***
When I get off the train, I can’t see Ollie by the barriers. Around me is a swarm of people in different Halloween outfits, heading into Manchester for a night out. My gut plummets. Has he forgotten about me the way he forgot to get the Rose Conrad tickets?
‘Selena,’ yells a familiar voice. I turn around and Ollie is there,in the same wool coat he’s had for the past two winters.
My heart soars and I run into his hug.
‘I can’t believe you’re here,’ he says. ‘It feels so strange to see you outside of Croydon!’
‘I can’t believe I am here!’ I laugh. I look around. ‘Your new home!’
‘Well, not right here, this is Manchester Piccadilly.’
We both laugh, and I’m at ease. This is how I remembered it. How we fit perfectly together.
We get the tram to Ollie’s new home on the outskirts of Manchester. The whole journey we’re catching up. He tells me about his new friends. I tell him how Kira and Faye are doing. He tells me about his university interviews. I tell him I think I want to study English Literature and Language at a London university. He tells me he’s on a rugby team now. I tell him I’m still skipping cross-country practice. He tells me he’s missed me, and I grip his arm so tightly I might burst.
Ollie’s new home is in a fancy part of Manchester. The Pointers have definitely gone more upscale than where we used to live. On this road, everything is basically a mansion.
‘You can get more for your money in the north,’ says Ollie sheepishly as he leads me up the driveway to a house that is double the size of his one back home.
Any unease I feel about its grandeur is put aside when Meredith greets me, hugging me close.
‘Selena, we have missed you being next door!’ she says. ‘Our neighbours aren’t the same as you and Kajal.’
‘That’s because our new neighbours are geriatric,’ says Ollie.
‘And who’s replaced us?’ says Meredith, whisking us to the grand kitchen-diner, where the table is all laid out for us to have dinner.
‘Oh some Americans,’ I say, taking some potatoes and avoiding eye contact with Ollie.
‘But you know them, right?’ says Ollie, looking over at me.
‘Not well,’ I say, becoming really interested in the vegetables now. I look up at Ollie. ‘Not as well as I know you.’
He smiles at me, and I push all thoughts of Ty away. How this morning he made out that I was his only friend. How I knew him like nobody else.
Twenty-Seven
You’ve got some new friends
I’ve seen them around town
Kicking cans, smoking joints
Are you sure they’re the one?
‘New Friends’ fromThe Brink of Teenage Freedom
The next day, Ollie gives me a whirlwind tour of Manchester. We go to record stores, museums, eat street food on the side of the road.
In these moments, I forget about Ty, I forget about the Secret Sender, I forget about everything that’s happened since August, without Ollie. It’s like I’ve gone back to a time when everything was simpler, and I was much happier.
I start getting the familiar tingling sensation again, whenever Ollie is around me. Find myself catching his eye and then quickly looking away. I feel like I can and can’t bear to be around him, without really knowing how he feels.
Okay, I have to tell him.
Tonight. It’s his birthday, it’s the perfect time.
