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Tears gather in the corner of Aiden’s eyes. ‘Have you told your mother you want to stop treatment?’
‘You know me too well, Aiden,’ I say. ‘You really, really do.’
‘So you haven’t told her,’ Aiden says.
‘Not yet.’
‘Oh, Kayla,’ Aiden says, becoming a little unsteady on his feet. He’s acting a bit more like my parents now and I wait for him to make a U-turn and tell me this is all crazy. He’d be right.
‘Is this going to get us in trouble?’ Aiden asks.
‘Maybe.’ I shrug.Ouch, ouch, ouch, my spine hurts.
‘Oh God, it isn’t illegal, is it?’ Aiden adds.
‘Ha! Eh no, but there might be time for that yet.’
‘Kay—’
‘Jokes. Jokes,’ I say. ‘This is all perfectly legal. A bit out there. And really, really cool. Are you in?’
Aiden takes a deep breath and says, ‘I’m in.’
FORTY-ONE
KAYLA
‘Hey, hey, hey,’ I say as Molly bounces into my room. I laugh as I watch Charlotte desperately try to wrangle her hyper daughter but Molly charges towards me, as happy and cheerful as always.
‘I missed you soooooo much,’ she says. ‘I learned a song in school. Do you want to hear it?’
I don’t have time to answer before Molly breaks into song.
‘Zoo, zoo, who’s in the zoo?’
‘How are you, kiddo?’ Dad says, talking over Molly as she stomps around the room as if she’s a single troop lost from a marching band.
‘I’m okay,’ I lie.
‘Shh, Molly. Not so loud,’ Charlotte says. ‘Sorry, Kayla. She’s just so excited to see you.’
‘I’m excited to see her too,’ I say, struggling to speak loud enough to be heard over the noise Molly is creating.
‘Hello, Aiden,’ Dad says, acting awkward, as if he knows he’s interrupted an important conversation between Aiden and me.
‘Hey, Mr Doran. Kay and I were just watching some videos on YouTube,’ Aiden says.
Ugh, I groan inwardly, painfully aware that my phone is on the locker beside my bed and Aiden’s phone is peeking out of his backpack on the seat next to him.
‘Really?’ Dad asks, raising a curious eyebrow.
‘No, not really,’ I say, attempting to cover up. ‘We were talking about school actually.’
‘Yeah,’ Aiden jumps in, way too enthusiastic.
‘Zoo. Zoo. Zoo,’ Molly continues to sing and dance.
Aiden twists in his chair and unzips his rucksack to pull out something. ‘Look,’ he says, holding a colourful flyer over his head.
