I keep my eyes fixed on Lenny. ‘No, I went to visit my aunt.’
‘The one who lives by the sea – right?’
‘Yes.’ I don’t say more as I’m busy trying to tell Lenny to come home telepathically.
‘Did you spend the day lazing around on the beach? The weather was amazing today. I bet you and your aunt were sipping cocktails and?—’
The words shoot out of my mouth before I can stop them. ‘No, I took my aunt to have chemo.’
‘Oh.’ Oliver goes back to staring at Lenny. The silence between us is uncomfortable, punctuated by the distant sound of a car alarm and the evening breeze rustling the leaves.
Why did I say that Aunt Polly had chemo? Did he need to know that about me?
‘Do you have a key for this garden?’ Oliver asks.
‘Gary has my key.’
‘Why does Gary have your key?’
‘I don’t come in here.’
Oliver is looking at me as though I’ve just told him the sky isn’t blue. ‘You don’t come and sit in this beautiful place?’
I shake my head. ‘I’m an inside sort of person.’
Oliver’s eyes are studying my face. He turns back to Lenny. ‘Come on, mate, I’m going out soon.’
To my annoyance, Lenny comes trotting over to us on Oliver’s command and squeezes himself through the railings. Without hesitation, Oliver and I instinctively bend to grab Lenny at the same time, and the unthinkable happens. We bang heads.
He lets out an ‘OUCH’, and I yelp, waiting for the flash of white light. My chest tightens, my breath catches, and I wait.
There is nothing – no white light. No vision.
13
Oliver is holding Lenny and looking at me. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yes,’ I mutter, rubbing my forehead. My mind is in freefall.
When I touched Oliver, I saw nothing. No flash of light and no vision. There was no doomed love story. Just a void.
Something is wrong.
I stare down at my hands and see they’re trembling. Pain is radiating out of my forehead, and my stomach has gone on a nauseating spin.
What is going on?
The ground tilts. I grip onto the railings for support. This is strange, as I have bumped heads with people before and seen a vision. My brain frantically searches for an example. Miranda’s face rushes to the front of my mind. We bumped heads after I’d told her about my decision to have Oliver as a flatmate and she’d tried to give me one of her hugs. I had seen Frank and his pram. A wave of nausea washes over me. I must have a concussion. That’s why I can’t see anything.
‘Nelly, say something,’ says Oliver. ‘You’re worrying me.’
‘I’m fine,’ I say, reaching out a trembling hand to stroke Lenny. ‘Totally fine.’
He blinks. ‘Right. Let’s get you and Lenny home.’
My legs feel like they have turned to jelly as we climb the stairs. I can’t believe I didn’t see anything when our heads touched. My stomach rotates, and I stop, clutching my belly. ‘I can’t be sick,’ I tell myself. ‘This is not a good start to a flat-sharing relationship.’
Taking a deep breath, I carry on walking.
