Page 23 of Matched Up

‘New kid at football took his position.’I shrugged and started walking again.

‘Of course,that’sit,’ Dad said, the penny only dropping now.

‘Lexie?’

The soft tone of Mum’s voice made me turn round.

‘What?’

‘Are you OK?Niall and Megan?It’s a big deal for you too.’

I didn’t expect for anyone else to even notice, or care about how it was for me.But if I started talking about it, I wouldn’t stop.‘I’m fine.See you later.’And I walked out the door.

Niall had taken some of Dad’s beer with him in a backpack.I didn’t know how he had the balls to take it, because Dad would go mad if he knew.

Silence until the end of the driveway.Then I decided to break it, because this wasn’t how we were.

I sighed.‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘Tell you what?’he snapped.

Now my back was up too.‘You know what.’

‘About Megan?Lexie, it’s nothing to do with you.’He stared out the window as we drove to Megan’s house.

‘Except it is.She was my best friend and you’re my brother, don’t you think I’m owed some kind of honesty?’

‘That’s not how it works.You think next year when we’re at uni, I’m going to phone you up and ask you if it’s OK to go out with someone or if it’s going to hurt your feelings?’he spat.

It was like a football to the stomach.I had to compose myself because my words were stuck, and there was a lump in my throat.‘I didn’t say that.’

‘We were born on the same day, Lexie.That’s it.It doesn’t mean any more than that.There’s no special connection, no magic twin thing that you seem to think we have.I have my life and you have yours.It’s not my fault they overlapped.You’re just going to have to deal with it.’

I gripped the steering wheel and my jaw clenched.‘You’re just pissed the new kid took your position,’ I said quietly, because I didn’t want him to hear the weakness in my voice.

‘Fuck off,’ he said.

He’d never said that to me before, never seriously.And it hurt.

We pulled into Megan’s driveway, and he got out of the front seat and into the back, but he didn’t take any of the tension with him.

Megan got into the passenger seat wearing Nike shorts and a baggy jumper.She looked great.Not that I was going to tell her.Normally we’d dissect the match.Well, I would.Megan would want to talk about the party.

‘Wow, frosty,’ Megan said, looking at me and then twisting round to look at Niall.Neither of us said anything.‘OK then.’

Zoe lived in a mansion about ten minutes away.One of those really modern houses that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie.We pulled into her humongous driveway and I parked the car.I’d barely stopped when Niall got out, taking his bag of beer with him, leaving me and Megan behind.

And I almost cracked.Shane was on the tip of my tongue.I had so much I could tell Megan, and I knew she’d be happy for me.But I couldn’t.She’d made her choice, and it wasn’t me.

I got out of the car and Megan followed.

Zoe was at the door.She was wearing a tiny green dress and her red hair sat in waves over her shoulders.She looked gorgeous.Then I remembered what she’d said about Shane.How she wanted him, how she’d been messaging him.How she always ‘got what she wanted’.I squeezed my hands into fists at my sides as she showed us through to the massive kitchen.I fixed my hair in a mirror, and Megan went to talk to Hunter and Niall, who were lining up shots on the counter.

‘Hey, Lexie!’Amina slung her arm round my shoulder.She was wearing a tiny skirt and a skin-tight T-shirt, her black hair down for once and almost touching her waist.She was drunk.Someone clearly hadn’t bailed on predrinks.

‘Hey, Amina, how are you?’

‘I’m so good.Here, have a drink.I don’t like this one.Sex on the beach.’She giggled and I took the glass from her before she spilled it over us both.

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