Melody and I drove from my tiny town of West Creek to Sydney, flew fourteen hours across the Pacific Ocean and waited for several more in the airport terminal, only to jump on another flight, Alaska Airlines, and travel five more hours up the coast of the Unites States. Why? I’m meeting my father for the first time. He bought me two business-class tickets, so I can’t complain about the leg room or library of films to choose from. Before the rom-com, I binged them all during the longhaul flight to the States and watched everything from stand-up comics, to the latest Marvel film, to a wildlife documentary series. The flight attendant even added a soft undersheet to my flat bed.

It’s nearing the end of my summer holidays and I’m spending three whole weeks with my father in Alaska, which is pretty much the North Pole. It’s literally going to be minus a billion degrees. Luckily, my aunt Paula bought me a thick coat, gloves and a scarf before I left.

I live with Paula and my uncle Dave in West Creek now; after Mum died, like heroes they welcomed me into their home, trying to make me feel safe, loved and secure, although it took me a long time to appreciate that.

Melody was my mother’s best friend for fifteen years and lived with us in our Sydney apartment. She was my friend slash big sister. When I was a baby, she even bathed, fed and changed me when Mum was working. After kindergarten or school, we often sat in cafes together sharing dessert. She listened to my daily rants about the teachers I adored and despised, and told me her guy dramas, often with TMI—way too much information. On Sundays, we would lie on the couch together watching movies, laughing at the jokes and quoting lines, with my feet on her lap. When I was eight, she taught me how to plait my hair, and at fourteen— when I’d shot up, lost my puppy fat, grown lean and taller than average and looked like a grown-up woman but with barely any curves—she let me taste her wine at dinner. She saw me grow up.

Now she’s my ex-friend and just the woman who betrayed my mum by sleeping with my father— something I only found out recently. My father’s hardly off the hook for that one either.

Mum never knew about it and never will. Melody said it was a one-time thing and my mother wasn’t officially dating him anyway so wouldn’t have been bothered in the slightest. But if that were true, why wouldn’t Melody tell her? The only reason can be that she doesn’t care about anyone except herself.