Page 55 of Try Hard
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I was lying on my mum’s couch, halfway through typing a text to Ophelia, when my phone rang and, in surprise, I proceeded to drop it on my face.
“Hello,” I said, laughing as I answered the call.
Row paused. “You good?”
“Yeah. Dropped my phone on my face. You know, typical behaviour.”
She snorted. “Of course you did. Lying on the floor again?”
“Ah, character growth. I’m on the couch.”
“Well, well, well. Look at you.”
I opened my mouth to reply but then realised I couldn’t see her. “Why’d you call?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Am I not allowed to call my best friend and business partner?”
I stared at the ceiling, deadpan. “Not that. You video. Always. But you’re calling me.”
“Oh. Right.”
I waited and, the longer the silence went, started pushing myself up into sitting position. “Row?”
She cleared her throat. “Yes?”
I laughed. “What’s going on?”
“I have news and I don’t want you to look at me when I say it.”
I practically threw myself into a cross legged position, desperate to hear her news. “Hit me. Immediately.”
“So impatient,” she sighed.
“I know it’s going to be good if you’re avoiding looking at me.”
“How? It could be terrible and I can’t stand to look you in the eye.”
“Ha. No. If that were true, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, but, more to the point, you’re fine with difficult news. Fierce eye contact right through the worst thing you’ve ever told another person.”
She deflated audibly. “Okay. Maybe we know each other too well.”
“Or just well enough. Now. Stop stalling and rip the Band-Aid off.”
“Plaster. You’re in the UK now.”
I grinned, shaking my head. “Stalling.”
“Ugh,” she growled. “Fine. I met someone.”
I half squealed, bouncing up and down before I realised my mum would hate me bouncing on her couch and, even though she and Terrance had gone out for dinner, she’d somehow still know when she got back. I promptly stopped bouncing. “Tell me everything.”
“Too soon.”
“Okay, tell mesomething.”
She made a sound like blowing raspberries as she thought, and I knew that was a good sign. She was going to give some details. Of course she was. She wouldn’t have called otherwise.
