‘Thank you, I don’t know what to say.’
‘You’ve got a bright future,’ says Gareth, shaking my hand. ‘I think your article was one of the best interviews I’ve ever read on this programme. I nearly cried at the end. Thank your mum for being so honest and sharing her story.’
‘I will,’ I say. ‘She’s going to be so pleased.’
‘And I’m sure you are pleased with your Rose Conrad tickets! I know you’re quite the fan.’
It’s true, but for me, the real prize was finding out so much about Mum. About the father I never knew, and still don’t really mind not knowing about. How our home came about. How we came about. And how, because Mum at her heart is such a survivor, she’ll be fine without me.
It’s time to go have some of my own adventures.
***
After telling Mum, I have to tell Kira and Faye.
‘Your girl has got two Rose Conrad tickets,’ I scream at the FaceTime to them. I’m lying on my bed, still in my work clothes.
‘I can’t believe you’re going to go,’ says Faye.
‘After all that stress of not getting tickets! And how much youbitched and moaned about it,’ says Kira.
‘You even wrote a Secret Sender article about it,’ says Faye.
‘Okay, okay, no need to bring up the past,’ I say. ‘The point is, I have the tickets now. For this weekend.’ I pause. ‘I think the hard question is, who am I going to take?’
‘Oh that’s obvious,’ says Kira.
‘Totally,’ says Faye.
I feel a sense of relief. ‘You guys have already decided between you? That’s good.’
‘Yeah,’ says Kira. ‘You’ve got to take Ty.’
‘Wait, what?’ I say. ‘You guys don’t want to go? Ty isn’t even speaking to me.’
‘We discussed it,’ says Faye, ‘and we thought, number one, if only one of us went it would be unfair to the other, plus we couldn’t decide between us, and two, you need to take Ty and tell him how you really feel. He loves Rose Conrad.’
‘And three, you will owe us big time for this!’ says Kira.
I would love to take Ty. But it feels like a betrayal to both of them.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes. Now stop asking us, otherwise we’ll change our minds and Faye and I will have to Hunger Games to the death for the second ticket! Trust me, it’s better this way,’ says Kira.
***
Once again, it didn’t feel right to tell Ty the news over text. It had to be in person. Which is easier said than done when your neighbour is a hermit who’s avoiding you. But the concert is tomorrow. I have to tell him today. And as I arrive home from my final day at theCroydon Post, I see him outside, photographing the garden pond in the sunset.
I pull on my coat and race downstairs.
‘Ty!’ I yell, running up to the fence.
‘What’s happened?’ he says, worry on his face as he runs over to meet me.
Okay, in hindsight, legging it out of my house screaming his name might cause some worry.
‘I won,’ I say, grinning at him over the fence. ‘I won the competition.’
