Page 78 of Plot Twist

I whipped my head up to look at her as we sat in the car, side by side. I gulped.

This couldn’t be real, surely? Rae must have the wrong end of the stick. Drew had point-blank denied anything was happening between them. He’d just said it was all in my head. He’d accused me of being in the wrong. Surely, he couldn’t have just acted his way through all that?

My heart thudded in my chest along to the low beat of the radio in the background of Rae’s car.

‘What?’ I whispered. ‘How do you know?’

She sighed. ‘Someone I know saw them together. Like,togethertogether. I was going to tell you, but I thought he might come clean. Clearly not. He didn’t confess at all?’

I could feel my heart cracking, threatening to break into a thousand pieces. It was hanging by a thread.

‘What do you mean together?’

‘I wasn’t going to spell it out. . . but they were full-on snogging outside one of the hotel rooms. . .’

My stomach dropped faster than the rollercoaster we’d gone on together so many times over the summer. I pictured us in the honeymoon suite together, Drew pulling my hand, begging me to ignore the phone call from Rae. Then I envisaged him doing the exact same thing with Leila, re-enacting the scene with his best moves. The pink flowers and all.

Out with the old and in with the new.

The bastard. How could he?

‘You’re sure?’ I said.

She nodded and, unbuckling her seatbelt, reached over to cuddle me. Her leather jacket smelled like male aftershave.

‘I think everyone knows, Becca. It’s apparently been the talk of the theme park for weeks now,’ she said.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘Well, I didn’t know until last night. I wouldn’t go back to the theme park if you paid me.’ She shrugged.

She wouldn’t go back there because Mickey had pretty much banned her from going. She was allowed to see me on occasion but that was about it these days. But I didn’t say that.

My cheeks burned at the thought of everyone knowing about Leila and Drew apart from me. How could I have been so blind? I mean, it had literally been there in front of my eyes. The pictures on her page. Him working ‘extra shifts’ so he could try and persuade them to promote him again. He’d just been promoted, how far up the ladder was he hoping to go? All the way up her skirt, apparently.

I shuddered.

‘By the way,’ she said, starting the engine. ‘I’m moving to Edinburgh. Mickey and I are getting a place together.’

It took all my strength to form the vowel response in my mouth.

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Why Edinburgh?’

‘He’s got a job there. I’m young, free and jobless so might as well go with him.’

‘You’re sure about this?’ I frowned.

‘Oh look, can you stop picking at us all the time? You could be happy for me,’ she pointed out. ‘For us.’

She tutted and stopped at a red light.

‘I’m happy if you’re happy,’ I said.

‘Well, could you tell your face that?’

I turned away to look out of the window so Rae couldn’t see the tears forming in my eyes.

37