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‘Oh! Erm, can I get a salmon poke bowl and a mineral water?’

The waitress took down their order and left.

‘Is your mom better now?’ he asked, praying the answer would be positive.

Hannah nodded proudly. ‘She’s been all clear for the past five years.’

‘Glad to hear it,’ he said, squirming a little as he admitted, ‘Your mum was always really nice to me. I had no idea.’ He’d been to Hannah’s house to study a few times. Her mother had always left them with thick cream pastries and sugary cans of soda – joking that it was ‘brain’ food. He’d eaten all of it each time and had even asked for more when she offered. Sometimes that was all he’d have for his evening meal when his mom and Paul were out.

‘You didn’t realise she wore a wig?’ Hannah asked curiously.

At the shake of his head, her eyes crinkled at the corners with amusement. ‘She’ll be pleased to hear that. She hated losing her hair and then was furious when I donated mine.’

‘That’s why your hair was so short back then?’ Realisation hit him like a dump truck and then reversed to hit him a second time.

‘That’s why they called me “Hannah the Pencil”. Short hair did not suit me, but I wanted to do something – a big gesture. Mum was absolutely livid!’ Hannah chuckled.

Sick with guilt, Caleb couldn’t even stomach a smile in response.

He’d laughed along with the other boys when they called her Pencil – thinking it was lightly teasing a bad haircut. Hannah had been Pencil and her friend the eraser – or Rubber, as they’d called it, which had seemed even worse to him, being American and having a completely different meaning behind that word. He’d barely understood the joke and had thought Hannah was the one that had gotten off lightly compared to her friend, but he’d still laughed along anyway.

‘I was an ass back then and wanted to fit in. It’s easier that way when you move around so much. Laugh along with everyone – even with the inside jokes you don’t get, it usually stops them from turning on you. I’m sorry. If I’d known, I never would have called you that name.’

She shrugged. ‘The boys you hung around with knew, they just didn’t care. At least you didn’t know why I’d cut my hair off – that makes me feel a little better about it.’ She looked out of the open window towards the stunning beach in the distance. ‘Besides, it must have been tough for you. Moving to London, doing less than a year and a half of English schooling before having to take GCSEs, which I’m sure were completely different to your American exams. So, I guess we all had our own struggles back then.’

‘I never had any hope of passing my exams, even in the States, so it never bothered me.’

‘You might have done okay in maths,’ she said quietly, not taking her focus away from the view, and he wondered if he’d hurt her feelings by not going to that particular exam. She’d worked so hard trying to help him prepare for it.

‘I got offered a job.’

Her head swivelled towards him then. ‘You did?’

‘Yeah. Paul, my stepfather, arranged for me to go on a film set with a stunt man he knew, Baz. Baz gave me my first job. I went to work as his assistant at a film studio in the States. I actually left the same day as that exam.’

‘I see,’ Hannah said softly, and he could see the understanding dawn across her face, but it was followed by an intense curiosity, and she leaned forward. ‘Would you have done it – the exam – if you hadn’t had that offer?’

Caleb thought about Hannah’s hopeful face when he’d last seen her before leaving. ‘I’ll see you at the maths exam, right? We can meet by your locker before going in? Check your revision cards quickly.’ Had she waited for him? She’d been so eager to please him back then, and now, for some reason, he felt the same.

‘Probably,’ he answered, and was pleasantly surprised by the relief that washed over her expression. Perhaps she was glad all those hours of helping him hadn’t been a complete waste?

Their food arrived; it was delicious and beautifully presented. Hannah spent a good five minutes before eating taking multiple photos of it and even got him to take a couple of her too. He thought it a little pointless but was happy to oblige, especially when she was so pleased with the pictures he’d taken. ‘You’ve got a good eye!’

‘You learn a few things watching directors set up shots. It’s all about composition,’ he said lightly, but was secretly delighted with the compliment.

After they’d tried to finish the mountain of fluffy Japanese French toast, they accepted defeat and waddled with full stomachs down to the beach to walk it off. They took off their shoes and paddled in the ice-cold water before heading to the south end of the beach, where they picked up the coastal walking path to Bondi Icebergs, the swimming club pool that looked over the rocky area of Bondi’s southern beach.

‘Do you mind waiting a minute?’ Hannah asked, pausing on the boardwalk beside one of the colourful murals that decorated the wall. It was a retro picture of Bondi Beach, showing a person holding a surfboard. People were queuing up to stand where the picture of the surfer was. ‘I’d like to get a quick photo of this, but I want to wait for those girls to finish first, if you don’t mind?’

He glanced at a group of giggling twenty-something women. They were each taking turns to pose with the mural. ‘Are you sure? They don’t seem to be in a hurry.’

Big blue eyes peeked up at him. ‘Please, I promise to be really quick.’

‘Sure,’ he said, and frowned at the group of women posing, ‘holding’ the board with one hand while sipping from ridiculously large milkshakes with the other. One was topped with a puffball of meringue; another had an entire cookie shoved into the top. He’d give this to Sydney – it was a foodie paradise.

After the women had taken their pictures with their extravagant drinks, they walked away, laughing amongst themselves at the photos before promptly dropping their shakes, untouched, in the nearby trash.

Caleb gave an audible gasp of horror. ‘They didn’t drink them!’