Page 12 of Do You Ship It

The kiss makes my heart flutter more than any single letter in a text message has any right to. I try telling myself that sometimes Jake sends a kiss when he’s being extra-nice, or even an ‘xo’ if he’s being snarky and taking the mick to make me laugh, but it doesn’t dampen that giddy feeling, or the way my brain immediately starts planning an outfit for our not-quite-date after school to watch OWAR. Maybe I should watch the episodes in advance, so I can think of smart things to ask him and he can show off his knowledge of the show?

Me and Mum watch another film –Four Weddings and a Funeral, as Mum decides she’s on a bit of a Hugh Grant kick tonight – and by then it’s late enough that she chivvies me off to bed.

‘Your dad’s coming over for dinner tomorrow, by the way,’ she says when I’m almost out of the room – launching the grenade she’s apparently had her thumb on for the last few hours. I grit my teeth, wondering if that’s what this whole ‘film and takeaway’ night was about.

Not about just spending time together, after all.

‘Oh. Right. So, um …’ Is this her way of asking me to make myself scarce? I don’t know how to ask that. ‘Do you have more stuff to go over together, for the lawyers?’

Mum gives me such a look of exaggerated shock, then laughs. ‘No, you daft thing, he’s just coming over for dinner! Wearestill a family. We thought it would be nice.’

NICE?I want to scream. Nice? Dinner? Withboth of them? I can’t remember the last time that wasnice. Tense, maybe, and full of long stretches of silence broken only by one of them asking me to ‘pass the salt’.

‘We discussed it in couples’ counselling this week,’ Mum adds, which is the grenade exploding. My stomach drops away.

‘I thought you stopped going to those sessions?’ I manage, my voice sounding at least halfway normal.

‘No! No, we started them back up a little while ago. They’re helping lots!’

Are they? Shit. I don’t want them to get help, I want them toget the divorce they’ve been on the verge of for years!I can’t cope with walking on eggshells around them both for another two years until I can leave for uni. They’ve tried this before – all the back and forth of ‘learning to communicate’ and ‘doing the work’, and it never actually helps.

It’s not that I don’t want to see my dad more – I miss him a lot since he moved out, even if he’s still been around plenty. I just hope to God this isn’t some latest attempt at any kind of real reconciliation.

I’m almost about to make up some excuse to get out of it, but I’ve already admitted to having no plans this weekend, so I’m stuck saying, ‘Great, that’ll … be nice, yeah,’ before making a hasty escape up to bed, already emotionally drained at the mere thought of tomorrow’s so-called family dinner.

As I tuck myself into bed and check my phone, there’s a Discord notification, and my mood instantly lifts.

@runicrascal

Just wait for episode 4. It’s a DOOZY

@runicrascal

Assuming your Friday night plans were more exciting than watching your new favourite obsession, Of Wrath and Rune. Hope you had a good one

@mythicwitch

V exciting, thank you. The kind of plans involving Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts and a bookshop

@mythicwitch

… wait, what happens in episode 4? DOES he die?

I’m unduly attached to this stag-skull character. I can’t tell if that’s just because he’s a perfect subject for my art coursework, or if it’s the banter with @runicrascal spurring me on. It’s kind of fun, if only for the excuse to chat to Jake.

@runicrascal

Notting Hill? A classic choice

@mythicwitch

You know it!

@runicrascal

And about ep4 … that would be telling. I thought we said no spoilers?

@mythicwitch

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