Revenge of a Chalet Girl: Read Free

“Really?”
    “Not exactly talking, I’d call it moaning.” Sophie called out.
    “And writhing, you were making the bed frame creak,” Amelia added, clearly disgruntled. Amy wished she could melt away.
    “Um, sorry.” She wanted to shrink back under her bedclothes.
    “Who’s Josh?” Tash asked.
    “Oh God, this is hideously embarrassing.” Amy pulled the duvet up over her head.
    “It’s only sex,” said Tash.
    “Hmm.” Amy winced beneath the covers. “I’m not really sure…”
    Only sex? There was nothing ‘only’ about sex with Josh. It had been fantastic.
    It had meant something.
    “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Go on, dish the dirt – Have you met someone? If so it’s about time.” Tash’s voice was matter of fact, as though it were a perfectly normal conversation. Her attitude reassured Amy a little.
    She poked her head out of the duvet. “I suppose I may as well tell you, I’ve got as much chance keeping a secret from you as from the Spanish Inquisition.”
    “Less chance,” Sophie called out. “Go on, you can tell us. If you don’t, you know Tash will only find out anyway.”
    “The Josh who arrived with the group today is, well, my ex…”
    “Really?” Tash sounded very alert all of a sudden.
    “Things didn’t end well. He was the love of my life. I thought we’d get married and…” Amy’s voice caught and she swallowed down the lump in her throat before continuing. “He dumped me, without any warning. We were getting on really well, there were no warning signs, nothing. It was a horrible shock and I um, didn’t take it very well.”
    Big understatement.
    She opened her mouth but no words came out. How could she describe how depressed she’d felt when Josh had left for his job in Saudi? Then she’d got the news about Grandad’s heart attack from mum. She’d been so close to him growing up and she’d not even got the chance to say goodbye.
    No warnings, just gone.
    She’d slid into a horrific black hole the GP had diagnosed as clinical depression, once her mum had frogmarched her to the surgery. It was very common, the matter of fact doctor had briskly told her as she handed over a prescription for anti-depressants.
    As though tablets could’ve brought either Josh or Grandad back.
    As it was, the tablets seemed to increase the fog in her brain. She cried less but she no longer felt like herself.
    She didn’t feel up to talking about the long months of depression, the aborted teacher-training course and the worried parents. Would they even understand, or were they from the ‘pull yourself together’ school of thought?
    Anyway, she’d moved on from all that.
    Josh didn’t check on me once. He moved abroad and never looked back.
    Stirrings of the old anger at his unrelenting silence simmered inside her, threatening to come to the boil. It hadn’t helped that he hadn’t been there to talk about Grandad. Josh had been her best friend as well as her boyfriend. They talked about everything. How did you just turn that off? Did it mean those years had never really meant anything?
    Her eyes hurt from holding back the tears. Anger and pain mingling to create a deadly mixture that ate away at her insides.
    For a moment, there was silence in the room but Amy didn’t trust herself to fill it.
    “The bastard,” Tash proclaimed. “So, it’s time for revenge.”
    “Revenge? I don’t know…” Amy wriggled uncomfortably in her bed. “I was thinking more along the lines of running away.”
    An indignant chorus filled the room.
    “You can’t run away. What are you, woman or wimp?” Tash asked.
    Um, I’m a wimp probably. If I’m being honest.
    “Woman,” Amy replied reluctantly when it became obvious Tash expected an answer.
    “This guy broke your heart, right?” Tash’s sharp features looked fierce in the moonlight, like an alley cat about to pounce. “He trampled all over your emotions. Led you on and then dumped you.”
    “Well yes, I suppose