He looked at me with a blank expression.
“We were having sex, Jeremy.”
He blinked rapidly, as if his eyelids were trying to power up his brain.
“Say something.”
He slowly nodded his head as if rocking his jammed gears back into motion. The next words that came out of his mouth were not the ones I was expecting.
“I’m taking a gap year.” His Adam’s apple bobbed.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“At the end of term. I’m taking some time out. Francesca and I are going interrailing. We’ll start in Europe, but who knows where we’ll end up.” He ducked his head, his strawberry-blonde hair aglow in the sunlight. “I wish you were coming too, Trusty, but I see how that might be awkward now…”
A fresh wave of jealousy threatened to throw me off balance, but I pushed through it. “What about your degree?”Of all the bloody things to ask him.I imagined Francesca rolling her eyes.
“I’m deferring for a year and Francesca has dropped out; she’s… rethinking her options.”
Silence lingered in the wake of our bombshells.
“And you still want to go away with her after what you’ve just found out?”
Jeremy pushed his lips together as he weighed the question. “Did you ever imagine that someone like me would even get close to someone like her?”
I sighed. “I don’t think she’s who you think she is. I’ve learnt that the hard way.”
He puffed out his lips. “Okay, well obviously I still have a lot to learn about her, but I’ll have plenty of time to do that while we’re larking around Europe. She’s different when it’s just the two of us. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“I do…” I said, as it clicked into place. “She’s a chameleon.”
Jeremy frowned. “Come again?”
“Do you remember covering social chameleons in the Abnormal Psych module?”
“What are you getting at?”
“You’ve seen the way she changes, like how she was at Christmas with your parents. We’d never seen that side of her before?—”
“I think she was just trying to impress them. And it worked, they love her.” Jeremy chuckled.
“Exactly. She adapted who she was to impress them. But she does it with us too.” I angled around to face him. “She’s this vampy goth girl around me and a refined version of herself for you. And there’s the way she manipulates and twists things. She dials up the charm, but I’ve seen the mask slip too. Underneath, she can be so callous and cold.”
The disturbing revelation fell into place. Francesca had the ability to shape-shift, to become whatever she needed to be to get what she wanted. I was certain I was right and hoped I’d put forward the case well enough for Jeremy to see it too.
Jeremy frowned. “So… sorry, what? You think she’s a psychopath?”
“Yeah.” I released a slow breath and nodded. “Yeah… maybe. I don’t know if it’s exactly that, but there are definitely characteristics of the dark triad?—”
Jeremy spluttered a laugh. “Seriously,the dark triad?You sit through a couple of lectures on personality disorders and now you’re trying to diagnose the girl who bruised your feelings?”
I narrowed my eyes. “What? Wait… no, that’s?—”
“I understand it must be difficult for you that things have swung in my favour, but?—”
“She’s messed us both around. She lied to both of us, played us off against each other, and spent weeks jumping between our beds.”
He held up his hands. “Okay, yeah. I admit I’ve been a little taken aback by that revelation, but I’m not about to ruin a good thing with her by taking the moral high ground.”
