‘Ah, so she betrayed your trust,’ says Kira. I narrow my eyes at the turn of phrase.
‘Exactly,’ says Mia. ‘And normally I would tell her how I feel or, you know, ignore her for a bit so she can tell I’m pissed, but the Secret Sender is saying we should all be bigger women!’
‘It sounds like you were pretty big in that globe costume,’ says Kira with a smile. ‘But seriously, that is rough. You know you can do what you want and not listen to the Secret Sender, right?’
Mia shakes her head. ‘I know,’ she says. ‘But I feel this girl knows something, you know? That we don’t. It’s why she’s so mysterious.’
‘Or,’says Kira, ‘she could be a normal person.’
‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘You should do what’s right for you.’
‘Okay,’ says Mia, smoothing down her top. ‘Thanks, guys, I’ll think about it. I just needed to get it off my chest.’
After Mia walks off, Kira turns to me. ‘With great power comes great responsibility,’ she says.
‘That wasn’t a big deal,’ I say, rolling my eyes.
‘It starts with no big deals, then it ends up with your words doing some real damage,’ says Kira. ‘You’ve got to be careful.’
She’s right, I am a bit shaken at how Mia took the Secret Sender like gospel, not as some random thoughts I had. I look back at the emails in my inbox, and shut down the laptop.
‘I need to talk to you about something else.’
‘You’ve decided what course you want to do?’ says Kira excitedly.
‘No,’ I start, then I pause. ‘But I feel a bit better about it after talking to Ty.’
‘So you’re friends now?’ says Faye, raising an eyebrow.
‘No!’ I say instinctively, then immediately reconsider. ‘We’re friends, but friends who are constantly annoying one another.’
‘Sounds hot,’ says Kira, laughing and kicking her legs out.
‘It’s not like that,’ I insist. ‘I don’t like him like that.’
‘Girl, he’s hot,’ says Kira.
‘Yeah, are you blind?’ says Faye.
‘I don’t feel like that about him because—’ I cut myself off, and look at my two friends, waiting expectantly.
‘Because?’ says Faye, motioning her hand.
‘Because . . . because I like Ollie,’ I finally splutter out.
‘Still?’ says Kira.
‘What do you mean “still”?’ I say. Deep down I thought they knew, they’ve just never said it out loud before.
‘Selena, you’re so bad at expressing yourself sometimes – we’ve become experts at reading you,’ says Kira.
‘Yeah, we could tell you liked Ollie,’ says Faye. ‘But do you still like him after he’s been gone for so long?’
‘You have to tell us everything,’ says Kira, leaning forwards.
‘Of course I still like Ollie,’ I say, feeling a bit stung they hadn’t told me that they knew I liked him. ‘I’ve liked him for the past two years.’
‘Why didn’t you tell him then!’ says Faye. It’s one of the most animated I’ve seen her.
