Page 52 of Plot Twist

Following him, I ran down the hill, until the rainbow disappeared somewhere along the way.

‘I’ve never believed in that pot of gold bullshit,’ I declared, out of breath. ‘Seems unlikely to me.’

‘You can be very cynical, you know,’ Riley said. ‘For a children’s writer.’

‘We can’t all be dreaming up the happily ever afters, Riley.’ I shrugged. ‘Sometimes it’s not as easy as that.’

‘Don’t I know it,’ he eventually whispered into the distance.

21

TEN YEARS AGO

After a quiet morning, Rae wandered over at lunchtime, as usual, and we walked around the lake together.

‘Want half of my sandwich?’

‘Yup,’ I agreed. ‘The less we spend on food, the more we get to put towards Tenerife.’

Rae looked at the ground and tore her sandwich in half, before handing me the other half.

‘What’s up?’ I asked. ‘You still hungry? You can have it all if you want, I’ll walk over and get my own.’

‘It’s not that,’ she said. ‘It’s Mickey. He doesn’t want me to go.’

Bloody Mickey. The two of them were always squabbling about something or other. He was making Rae miserable. But they always seemed to make up and Rae didn’t seem to see the issue.

‘Why not?’ I demanded.

‘Well, Drew won’t want you to go either.’ Rae shrugged. ‘I mean, how would you feel if he told you he was going on a lads’ holiday right now? You’d be raging about it.’

‘I would not,’ I replied, even though we both knew that was a lie. ‘I would trust him and hope he has a great time.’

We stopped at our usual bench but it was soaking so we kept walking instead. Rae popped up her brolly and we huddled underneath.

‘Well, Mickey said it’s him or the holiday.’

‘You are kidding, Rae? That’s the whole point in us being here, to save money for it. You wouldn’t have met him if it wasn’t for the holiday. Tell him to piss off. We’re going to Tenerife. No matter what Mickey says.’

She swallowed the last of the sandwich and scrolled through her phone, selecting the Rihanna song that we listened to every day. It seemed to cheer her up.

‘Yeah, you’re right. We’re going. I bet this song is everywhere over in Tenerife just now,’ she said, moving the brolly above us around to the rhythm of the beat. ‘We’ll dance ’til the sun comes up, Becca. It’ll be epic.’

‘We found love in a hopeless place,’ I joined in with the song and Rae laughed as we made our way back to the ice cream van.

Rae’s shoulders slumped. She was wearing the same uniform she’d been given at the start of the summer but there was no push-up bra in sight. She wasn’t even wearing any lipstick. I frowned at her.

‘Just tell Mickey you’re going. Don’t take any bullshit, Rae.’

‘I know. I won’t,’ she said.

‘Close your eyes.’

My spine tingled as Drew whispered in my ear and put his hands over my eyes.

‘Where are we going?’ I demanded.

‘Patience is a virtue, Becca,’ he said, guiding me along with his hand.