The One and Only Read Free

to call Trisha,’ Mum said. ‘See if she can come round.’
    I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Good idea.’
    Trisha was Mum’s friend. Her best friend really. They hadn’t known each other that long. Mum had met her at some ante-natal clinic. Trisha was pregnant too. She was divorced, with a three-year-old daughter. She and Mum really hit it off. They were always getting together, giggling over, like, one glass of wine, telling themselves how naughty they were to be drinking at all.
    I liked Trisha. She treated me like a grown-up, which was more than any of Mum’s other friends ever had. Mum had fallen out with most of them when she started seeing Matt. They all said it was too soon after Dad died. Then when she got pregnant it was the final straw. I overheard a couple of them talking once, saying Mum was like a teenager – really irresponsible.
    That pissed me off. Why does everyone think teenagers are automatically irresponsible? I mean, it wasn’t like I’d got my girlfriend pregnant.
    Yeah right, Luke. Get real. You weren’t even having sex.
    I gritted my teeth and carried on walking up the stairs.
    Several weeks passed. The weather got colder. Mum got fatter. Matt came round less and less. And Ryan kept nagging me to call Hayley.
    ‘Eve’s going to be away for a whole year,’ he kept saying. ‘You can’t live like a frigging monk.’
    Even Chloe joined in.
    ‘I think you’re being a bit of an idiot,’ she said. ‘Even if Eve still wants to go out with you when she’s back, I’m sure she’d understand you going on a date. I mean, she wouldn’t expect you to stay in all the time.’
    I shrugged. I’d been round to see Eve’s mum a couple of times since Bonfire Night. She’d said Eve had sounded happier since she’d decided to accept staying on for the whole year. She also said Eve kept insisting I should forget her. Get on with my life.
    There was no way I could know if she was telling the truth. No way I could know what Eve really felt.
    It was horrible.
    Then, at the beginning of the final week of term, in the middle of a freezing cold, dark December, Chloe dropped a bombshell that put Eve out of my head for almost an entire evening.
    ‘I’m moving out,’ she said.
    We were eating tea together. It was one of the few occasions Mum had managed to get the three of us to sit round the table this year. Usually Chloe just came and went as she pleased. So I’d been surprised when she’d joined us. Now I saw why.
    ‘What are you talking about?’ Mum snapped.
    I chewed slowly on a mouthful of lasagne.
    ‘I’ve got a job,’ Chloe said nonchalantly. ‘In a shop in town. Starts on Sunday. So I’m leaving school. And I’m moving into this house-share in South London. It’s this girl’s parents’ house. They own lots of places – rent them out. But because it’s her, the rent’s dead cheap.’
    Mum’s mouth dropped open. ‘What about school? You can’t just leave home like this. It’s—’
    ‘Perfectly legal,’ Chloe smirked. ‘I’m seventeen. I can do what I like.’
    ‘No you can’t.’ Mum thumped the table. Her face was bright red. ‘Chloe, this is so typical. You cannot just—’
    ‘Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do!’ Chloe shouted.
    I stood up and took my plate up to my room.
    I could hear their voices all the way up the stairs and through the walls and door of my bedroom. I sat down on the bed. There was no point Mum yelling like that. I knew from experience that Chloe was going to do whatever she wanted. Nothing and no one would stop her. Well. Maybe one person might.
    A few minutes later I heard Chloe stomp up the stairs. I darted out onto the landing and caught her as she was going into her room.
    ‘Does Ryan know?’
    ‘Of course.’ Chloe tried to shut her door. I pushed my foot against it, forcing it open.
    Chloe swore at me.
    ‘Doesn’t he mind?’ I said. ‘If you’re on the other side of London you won’t see each other so much.’
    I’d mind,