‘No,’ says Daze. ‘It’s always kind of the same weather. Cool, breezy, and a bit foggy all year round.’
‘That’s a bit bleak, isn’t it,’ I say. ‘Don’t you want seasons?’
‘I like it,’ says Ty, appearing at the top of the stairs. ‘It’s nice to know what you’re going to get. The UK is . . . unpredictable.’
I look up at him, he has a cool look on his face. I fight the urge to flee. It’s time to stand up for what I think.
Ty walks downstairs.
‘Sooooo . . . ’ says Daze, drawing out the word. ‘What’s going on here? It feels like we’ve gone back in time.’
‘I think Selena has made her feelings clear,’ says Ty.
‘Can we talk alone?’ I say. ‘Please.’
Ty looks at Daze, raises his eyebrows.
‘I’m going to go and chill somewhere else,’ says Daze. He looks between us. ‘But you guys need to sort this out. I don’t like picking sides, especially when I have a brotherly duty to pick Ty’s side.’
Ty rolls his eyes and pushes him.
‘Come on,’ he says, nodding his head upstairs.
All this time, I’ve only been into the hallway of the Browns’ house. And it feels bizarre, as I knew it for so long as the Pointer house. Different but the same. The family photographs have morphed into tasteful art. New plants have sprung up. Daze has stuck a sign to his bedroom door.
We get to Ty’s room, and it feels like I’m going into Mr Pointer’s study, a room which for so long had been forbidden.
‘What?’ says Ty, seeing me hesitate.
‘This room used to be off limits,’ I say, turning the handle. ‘But I guess things are different now.’
Ty’s room is more artistic than I would have given him credit for. Huge black and white photographs hang on the wall, a record player and vinyl collection is stacked in the corner, where Mr Pointer’s desk used to be. It’s spotlessly clean. Unlike Ollie’s room, which always had some mess lurking in it.
‘So,’ says Ty, sitting down on his desk chair. ‘Why are you here? I’ve not heard from you all week.’
‘I’ve been struggling to know what to say to you,’ I confess, sitting down on the edge of his bed. ‘For once I’ve run out of words. And there’s been so much crap that’s been happening, and all I wanted was to tellyouabout it, but that would require addressing what’s been going on with me. What’s been going on with us.’
He crosses his arms. ‘And what has been going on with us?’
‘You’re important to me,’ I say, trying to look him in the eye.Say what you think and stand by it.
I take a deep breath, try to ground myself in what is real and true, and decide to tell him the truth, instead of running from it.
‘I liked Ollie,’ I say, and it hurts me to see how his face falls. ‘But I think I liked the Ollie I thought I knew, not the Ollie who actually exists. And it would have been a perfect ending, if we got together, and I got too wrapped up in the story. I wasn’t looking at what was right in front of me,’ I say.
I meet his eyes and they burn into me. I have to say it. I have to say what I think.
‘I like you, Ty.’
Ty shakes his head. ‘Then what about you and Ollie at your party?’
I rub my face. ‘It’s really not what you thought. At that moment, I had a revelation about how Ollie isn’t the person I thought he was. And I’m not the person he thinks I am too. You’re the person I told about Secret Sender, not him. You’re the one I’ve been talking to about my university applications, not him. He thinks I’m some wallflower, and you . . . you’ve never made me feel like that.’
‘Because you’re not.’
‘And there’s so much stuff that’s happened this week that I’ve wanted to talk to you about. Kira’s not speaking to me because I said some awful things at my party. Everyone knows I’m the Secret Sender. I had a face-off with Tori—’
‘Woah, woah, woah,’ says Ty. ‘What? All that’s happened in a week?’
