Page 112 of From Now On

‘It would be unfair on the other candidates for me to say you’ll definitely be offered a place—’

‘But it’s what he means.’ Miss Clarke places her hands on Duke’s shoulders. ‘The place is yours if you want it.’

‘Can I, Charlie?’ Duke feels himself inflate with excitement. He crosses his fingers behind his back hoping that Charlie won’t pop his balloon of happiness.

‘We’ll come and have a look around.’ Charlie pulls out his phone. ‘What’s your address?’

Duke feels himself begin to deflate, his hope seeping away as he hears that the school is seventy miles away. He’s told that he can board but he knows that means sleeping in a strange bed in a strange place and there’s already been so much change this year.

Jayden, Luke and Brandon charge past him, leaving a trail of sticky orange squash in their wake. Tears prick his eyes. He can stay here and be miserable or leave and follow his dreams but his dreams seem too enormous to him. He wishes he’d performed magic instead tonight.

‘Hey,’ Nina whispers, ‘don’t worry; we’ll figure something out.’

Duke shakes his head sadly. ‘I can’t go, I’ll miss… Billie too much.’ Duke doesn’t say he’ll miss his sister, his brother; he doesn’t have to. Their eyes are glistening too.

‘We’ll talk about it,’ Charlie promises. ‘At home.’

‘After you’ve been next door and spoken to Pippa, Charlie,’ Nina says sternly.

Duke remembers his phone call of yesterday. ‘Pippa rang to explain she is leaving and to say goodbye to me. She said she’d called you both but you didn’t pick up.’

‘Has she already left?’ Charlie grasps both of Duke’s shoulders that he tries to shrug.

‘I dunno. I’ve been at Evie’s, haven’t I?’

‘Christ. Let’s go.’

As they rush to the car, Duke thinks about the importance of holding onto the things you want. People. Dreams. He thinks how far away Scotland is. He thinks, that perhaps, seventy miles won’t seem so far after all.

Charlie screeches to a halt outside of their house and runs straight to Pippa’s front door. Duke doesn’t need the darkened windows to tell him it is too late – the wind chime she had made from her grandmother’s beads that always hangs by the front door is missing.

She has gone.

Chapter Fifty-Three

Charlie

Charlie is leaving.

He loads his case into the boot of the Beetle before he turns to face his brother and sister.

He will miss them.

‘Are you sure you two will be okay?’ he asks.

‘They’ll be fine.’ Aunt Violet wraps her arms around their shoulders and pulls them in to her. They lean against her.

He pats Billie goodbye and then opens his arms. His siblings run into them. He squeezes them tightly, dropping a kiss on each of their heads.

‘I love you.’ The words he has been unable to say slip naturally from his mouth, leaving a sweet residue on his tongue.

They tell him they love him too as he slides behind the steering wheel, and smooths out a crumpled piece of paper on the passenger seat. It’s the address of Pippa’s parents in Scotland. After a frantic search, Mrs Miller who lives opposite and had been friends with Pippa’s grandmother had given it to him.

‘You’re going to bring her home?’ She’d gripped his hand with her gnarled one.

‘I… I hope so.’

‘Right from when you were bairns you were meant to be. In and out of each other’s houses. Friends. That’s the best basis for any relationship. Me and my Edgar were the best of friends too. Married forty-five years before he passed.’ Her eyes fill with tears. ‘You must come over for a cup of tea when I’m back.’

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