Page 82 of Take My Hand

“Of course.” I frowned at her. “I’m always good.”

“Yes, but you haven’t had a hot boyfriend before.”

My stomach swooped as I thought about Zak and the fact that we would be spending the evening together. Admittedly with our friends, but there would be no adults which meant we would have a certain amount of freedom. Which meant that there would be a lot of necking on. At least I hoped so. The more time I spent with the Zak, the further that I wanted to go. I knew it wouldn’t be long before we moved past him feeling my boobs and putting our hands inside each other’s jeans.

“Not denying it, are you?” she laughed.

“You can talk. I saw you and Liam getting cosy at lunchtime.”

“Don’t know how, seeing as you two sneaked off behind the science block.”

“Stop changing the subject.” I nudged her. “So, do you like him?”

“I’m a bit surprised, seeing as we’ve known each other since we were little. He’s got kind of hot over the last year.”

I screwed up my face. “Ugh, no way.”

“You just think that because you’re practically family. You really should look carefully.”

“No thanks.” I jumped a puddle, the bag of goodies swinging, and I couldn’t resist the urge to smile. The idea of the next few hours was exciting like this was some of the best times of our lives, but we would never realise how much until we were older. “Is Ana coming or not?”

“If you don’t know, how am I supposed to?” Emma said, catching me up.

Everybody knew Ana and I were close, just like Emma was closer to Liv. It seemed to have become the natural order of things after our first year at school. Liam was an unofficial member of our little gang because we spent so much time together. He’d spent many hours suffering Twilight marathons and make-up tutorials on YouTube. Sometimes Dad wouldrescue him to watch football or play Xbox with him, but often he had his toenails painted pink and cheered for Team Edward.

“She didn’t mention anything to me about whether she was coming or not. She’s been in a bad mood today.” I was worried about her. Hated when she was down, especially as she didn’t seem to be snapping out of it. “Maybe she’ll come with Liv later.”

“Honestly, she’s been proper miserable,” Emma grumbled. “Bit my head off earlier when I asked if she wanted a lift home.”

“She walked home then?”

“Yeah,” Emma sighed. “Said she wanted to be on her own.”

I pulled my phone back out and clicked on her name. “I’m going to call her.” As we carried on walking, I listened to the line ringing out without anyone answering.

“She must still be in a mood,” Emma said as we reached the gate to the path leading up to Zak’s house.

“Hmm, maybe.” Ending the call, my nerves suddenly kicked in. We’d arrived.

“Nice house,” Emma commented, looking up at the large detached Victorian property with its bright red front door. The pebbled driveway ran across the front of the house, with the path alongside it, and there were three cars parked up. I recognised the third one as Liam’s Corsa that his grandparents had bought for him.

“I thought his mum and dad were out,” Em said, grabbing my forearm. “I’m scared. What do I call his dad? Sir or doctor?”

“Mr Hoyland.” I didn’t tell her he’d told me to call him Jim as we ate pizza. “And Mrs Hoyland.” Again, no point in mentioning I’d been invited to call her Lisa.

We didn’t have any more time to worry about it, because the door swung open, and standing there were the Hoylands and Amelia.

“Maddy,” Lisa cried. “How are you?”

“Hi.” I gave them all a shy smile and a small wave.

“Hi, Maddy.” Amelia beamed at me as Jim ran a hand down her hair.

“Hi, Amelia. You look pretty.”

She looked down at her jeans, sparkly pink jumper and matching pumps and then up at her dad. “Dad wanted me to wear a dress, but I didn’t want to.”

“I was never going to win that argument.” He laughed and shook his head. “Nice to see you again, Maddy.”

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