‘She’s lovely,’ I finished weakly.
‘Oh, come off it, you think everyone is lovely, Miss Peaches and Cream,’ Lily scoffed. ‘She’ll probably make him do a PowerPoint presentation on all the reasons why he loves her, and then she’ll give him a score out of ten for each one.’
‘That’s not how it’s going to go.’
It was probably happening right now. My Dylan would be walking towards Romeo-Dylan in her moon goddess dress. His mouth would fall open, because how could it not?
Everything would be black and white and glittery. The night would be quiet, until he opened his mouth to speak.
‘Oh Dylan G, I love you. I want to be with you,’ said Lily in a low voice.
Then she shifted to a high voice. ‘Oh Dylan JM, I’m afraid I’m going to need to see that in writing before I can respond, and that’ll take seven to ten business days.’
Back to the low voice. ‘Oh Dylan G, I understand. I’ll get this heart necklace right in the mail.’
The high one. ‘Oh Dylan JM, please include a stamped self-addressed envelope in case I decide to return it.’
The low. ‘Oh Dylan G, absolutely, it would be my honour, but would you mind if I kissed—’
‘Stop!’
I didn’t realise that Cece had also spoken until Lily looked from me to her and back again. She shook her head. ‘You two are both such stupid saps, honestly.’
My bottom lip started to tremble. Lily rolled her eyes.
It would have been so easy for her to rip into me. If she wanted blood, I was easy pickings. I clearly wasn’t enough of a challenge, though, because she just glanced at the ceiling for a moment, smiled to herself, said, ‘Hey, racist,’ and started a fight with Heather instead.
It was a long fight. If it had been a movie, they would have shown the hands on a clock going around and around. Pages blowing off the calendar. The seasons changing.
Outside, darkness fell completely. Murray still didn’t come.
Was this some kind of punishment? Was he deliberately drawing this out, just because I’d refused to talk to him? Was he trying to show me who was boss?
Or had Lily been right? Were the Dylans wooden and unnatural with each other? Was he still trying to craft the perfect ending to his fairy-tale?
I just wanted to go home. I wanted to lie down in my childhood bedroom and cry. I wanted to hug my mum. I wanted her to stroke my hair and say, ‘Oh, Mandie, again?’ and then bring me a cup of tea and tell me that I’d done theright thing, that it was too soon after Jac, that being someone’s secret girlfriend was a horrible idea, that she was proud I’d decided not to wait around, that I was standing up for myself at last.
I started pacing. It felt like the Convent walls were closing in on me again.
How had I ever thought I was good at waiting? If I had to wait any longer, I was going to claw my skin off.
A horrible idea occurred to me. ‘You don’t think Stage Four restrictions have been extended, have they? I’m going to go out of my mind if I have to stay here any longer.’
‘Relax,’ Lily said. ‘If there was a chance of that, they wouldn’t have shipped everyone else off before.’
‘That’s true, that’s true, that’s true,’ I muttered.
Deep breaths, Mandie. You just have to survive this for a little bit longer.
But I couldn’t stop. ‘What if they have to bring everyone back? Their limos might get turned around somewhere.’
‘Then they’d move us back up to the Juliet Villa,’ Lily said, sounding bored as she examined her manicure. ‘They wouldn’t keep us cooped up in this two-bedroom shack when there’s a mansion at the top of the hill. We’d go up there and the Dylans would move in here.’
The thought made me nauseous. I excused myself and went upstairs to the bathroom.
I splashed cold water on my face and looked at myself in the mirror. There were no make-up artists for us down in the Convent, and I hadn’t bothered to do my skincare routine or make myself up this morning. My face was gaunt. I hadpurple bags under my eyes to rival Murray’s. I looked like death warmed up.
I closed my eyes and let myself imagine, just for a moment, that I was back in the bathroom at the Juliet Villa.Someone didn’t sleep well,Dylan would laugh.Give me your concealer, babe. Let me help.
