“I like your room,” Ruby said, inspecting a ceramic giraffe I’d had as long as I could remember.

“It’s a box graveyard now and not exactly like your room,” I said, thinking of the high ceilings and expensive furniture in Ruby’s room.

“That’s not my room,” Ruby said. “It’s nothing like Oliver’s house.”

“What’s it like?”

She thought about it. “Claustrophobic. Not because it’s small though. Although it is small.”

That didn’t make sense. I had a picture of Ruby’s room in my head and while it probably had the decorative sensibilities of Aladdin’s cave, I assumed it also had the expansive square footage.

I had to stop making things up in my head and then believing them as if they were true.

“Why, then?”

“Do you actually want to know?” Ruby stopped rummaging and rounded on me, hands on her hips.

“Of course I do,” I said. I could feel a hot flush on my chest. I had obviously avoided asking Ruby anything about her life back in England and she clearly noticed because she’s not stupid. But if I avoided it now, it would look really odd.

“It’s not fun,” she said, and I heard a note of bitterness.

“That’s OK,” I said. Perhaps I had to be a bit more flexible or it would only highlight how cagey I was being. I hadn’t thought about it like that before.

“Is it, though? I mean, you didn’t tell me your dad was getting remarried in a few weeks, which is really weird. You never even mentioned Beth.”

I didn’t like where this was going. We were meant to be having a conversation about her family. I felt tricked.

“It’s pretty recent news to me too. I was going to tell you.” I tried to force my tone into something resembling patience. “I thought we could go to the wedding together before you leave,” I offered. “Check off the slow dance there.”

Of course I’d never intended to tell her about the wedding, but she knew now so I might as well try to use it.

She didn’t respond to my invitation. Rude.

“What else don’t you talk about? Do you ever tell me anything real? You’re really weird whenever Oxford comes up.”

I suppose it was too much to hope that she hadn’t picked up on that, in spite of Beth’s diversionary tactics.