‘Well yes, which is why I’m not stopping you. Go out and see the world, that’s what I want you to do. But text me when you get there?’
‘First Manchester, then the world,’ I say, hugging her. I pause. ‘Are you sure you’re going to be okay without me? If you have any flare ups or anything, call and I’ll come back. I’ve left some meals in the fridge in case you don’t want to cook.’
‘I’ll be fine. I keep saying you don’t need to do all of this,’ she says, shooing me out of the door. ‘Go have fun.’
I walk outside as Ty leaves his front door. He’s dangling car keys from his hand.
‘You’re driving that?’ I say, pointing at the black 4x4 in the driveway.
‘Paul’s away this weekend, what else would I drive?’ he says.
‘Something smaller?’ I say, as he unlocks the car and I get into the passenger seat.
‘I’m from the land of the big car,’ he says, starting to reverse out. ‘I’m not concerned about the size of the car, more about driving on the right side of the road.’
‘Wait, what?’
He turns and gives me a brief smile. ‘Selena, I’m joking, it’ll be fine.’
He makes a right out of the drive and we’re off.
‘Why don’t you put on some music?’ he says.
‘You know what I’m going to put on, right?’
‘Rose Conrad?’
‘You got it.’
I connect my phone and start building a playlist up. I don’t want anything too romantic, which is a bit difficult with Rose Conrad.
‘Are you sure you’re okay listening to only this for 250 miles?’ I say.
‘I told you, I’m a big fan,’ says Ty, lazily. Then he starts singing along to ‘This Change’.
‘I can’t believe you know all the words,’ I say, as he croons out the final wobbly note. Ty may be many things, but a good singer isn’t one of them.
‘You know how I get real obsessive about things?’ he says.
‘Like trying to complete Level 17 of a video game?’
‘Did Daze tell you? He’s ruining my image! But yes, I fixate on things I like. So that summer when I got dumped—’
‘I thought you broke up amicably with this girlfriend?’
‘I might have edited the story a bit to reduce how heart-broken I was. Anyway, after she ran off with her lab partner, I listened to Rose Conrad obsessively to remind me of her. And then I got really into the lyrics, and learning the lyrics, and the next thing you know, Rose Conrad became my thing, not hers.’
I am quiet for a bit. I know other people like Rose Conrad, she’s on a sell-out tour. But for some reason it’s making me feel annoyed that Ty’s ex also liked her. As if she’s taken that from me.
‘What was her name?’ I say.
‘May.’ He glances over. ‘You got any exes?’
‘No,’ I say honestly. ‘All girls’ school and all that.’
‘What about this guy you’re visiting?’ he says, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. ‘Ollie? The old next-door neighbour?’
I squirm in my seat. I don’t want to get into all the details of this with Ty. I want to go and talk to Ollie, and figure out how I feel and how he feels. Simple.
