I don’t even know when it started to go wrong, when he started to get bored. Because that’s what happens, right? All boys get bored eventually. Or maybe they just get bored of me.
I called him so many times after but all he said was, ‘You’ve changed, Luce.’ Of course I’ve changed. I’m supposed to change. We all are. It’s more that I’ve changed into someone he’s no longer interested in.
It’s funny really, because that’s what my dad said to my mum before he left: ‘You’ve changed, Julia.’ I don’t know if I ever told Rhys that.
Maybe we haven’t changed. Maybe they have.
Now, I hardly ever see Dad.
He has a new family – young pretty blonde wife who used to work at the doctor’s surgery, with a one-year-old on her hip. One year old. He left us fifteen months ago. The maths doesn’t fit. He knows that. So when that woman walked around with a swollen belly, my dad sat at the dining table with us eating his Sunday roasts and reading his newspapers.
Not anymore. Now Mum rarely cooks or leaves the house. I don’t know when she last showered. She completely crumbled the moment Dad walked out. And I have to deal with it every day. But back then I had Rhys to help me deal. Now, I don’t. Now, I’m all alone in this.
He understood. He knew both my parents. He’d seen them when they were together, when Dad was faking the love and pretending he was in his forever family. Rhys used to come over for Sunday lunch sometimes when his mum and dad went out to the golf club to meet their friends. He sat with us, laughed with us.
Sometimes when I’m alone in my bedroom, I think about just how much I’ve lost in the past year, how much I’m still losing. All that time, all that precious time I could be spending with my dad, with Rhys.
Amber.
That’s her name. My soon-to-be stepmum. Who leaves their family for a woman called Amber? That’s who’s standing in front me now. Amber. Trina. They’re both the same. Both want what isn’t theirs.
She’s standing here at my table in the cafeteria. Mollie, Lily and Cara are watching me, anticipating what I’m going to do next. Honestly, I don’t know. I never know. I just keep pushing the boundaries until someone says something, until someone finally loves me enough to notice. I can feel the anger, the frustration, bubbling so close to the surface. I uncross my legs and lean into the table further and stare back at her, tempting her to push my buttons.
Go on, Trina. Start it.
She eventually rolls her eyes and walks away, wildly swinging her bag over her shoulder, her skirt slightly hitching up at the back.
See?
Amber.
They’re all Ambers.
Dear Charlie
Can a brother’s love forgive the ultimate crime?
Brother, victim, murderer. Did anyone really know him?
At sixteen, Sam is supposed to be thinking about girls, homework and his upcoming application to music college, not picking up the pieces after the school shooting that his brother Charlie committed.
Yet as Sam desperately tries to hang on to the memories he has of his brother, the media storm surrounding their family threatens to destroy everything. And Sam has to question all he thought he knew about life and death, right and wrong.
After the Rain
Friendship shines brightest in the darkest places
‘We’re alive. So let’s start living.’
Jack was sporty and outgoing. Alice was bookish and introverted. Their lives were on completely different paths.
That is before the day they were in the wrong place at the wrong time: before the day their lives were torn apart in a bombing.
Struggling to cope with their new worlds, their unlikely new friendship helps them find hope. But can they help each other rebuild their lives and start again?
Buy here!
Blackbird
Olivia disappeared the night the blackbirds died …
Perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.
It was New Year’s Eve, the night that dead blackbirds descended, hours before Alex McCarthy’s sister Olivia vanished from a party.
Committed to finding out what happened to her sister, in their isolated Orkney village, Alex knows that dishevelled – sometimes intoxicated – Detective Inspector Birkens is her best shot.
Yet as they uncover the secrets behind Olivia’s last night, Alex starts to discover things she may have been better off not knowing …
Buy here!
We Are Not Okay
Four girls. Four voices. All unheard.
If only they could have spoken out.
Lucy thinks she’s better than the other girls. Maybe if she’s pointing fingers at everyone else, no one will see the secret she’s hiding.
Ulana comes from a conservative Muslim family where reputation is everything. One rumour – true or false – can destroy futures.
Trina likes to party. She’s kissed a lot of boys. She’s even shown her red bra to one. But she didn’t consent to that night at Lucy’s party. So why doesn’t anyone believe her?
Sophia loved her boyfriend. She did anything for him, even send him photos of herself. So why is she the one being pointed at in the hallways, laughed at, spat at when it was him who betrayed her trust?
Buy here!
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After the Rain Page 25
