Page 9 of You Float My Boat

‘What? What does that mean?’

‘It means be a really perfect fake girlfriend, and he’ll never want to let you go,’ she replied simply. ‘Make him fall in love with you.’

I barked out a laugh; loud enough that a couple of St Anne’s students passing us on the path stopped their own conversation and looked at me. But I was looking at Stella, trying to make it clear exactly how absurd I thought she was. Maybe it was the hunger. It hadn’t just made her grouchy, it was making her delusional.

‘First off, that’s ridiculous. Second, I’m not his type, Stel. I’m too tall. He likes short girls if Evie is anything to go by,’ I grumbled. ‘And brunettes.’

‘But he doesn’t like her, does he. That’s why he’s got you faking it.’

‘He hasn’t got me anything. I haven’t heard from him in a week,’ I repeated.

She offered nothing but a nonchalant shrug, but that was the point where we reached the dining hall so it was likely all her brain cells were occupied with finding food, and coffee.

It was late enough that breakfast was coming to an end, and the only students still in here were ones who were more committed to sleep than a fresh coffee and first dig through the scrambled eggs. Right now all that remained on the hatch were a few slices of warming toast, and rows of cereal.

I grabbed a couple of to-go coffee cups and filled them, while Stella was working on convincing the dining staff to fetch some fresh bread for her. It didn’t take her long. Stella’s powers of persuasion were unmatched, and she was soon biting into a hot slice slathered with butter and orange marmalade.

She thrust a half-eaten piece out to me, ‘You want a bit?’

‘No thanks.’

‘I can eat and walk then,’ she muttered, stuffing the remainder in her mouth and starting on the next. ‘Now my brain’s not focused on food, I can think properly.’

We walked away from St Anne’s in silence; Stella was happily munching through her toast while my mind was supposed to be thinking about the auditions, but was actually thinking about Charlie. Now term had begun, the streets were much busier. We were between the hour, so there were less students hurrying to a class they were late for, but enough that Stella and I had to step aside a couple of times to let some rush past. Some wore the dark blue colours of Oxford, mingling withthose wearing the crests of the different colleges, or like us, whatever we could find in our wardrobes.

‘Do you know what scenes they’re going to ask us to audition?’

I shook my head. ‘No, but we’ll have the script with us, so it doesn’t matter.’

‘Are we auditioning with people?’

I shrugged, ‘Stel, I know what you know, which is to say …’

‘Nothing,’ she interrupted.

‘Exactly.’

‘You want to rehearse some lines?’ she asked as we neared the physics building.

‘Yeah, go for it.’

She pulled her backpack off and found her copy ofTwelfth Night, ‘Let’s start with the first scene, I’ll play Olivia then we can switch.’

‘Cool,’ I replied, as Stella cleared her throat.

‘Hey, isn’t that Charlie?’

My mouth opened to respond but it wasn’t a line I recognized. ‘What?’

‘There. Look. It’s Charlie.’

My head snapped around to where she was pointing. My mouth opened another degree because twenty-five metres away Charlie was jogging across the street heading straight for us. His eyes locked onto mine, and instantly a smile spread across his face. With each long stride his smile grew.

And my heart spluttered.

The summer I was fourteen Charlie and Oz had come to spend a week at our house, along with theirother friend, Olly. It was one of those heatwave weeks, and they’d spent the entire time around the pool. I was too nervous to go out and join them, so instead I stayed reading in the shade, sitting in the swing my dad had installed on our large oak tree.

One afternoon my mum had made a batch of ginger beer, and she’d asked me to take a jug out to the boys, which I’d been only too happy to do. Charlie had leapt up to help the second he spotted me. As he’d eased the tray laden with glasses, ginger beer and snacks from my fingers he’d flashed me a wide smile showing off perfect straight white teeth. The combination of sunshine and swimming had turned his eyes more blue than green, and the reflection of the water really made it seem like they were sparkling.

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