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Back Unnecessary Drama Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. COVER PAGE
  2. TEXT LOGO PAGE
  3. ABOUT THE BOOK
  4. DEDICATION
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
  15. 11
  16. 12
  17. 13
  18. 14
  19. 15
  20. 16
  21. 17
  22. 18
  23. 19
  24. 20
  25. 21
  26. 22
  27. 23
  28. 24
  29. 25
  30. 26
  31. 27
  32. 28
  33. 29
  34. 30
  35. 31
  36. 32
  37. 33
  38. 34
  39. 35
  40. 36
  41. 37
  42. 38
  43. 39
  44. 40
  45. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  46. ALSO BY NINA KENWOOD
  47. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  48. PRAISE
  49. NEW MARKETING PAGE

Harper is a year older than me and her family owns the house. She has a small, lovely flower tattoo on her shoulder, she wears lots of delicate gold rings layered on her fingers, her dark, curly hair perfectly frames her face, her eyeliner skills far exceed anything I will ever be capable of, and she mentioned two bands I’d never heard of in our first conversation this afternoon. I’m hoping this mouse incident doesn’t ruin my already slim chance of becoming her friend.

‘Oh. God. Sorry. I’ve never seen one in the bedroom before.’ She frowns, runs a hand through her curls.

Which raises the question: where has she seen them? She can see my face, clocking her words, thinking about the possible number of mice she has seen in the house, and she shakes her head.

‘No, no, don’t worry. We don’t have a mouse infestation or anything. I saw one in the backyard last week, that’s all. The house is pretty old. Tomorrow we can put foil and steel wool in the floorboard cracks,’ she says.

She already warned me that the gap in the back door means the lounge room can get cold but you can plug it with a towel and it’s mostly fine. And that the tap in the bathroom drips unless you turn it so tight you can almost not turn it on again. Also, the back gate lock sticks because the gate is warped, there might be just a touch of mould in winter, the oven rattles and shakes and sometimes turns itself off, the towel rack and the toilet-roll holder fall off the walls constantly and we just need to ignore the weird smell in the hall cupboard that you can never fully get rid of.

All that but she never said anything about mice.

I ignore my pounding heart and smile at her, dropping my hands back to my sides, and say, ‘Sounds good. See you in the morning.’ I lower myself back into my bed, as if I might sleep again tonight, rather than immediately googling ‘diseases you can catch from a mouse’.

2

2

It’s 7 am, and the house is silent. I miraculously managed to fall asleep after learning through extensive research that the mouse probably wasn’t carrying any diseases and also that mice can’t see very well, so the meaningful eye contact between us that was haunting me might not have been as intense as I imagined.