Hey Tori, It’s time to get down to business . . .
I delete it. Too aggressive.
Honourable Tori, I have a bunch of stuff I would like to clarify . . .
I close my laptop and look out of the window, hoping for inspiration.
Instead, I see Ty.
But today, he’s not with his camera. Instead he is dragging a sun lounger across the garden, towards the pond.
Weird.
I sit up, leaning closer to the glass. What is he doing? Firstly, it’s September and four p.m., it’s not exactly sunbathing time.Secondly, the sun on that side is pretty bad, which is why the sun lounger was on the other side of the garden.
Ty’s dressed in a long-sleeved top and gilet. He doesn’t look like he’s come out to catch some rays.
He lies down on the sun lounger, directly facing me. Then he picks up the other thing he was carrying.
It’s a newspaper.
What seventeen-year-old boy reads anewspaper? I don’t even know where you can buy a newspaper around here.
I look closer. At this point, my nose is pressed up against the glass pane.
SAN FRANCISCO RANKED BEST CITY.
CROYDON RANKED WORST.
Ha. He clearly made this newspaper himself, the writing large enough for me to read. It’s a way of winding me up.
I can’t help it: I smile to myself.
And the next thing I know, I’m downstairs and marching towards the fence.
‘You made a prop?’ I yell over the fence.
‘Do you like it?’ he says, looking up at me.
‘Bit immature,’ I say. ‘And factually incorrect. Croydon isn’t even a city.’
‘What, unlike buying a privacy shield to stop me taking photos?’
‘I didn’t make that. I ordered it off Amazon. Plus, I could have been wanting privacy.’
He shakes his head, still lying on the sun lounger. In all his layers, he looks so ridiculous.
‘Well if you don’t mind, I have a paper to read,’ he says.
‘No teenager has read a paper since 2003 – well, maybe except a school newspaper,’ I say, climbing over the fence. ‘I bet there’s nothing even in there.’
‘What a wild statement,’ he says, looking up, surprise on his face as he registers me coming closer to him. ‘What are youdoing?’ he says.
‘You came into my garden,’ I say, making some strides. I grab the newspaper from him. ‘Aha! This is completely empty.’ I shake it at him.
‘Well done, Sherlock Holmes.’
‘You’re not exactly some criminal mastermind.’
