bad friend. I know what Ella can be like.’
‘So, we’re still friends?’ She sniffed, her big eyes blinking hopefully through her tears.
‘Yeah, we’re still friends.’ I smiled.
‘Phew!’ She launched herself at me for a hug. ‘I’m so pleased,’ she said with a watery smile, pulling away and shuffling comfortably into the back of the sofa. ‘And you know what? I don’t think I’ll miss being friends with Ella. I’ve been on constant eggshells this whole term. It’s exhausting.’
I laughed. ‘You can relax now. We’ll face her together.’
She pulled off the lid of one of the tubs of ice cream. ‘So. Movie night?’
‘Sounds perfect.’
Mum said Grace could stay over, so she set her up a mattress on the floor and we talked for hours, which Fritz got very grumpy about. He kept gnawing loudly at the edge of his bed in an attempt to communicate to us to shut up and stop disturbing his beauty sleep, but it was the first time I’d actually properly talked to Grace without her being afraid of saying something wrong, so I found out loads about her that I had no idea about. Like how she loves animals – especially dogs and tortoises – so she wants to be a vet when she’s older, and she’s also this massive film buff with a thing for old movies that no one has ever heard of. According to Grace, they don’t make them like they used to. In a few hours of chatting, I learned more about Grace than after weeks of hanging out.
I didn’t mind that we didn’t stop talking until the early hours of the next morning. I drifted off to sleep happy in the knowledge that I had absolutely nothing to do the next day.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Someone was shaking me awake. I pulled up my eye mask to find Audrey staring down at me.
‘What are you doing here?’ I croaked, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. The mattress on the floor was empty. ‘Where’s Grace?’
‘She’s making coffee,’ Audrey said, her brow furrowed. ‘She let me into the flat. She’s already showered and dressed and your mum has left for the lecture she’s giving in Surrey.’
‘Urgh, I should have known Grace is a morning person. She’s so . . . chirpy.’
‘You need to get up,’ Audrey instructed, standing and throwing my towel at me.
