And even better, I now know which house is hers. Maybe I should be a detective when I leave school because it was so easy to work it out. I waited until it was almost dark, then went out dressed in black, like in the films. Her street is only short, and I spotted her through her front window inside five minutes. It’s one of those houses where the main room runs front to back, super tiny, so then I went into the field and spotted her again. There was even a hedge to hide behind there, so I could take my time. She lives with an older woman, maybe her grandma, and they don’t seem to have any curtains on the back, which is good for me.

Anyway, that’s me signing off. Hopefully next time I go to Becca’s house, it will be through the front door.

Katherine closes the journal and straightens out her legs. That’s at least two minutes, she realises with a rare swell of pride. Which means she can wash the shit off her face without feeling like a failure. She opens her bedroom door and scurries into the bathroom on the opposite side of the landing, like a soldier running for cover. But luckily there’s no ambush. Javier is still at work and everyone else is downstairs; she can hear them murmuring to each other amidst the thrum of the washing machine and tinny sounds of Radio Two. She rinses her face in the sink with her eyes closed and pats it dry with a towel. Her skin will look terrible now, red and inflamed, but it will be better in an hour; that’s what the dermatologist said. And if she keeps going with this new wonder cream, it should be better permanently soon. So if she could just work out a way of shedding her fat thighs she might even start to look somewhere close to half decent. Becca would probably like her more if she did.

Katherine retreats to her bedroom and listens to the satisfying click of her door closing. Shit, the journal is still on her bed, exposed. She grabs it by the spine. But with the pages loose, shiny paper slips out and drops to the floor. She swears again, then leans down and collects the dozen or so photos. But before she guides them back into her journal, she can’t help flicking through them. Because Becca looks as beautiful on film as she does in real life.

December 2021

December 2021

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Beth