I continue to follow her until dusk begins to fall and the event prepares to draw to a close. As her new friends make their way towards the Tube station, Daisy is left alone. She sets off by foot through a much quieter section of the park until she crosses a road then reaches a second area of greenery. There is no one else about so I take my opportunity to talk to her alone.
‘Oh hi,’ I say, appearing from the darkness behind her.
‘Damon!’ she shouts, her face flushed. ‘Oh my God, you scared me to death. Why are you creeping up on me?’
‘I wasn’t, I was on my way home from the park when I spotted you. Are you feeling better?’ I ask, even though we both know she has lied. But it doesn’t matter. I’ll forgive her for anything. That’s what you do when you’re in love.
‘Yes,’ she continues. ‘My stepsisters asked me if I wanted to join them.’
So they’re already family to her. ‘You should have called me.’ I smile. ‘I’d have tagged along.’
‘It was a last-minute thing and you don’t have a mobile phone.’
My face reddens. ‘Well, do you want to do something tomorrow instead? I’m free all day. We could get McFlurries from Maccy D’s? Or take our bikes round Victoria Park?’
Her flinch is slight, but it’s there.
‘What about a film?’ I persist. Movies were our thing. During the Easter school holidays, she’d rent at least one DVD a day fromBlockbusters and I’d borrow them from the library. ‘We could watch the newToy Storymovie at the Odeon?’
‘That’s a kids’ film,’ Daisy scoffs.
‘But you liked the other ones.’
‘When I was twelve, but I’m thirteen now.’
We walk in silence while my brain races through other suggestions. The thought of losing her makes me anxious.
‘Do you want to be my girlfriend?’ I suddenly blurt out.
Daisy stops in her tracks. ‘No thanks,’ she says firmly.
‘Why?’
‘Because you have to love someone to be their girlfriend.’
‘But we’re together all the time.’
She eye-rolls. ‘Things change.’
‘Why?’
‘They just do. Anyway, I said I’d go to the cinema with Luke tomorrow.’
A chill skitters across my shoulders. ‘Who?’
‘I met him at the park. He told me he thinks I’m pretty, and he asked me out.’
I know the boy she’s referring to. A tall lad with snow-white Air Jordan trainers and Beats by Dre headphones hanging loosely around his neck. He was stuck to her side like a leech for much of the afternoon.
‘I think you’re pretty too,’ I offer. ‘And he’s old. He must be like, fourteen.’
Her forehead furrows. ‘How do you know Luke?’
I can’t lie quickly enough. ‘I saw you with him.’
She scrunches up her face. ‘If you were spying on me, that’s creepy.’
Daisy picks up her pace. This is going badly. So in a last-ditch attempt to prove to her how much I care, I grab her arm, spin her around and plant my lips on hers. I desperately try to find anopening in her mouth with my tongue like I’ve seen men do in the porn films Callum used to show me on his dad’s computer.Hard and fast, that’s how they like it. But her response is to shove me backwards. I lose my footing and fall to the ground, landing on my side.
