Page 37 of We Used To Be Magic

‘If it’s any consolation, I’ve also paid an eye-watering amount of money to share a room with a stranger. Or – my dad has, at least.”

‘Boarding school, right. You left this summer?’

‘To very little fanfare, yeah.’

‘And you didn’t want to go to uni?’

‘I didn’t really think about it. And my family is here, so …’

‘There’s universities here.’

‘Oh, are you one of those people?’ He grins. ‘You think I’ll be doomed to failure and obscurity if I don’t fork out for a degree?’

‘I don’t think any of that!’ I laugh. ‘Just – it’s meant to be a good life experience, right? And someone like you …’

‘My God, that’s loaded,’ he says, smile widening as he slows his pace. ‘Someone like me – who’s that, out of interest?’

‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ I say quickly. ‘I just meant – there’re a lot of books in your apartment, I noticed, and—’

‘My very large apartment in Midtown, yeah.’

‘Yeah,’ I manage feebly. ‘It’s nice.’

‘We don’t have to dance around it,’ he says easily. ‘My dad has a lot of money. He owns the place, among others. And if I wanted to dick around in academia for the rest of my life then he’d probably be happy to bankroll that. But I don’t. Not as of right now, anyway.’

I can’t tell if I’ve offended him. His tone is light; his expression hasn’t shifted. But his gaze is intent, like he’s trying to gauge my reaction.

‘I don’t either,’ I say. ‘I mean – I applied to a bunch of unis but only because that’s what everyone else was doing. I probably would have gone, but then the modelling thing happened, so …’

‘When was that?’

‘A few months ago.’

‘How’s life back home holding up in your absence?’

‘I don’t have a life,’ I say without thinking.

His eyebrows quirk upwards. ‘Metaphorically?’

‘Pretty literally,’ I admit, glancing away. ‘I think I told you that my family moved around a lot – it made it hard to keep a hold of things. And friends, I guess.’

‘Oh,’ he says. ‘Their loss.’

He sounds so matter-of-fact, when he says that – so sincere, and it makes me feel like someone’s lit a sparkler in my chest.

‘You don’t know me well enough to say that,’ I remind him. He looks at me sideways, smiling crookedly.

‘Call it a hunch,’ he says. ‘Think you might want to put down some roots here, instead?’

‘In New York?’ I laugh.

‘Yeah! What’s funny about that?’

‘Just – it’s basically another planet.’ I smile. ‘Nothing that happens here feels real. I’ll be gone before I get used to it.’

‘You have a date for leaving yet?’

‘No. I guess it’ll be soon, though, so I probably shouldn’t get too attached.’

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