Page 20 of Try Hard
Still no message from Fia. But, I pushed the phone back into my pocket and lavished all of my attention on the shaggy monster in my lap.
I could feel Soph watching me, but I hadn’t expected her to catapult herself off the counter to stand in front of me, holding out a hand.
I looked up at her, remembering Fia’s adorable low five when I’d held my hand out in a similar way. “Yes?”
“Can you help me look for my Jimmy Eat World CD? I can’t find it.”
I blinked before easing Hercules off my lap and taking her hand. “Sure.” I shook my head. “Back on CDs, then, are we?”
She rolled her eyes and led the way back towards the stairs, not bothering to answer.
In fact, she didn’t speak until we were in the guest room and she’d closed the door.
I gestured towards the wardrobe where Mum kept all our old things, aware there was a part of me that wanted to call it a closet. The thought made me smile. Another Americanism sneaking in that I had no doubt Fia would have picked up on. “Are we taking a box each and just going until we find it?”
Soph wafted a hand, shaking me off. “Don’t worry about that. I have the CD at my place.”
I frowned. “Okay. So… why are we here?”
“Who was the message from?”
“What message?” I watched her with wide eyes.
She made an annoyed sound in the back of her throat. “The one you just got.”
“I didn’t get a message.”
She paused for a second. “What? Let me see your phone.”
“Definitely not,” I laughed.
“So youdidget a message. I knew it.”
I honestly didn’t know what had gotten into her. “I didn’t get anything.”
She pursed her lips and scrubbed her chin with one hand, the large butterfly on her skin moving as her hand flexed. “Why doesn’t it seem like you’re lying?”
“Because I’m not?”
“Pfft. Boring. But, if you didn’t get a text, what was with the expression when you looked at your phone?”
“What expression?” I hadn’t realised I’d done anything with my face, let alone that I needed to be working harder on keeping a neutral expression lest Soph come after me with unfounded allegations.
“I don’t know, something… fuzzy.”
“Ooh, your favourite. Fuzzy feelings.”
“I’m not a bear. I don’t need fuzzy.”
“But I do?”
She shrugged. “Seems like it. You looked so excited, I was sure there was gossip to be had.”
Juicy gossip, too, if the fact that she’d pulled me away from Mum and Terrance to discuss it was anything to go by.
And maybe I did have juicy gossip. Kind of. I didn’t want to think of Fia as gossip, but she was the reason behind the expression Soph had witnessed. Whether she knew exactly what it was or not, that was the information she was looking for. I knew that. And she knew something was up.
I hopped onto the bed—mine for the next few weeks. “It’s notgossip.”
