BooksBarbecue
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

He said we need to talk about something serious. Here it comes, I thought. I braced, ready to receive his declaration of love.

‘I’m in love with someone else,’ he said.

I almost laughed, I was so shocked.

‘Who?’ I said in disbelief.

His childhood friend, Kendra. They’d been best friends for years. I knew her, but she didn’t go to our school, so we’d only met a handful of times. He had been in love with her for a long time, he said. As long as he could remember. He’d just never admitted it to himself until now.

It was a gut punch. Tristan was my emotional safety net. I had thought he was the kind of guy who would never leave me, never hurt me, never choose anyone else over me.

But he had never truly wanted me at all.

10

10

This is it. Today is the day I am going to start running. I will officially be a runner in about an hour, after I complete a lap of the Tan, the running track that is both conveniently near-ish to my house and the first result when I googled ‘best place to run in Melbourne’. I’m trying to keep my expectations reasonable, but there’s a lot of pressure on this first run. It needs to be my first step towards fitness. It needs to unlock all of my creativity. It needs to turn me into the kind of person I imagine a runner to be: strong, energised, arrogant but in an attractive, powerful way. I am also hoping it will cure my insomnia, expose me to enough sunshine to instantly increase my vitamin D levels, stop the weird ache in my lower stomach that I woke up with this morning, and squash the anxiety that comes with my new, all-encompassing crisis of the day: Dad is in Melbourne for work and wants to have dinner with me tonight.

Lauren said, ‘Don’t go, just say no. Tell him you’re busy—he’s only given you twenty-four-hours notice.’ But I haven’t seen him in almost a year—no wait, it’s been more than a year—and I’m not busy. And what kind of daughter pretends to be busy to get out of dinner with the father she never sees?

‘You’ll regret it,’ Lauren said.

‘I won’t,’ I insisted. The sun is shining, I’m about to go running, my life is full of potential, and maybe everything will be different. Maybe Dad and I will go out for dinner and we’ll laugh and bond and have a surprisingly great and normal time.