Page 29 of The Fall I Fell

I shook my head.

‘Well, it’s nothing serious. It’s just what they decide to call discos now, which is stupid because disco sounds far more exciting.’

‘Lizzie, focus.’ I couldn’t help but chuckle at the way she danced around her point.

‘But it’s so pathetic and really not me, and I’m embarrassed for even being bothered.’

I flashed her a stern look.

‘Fine … I don’t know what to wear.’ She mumbled it under her breath, but I caught it loud and clear.

I don’t think I had seen her in anything but cut-off jeans and hand-me-down t-shirts from one of her cousins before, so I could understand her conflict. ‘Well, what would you feel most comfortable in?’

‘Are pyjamas an option?’ She ran a hand down her face so roughly that she was beginning to have the look of Darth Maul about her.

‘You know you don’t have to pretend to be someone completely different to these things, right?’ I asked gently.

‘But I want to look nice. I’m constantly in scruffy clothes and I’m starting to think people at school think I’m one of the animals that live on the farm.’ My heart ached for her. Lizzie, despite her bossiness when it came to playing pretend, was a girl crafted entirely of kindness. Not a bad bone grew in her body, she worked harder than any Thorogood boy, and loved her family more than anything in the world. The thought of anyone having any sort of negative opinion of her made my big-sister instincts kick in. I knew I had to do something.

‘Why don’t we make you something? Something that looks fancy, but is still you, and still comfy?’

‘Make something?’ She furrowed her brows.

‘Yeah! I could take your measurements while I’m still here and borrow Granny’s sewing machine. I’m sure she won’t mind. She’s been teaching me a few different stitches and things, so I reckon it will be good practise.’ I had been looking for every excuse to find a fashion project. Both Callum and I were fed up of me making him various embroidered shirts – they weren’t exactly the latest trend for a fifteen-year-old boy. I longed for someone to dress up, and Lizzie was the closest thing I had.

‘You’d do that for me?’

‘Of course. It’ll be fun, and it will give me something to do when I don’t have you guys to entertain me.’ She sighed with relief this time and leaned over the box, planting the heaviest kiss on my forehead that I’d ever received.

‘You’re amazing.’ She grinned. ‘Thank you.’

‘Have you got a date for the evening?’ I wiggled my eyebrows and she rolled her eyes.

‘Nope. I was hoping that if I look a little better put together then I can maybe pre-order a date for next year. But honestly, I’m not bothered. I’ll know enough people there. I was hoping Jake or Alfie would keep me company, but apparently Pen is going to ask Jake, so I’ll be stuck with Alfie, and you know how much anyone would love that.’

‘Jacob has a date?’ My ears pricked up at the sound of his name. Sweat began to prickle at the back of my neck and on my palms and I shifted away from the fireplace, hoping to get away from its heat.

‘No, Pen in his year wants to ask him. I’m not sure he’ll say yes though. He’s too busy rolling around like a pig in the mud to notice girls.’

I hardly heard what she was saying, my ears rang as I tried to imagine Jacob at a ‘prom’ at all, let alone with a girl on his arm.

‘The only girl I’ve ever seen him with that’s not family is you. I can’t imagine him on a date.’ She faked a gag and I almost felt the real thing overcome me.

And Pen? Who is Pen? I thought. I had never heard him mention her before. Why wouldn’t he have brought her up if they were close enough to go to a dance together? My mind raced a million miles a minute trying to picture this girl, picture her with Jacob, until my stomach twisted itself into knots and I was starting to regret the toffee apple I had snuck from the buffet earlier.

‘What’s she like?’ I asked. I’m not sure I really wanted to know, but I couldn’t stop myself.

‘Pen? She’s nice. She’s musical and pretty. One of the popular girls at school, but she isn’t a cow about it.’ I was praying Lizzie would say the opposite. Not that I’d wish for Jacob to be with someone awful, but the twisting in my gut couldn’t handle the thought of them being well-suited. ‘You’ll have to meet her. I think he invited her tonight.’

I tried to smile and nodded, trying not to let on that I now wished to walk in that party less now than ever.

‘I’m not sure Jake will go with her though, he’s so preoccupied with pining after y—’

‘You know you guys are missing the party, right?’ Callum cut her off as he wandered into the kitchen, his Yoda costume already covered in the green paint from his face. At the sound of his voice, Lizzie froze, and without finishing her sentence, she threw both her legs over the sill of the ground floor window and hopped down into the dark of the night, as though fleeing from an intergalactic villain. Both Callum and I were left staring, open mouthed, too stunned to even move.

‘She okay?’ Callum finally spoke after a few beats of silence passed between us as we tried to figure out what we’d just seen.

‘No idea. We were talking about her going to prom, and then you showed up and you must have scared her in your costume.’ I looked him up and down. I’m pretty sure he’d fashioned a few old potato sacks into a cloak and rubbed his face against a tray of face paint. His lack of talent in costume making was scary, but other than that, it was pretty tame. He just looked like a sack of sprouts, if he hadn’t been walking around muddling the syntax in all of his sentences. ‘Did you match with Lizzie on purpose?’ I asked my brother.