Page 59 of Now and Again

India knew Riley was bi. That was… Well, it wasn’t really… India just didn’t like to think about that. She also didn’t like thinking aboutwhyshe didn’t like thinking about that. It wasn’t important. All that mattered was that Riley was her best friend in the world, and nothing would ever be allowed to come between them. Boyfriends came and went, but they were real. They were forever.

She finally made her way to the back door. She put her hand on the door handle, looking through the glass—Riley, at last. She was talking to…

For fuck’s sakes. What wasshedoing here?

It didn’t matter why. It didn’t matter that she’d gotten all gussied up either. She could dress like a real person all she liked. India knew who Juliet was. Just another person trying to take Riley away.

India walked through the house to the front, leaving the building. But she wasn’t really leaving. She tiptoed around the side of the house, through the back gate, entering the back garden, though she didn’t walk out into the open. She stayed just around the corner of the house, hidden. India didn’t know why she was doing this. She supposed she just wanted to hear what they were saying, so she could confirm what she thought. That Riley had gotten stuck with Juliet. Then India could go over and drag her off, and they’d laugh about it.

Only that wasn’t what she heard. They were talking. Really talking. Riley was telling Juliet about her dad. She’d never told India any of that. Then Juliet told her some fucking cringy stuff in exchange, some story about her first kiss. India was disgusted. But it got worse. Juliet had some sort of clunky accident and then, for some godforsaken reason, Riley kissed her.

India froze, horrified, sick to her stomach. She wanted to scream. She went back inside. That little bitch. She wastaking her Riley. She’d only just gotten her back from Jack and now this? Who the fuck did Juliet think she was? Nobody. This would not stand.

NOW

‘So I told her you told me a bunch of personal stuff about her and that we were laughing at her, and she was fuckingdevastated,’India said,chuckling.‘It was so good. Every time I think about it, I still laugh.’

Riley looked at India, astonished. ‘I can’t believe I didn’t see this. This is what she meant. This is why she thinks I’m like you.’

‘Who, Juliet?’ India said, her voice dripping with disdain. ‘Yeah, she’s so deep, isn’t she? With her books and her shit clothes and her little job. It doesn’t take much to fool you, does it?’

‘I suppose it doesn’t,’ Riley told her oldest friend. ‘All the times I’ve defended you. Just because you were nice tome, in your own way. But you’re mean. I guess you always were.’

India rolled her eyes. ‘Fuck off, good girl. Seriously, get the hell out of my place. I’ve got two hot guys coming around, and you know what? I’m totally gonna have a threesome with them.’

Riley did want to leave. But what India had just said sounded too sad not to be commented on. ‘It won’t help anything,’ Riley warned her. She wasn’t sure why she was bothering. For old times’ sake, maybe.

‘Don’t tell me what to do. I’m not your problem anymore, right?’ she said. Riley heard the wobble in her voice. Part of her wanted to comfort India. Because she was a sad girl with dreadful deep-seated issues. But India had always been India’s biggest problem, and there had never been anything Riley could do about that. ‘Bye, India. Take care of yourself.’

India didn’t respond to that, and Riley shut the door quietly behind her.

She checked into a hotel that night. Though she didn’t sleep for even a minute. She was turning it all over. One piece of new information from a decade ago and she didn’t know anything anymore.

Only maybe she did know something. She’d kept Juliet at arm’s length because of this one thing. When she thought over every discarded opportunity to be close to her, she shuddered. She’d wanted it. And she’d told herself she couldn’t have it.

She’d made the most terrible mistake.

Twenty-Seven

Juliet looked at thirty screaming children running around the enclosure at Kute Kidz Daycare. She had forgotten the wall of sound that kids could generate en masse. It was something of a shock. ‘So, this is your usual number?’ she asked Deb, the woman who ran the place. ‘Yep. Legal limit. I’m careful not to go over. Not after they shut the last place. One little measles outbreak and everyone loses their marbles,’ Deb told her morosely. ‘You gonna take it then?’

‘Oh, I got the job?’ Juliet asked, not particularly excited.

‘Yeah,’ Deb shrugged. ‘If you want it?’

‘Can I think about it?’

‘You’ve got till tomorrow because there was another girl on the shortlist, and she’s also got an interview at Krazy Kids down the road, and I’d hate to lose her if you don’t want the job.’

Juliet had also been to Krazy Kids this morning. The name wasn’t a joke. ‘I’ll give you an answer by the morning,’ she vowed to Deb.

As she left, she thought it would probably be a yes. Kute Kidz was the lesser of two evils. On the bus home, she didn’t feel great about the decision, but it was time to get on with her life and stop delaying the inevitable.

She arrived at Becca’s half an hour later and found someone on the doorstep she didn’t expect. ‘Hello,’ she said.

‘Hi,’ said the surprise visitor.

‘What are you doing here, Mike?’ she asked the man. He looked different from the last time she saw him. Shorter somehow. She realised it was an illusion cast by a stoop in his posture.

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