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Chapters (86)
  1. Title Page
  2. CONTENTS
  3. Love
  4. Before
  5. One
  6. ONE
  7. Two
  8. TWO
  9. Three
  10. THREE
  11. Four
  12. FOUR
  13. Five
  14. FIVE
  15. Six
  16. SIX
  17. Seven
  18. SEVEN
  19. Eight
  20. EIGHT
  21. Nine
  22. NINE
  23. Ten
  24. TEN
  25. Eleven
  26. ELEVEN
  27. After
  28. One
  29. ONE
  30. Two
  31. TWO
  32. Three
  33. THREE
  34. Four
  35. FOUR
  36. Five
  37. FIVE
  38. Six
  39. SIX
  40. Seven
  41. SEVEN
  42. Eight
  43. EIGHT
  44. Nine
  45. NINE
  46. Ten
  47. TEN
  48. Eleven
  49. ELEVEN
  50. Twelve
  51. TWELVE
  52. Thirteen
  53. THIRTEEN
  54. Fourteen
  55. FOURTEEN
  56. Fifteen
  57. FIFTEEN
  58. Sixteen
  59. SIXTEEN
  60. Seventeen
  61. SEVENTEEN
  62. Eighteen
  63. EIGHTEEN
  64. Nineteen
  65. NINETEEN
  66. Twenty
  67. TWENTY
  68. Twenty-One
  69. TWENTY-ONE
  70. Twenty-Two
  71. TWENTY-TWO
  72. Twenty-Three
  73. TWENTY-THREE
  74. Twenty-Four
  75. TWENTY-FOUR
  76. Twenty-Five
  77. TWENTY-FIVE
  78. Twenty-Six
  79. TWENTY-SIX
  80. Twenty-Seven
  81. TWENTY-SEVEN
  82. Twenty-Eight
  83. TWENTY-EIGHT
  84. Eleven Months Later
  85. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  86. Copyright

‘That’s never happened to me before,’ Poppy says, letting go of my arm as we carry on walking towards Chichester Terrace and I wonder if she knows what I’m thinking. ‘Has it you?’

I shake my head.

‘I didn’t think people like that still existed, especially in Brighton.’

‘Oh they do,’ I tell her with a sad sigh, tucking my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket.

‘I can’t believe it.’ She looks genuinely shocked, raising her hand to sweep her hair out of her face.

‘You OK?’ I ask with a frown.

‘Yeah,’ she says and I believe her. ‘It’s just funny, because as a girl, you worry about cab drivers locking you in their cabs, not kicking you out of them.’

She stops and I realise that we must be outside her building. It’s one of those wedding-cake white houses with the wide windows that look out on to the sea that were converted into flats years ago.

‘You coming in?’ she asks, unzipping her handbag and pulling out a set of keys.

I want to, of course. I’ve been desperate to see where she lives. Her room. Her clothes. The photos she has stuck around her mirror. I hope her flat is on the top floor because, while not as high as Kingfisher Court, it will finally give me a chance to see what the sea looks like when it isn’t interrupted by rows and rows of rooftops. But I hesitate, wondering if her parents are home and if this is it, she’s going to introduce me to them.

I’m not ready, I realise. I’m wearing jeans and a hoodie. They can’t meet me looking like this. Plus, I’m only halfway through her mother’s book about the Wonders of the Cosmos because Rosh nicked it when I came back from the library with it and read it first.

Poppy must know that I’m panicking, because she turns to look at me and licks her lips with a wicked smirk. ‘Don’t worry. My parents aren’t home.’

That’s even worse! I’m not ready for that, either, to be alone with her. I mean, I’ve been alone with her, but not alone alone. I was hoping it would happen eventually, but I didn’t know it was going to happen today. I have special underwear that I was going to put on and I didn’t shave my legs this morning because my father insisted on standing outside the bathroom door, yelling at me to get out of the shower.

‘Stop overthinking it, you.’ She laughs, reaching for the sleeve of my leather jacket and leading me up the steps towards the front door. ‘You’ll give yourself a headache.’