Never a Perfect Moment Read Free Page A

normal.”
    Rhi looked at her hands. “When we lost my sister in the car crash, I wanted everything to go back to normal too,” she said quietly. “But it never did. When someone dies, nothing is the same, ever again.”
    Tears spilled down Rhi’s cheeks. Polly was appalled at herself. She’d put her foot in it twice, in as many seconds. That had to be some kind of record.
    â€œRhi, I’m so sorry,” she said helplessly. “Can you forgive me for talking without thinking?”
    Rhi rubbed the tears from her face. “It’s not you. I feel like a leaky tap at the moment,” she said with a shaky laugh. “This whole thing with Ryan has brought back some really tough memories. And not just for me. For my parents as well.”
    Polly touched Rhi’s arm in sympathy. “Is it really bad at home?”
    â€œPretty bad, yeah,” Rhi admitted. “Dad’s been spending time with Mr Jameson, helping him work through his grief. Maybe it’s helpful, being with someone who understands what it feels like to lose a child. But Dad’s coming home with all this extra grief on his shoulders. It’s hard to be around him just now. Mum’s not talking about it, but you can see on her face how much it’s affected her. She’s working even harder than she usually does, trying to pretend that everything’s OK.”
    â€œThat must be so difficult.”
    Polly could hardly imagine what Rhi and her parents were going through. She found a tissue in her pocket and handed it over. Rhi took it gratefully.
    â€œEverything’s such a mess,” she sniffed into the tissue. “I wish I could rewind it all.”
    Polly knew exactly what Rhi meant. “None of this was your fault,” she reminded her friend.
    â€œWasn’t it?” Rhi’s eyes were haunted. “You weren’t even up on the cliff when it happened, Polly. It was surreal. One minute we were all singing along to one of Brody’s songs and the firelight was flickering over the rocks – and then Ryan and Lila appeared and everything changed.”
    â€œDon’t go through it all again, Rhi—”
    â€œI have to,” Rhi interrupted. “I have to work out if I could have prevented it, you know? Max told Ryan not to jump. Ryan called him a chicken. I was sitting right there . I could have grabbed Ryan, maybe, or… ”
    â€œPlease don’t, Rhi,” said Polly helplessly. “You can’t change any of it. It was an accident.”
    A bell rang somewhere overhead, signifying the start of afternoon classes. Rhi blew her nose and struggled to compose herself. Polly could hardly bear to see the misery on her friend’s face. She had to make Rhi smile again.
    â€œSo the Heartbeat Café was one of my dumber ideas,” she said. “But I still think we should get together. Just the girls, maybe. You could all come over to my house. It would be good to talk, don’t you think? Properly. Not just for five minutes, snatched between school bells. We haven’t all been together since the day of Ryan’s funeral. That afternoon on the beach.”
    Polly could picture that day so clearly in her mind. She and Rhi, crossing the wind-blown beach to where Lila and Eve were standing beside the pretty memorial they had made for Ryan in the sand. Eve, telling them all that she was gay.
    â€œWhen you say ‘the girls’,” said Rhi, interrupting Polly’s train of thought, “does that include Eve?”
    â€œYes,” said Polly. “We vowed on the beach that day that we would try and be better friends for each other, didn’t we? And although she’s a difficult person to be friends with, that means Eve too.”
    Rhi looked unhappy. “I’m not ready to spend time with Eve yet.”
    Polly frowned. “Why not? Because she’s gay?”
    â€œNo, of course not. I don’t have a problem