‘So you can get closer to your sixth form?’ I say, a sinking feeling starting in my stomach.
‘To Manchester,’ says Ollie, looking away.
‘Manchester? As in—’
‘The North of England Manchester,’ says Ollie, now looking up to the sky.
‘But why?’ The words escape me in a near howl. ‘We were just hanging out yesterday. It was normal. You were normal.’
‘Dad got a job there,’ says Ollie, finally looking at me. ‘I’ve known for a month now, but I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t want to ruin summer.’
‘So you waited until the week before you move to tell me?’
‘I’m sorry,’ says Ollie. ‘But I don’t have a choice. It’s a big opportunity for him.’
I hear the bitterness in Ollie’s voice, and realise I haven’t even thought of how he feels.
‘You still have school. Your A levels.’
Ollie shrugs. ‘September is in a couple of weeks, I’ll be in Year 13, and then it’s university, right? I’ll have had to leave everyone behind at that point anyway.’
I can see Paul, Ollie’s dad, in my mind’s eye, telling him these words, the words Ollie is repeating to me right now.
‘Are you okay with this?’ I say.
Ollie exhales deeply. ‘No, but I don’t really have a choice. My final year here, saying goodbye, watching everyone go to university . . . It’s like my last year of being a kid has been taken away from me.’
I feel the tears rise. I’ve always been an easy crier. Anger, sadness, happiness, you name it, I cry at it. And even though I’m furious he didn’t tell me, I give him a hug. Because that’s what friends do.
He grips me, and I remember what I was going to tell him. How I was going to tell him he was the one. And maybe I still will—
‘Selena,’ Ollie says into my hair.
‘Yes?’ I say, looking up at him, into those green eyes of his. We’re so close now, I can feel his breath on my skin, it is pulling me closer and closer to him. This is it, even though he’s moving away, he’s realised how he really feels. I tilt my head up, lean in even closer and then—
‘That garlic dip is pretty strong on your breath.’
Four
The change is comin’
This change is really summin’
No more wasting time, pretending it’s fine
And now we’re here, intertwined
‘This Change’ fromRoses
The next day the sign appears in Ollie’s front garden:SOLD. As if it had just popped out of the ground from the seventh circle of hell.
Mum pats me on the shoulder.
‘Did you know this was happening?’ I ask her.
‘Meredith told me, but we wanted Ollie to tell you. The house has been sold for the past month, but they had been refusing to let the estate agents put up the sign until Ollie told you.’ Mum shakes her head. ‘It looks like the estate agents want the advertising now.’
Mum and Meredith are old friends. It’s how Ollie and I became so close. Two next-door neighbours with children the same age. We did absolutely everything together growing up. From sleeping next to each other in a cot, to holding hands taking our first steps.
