Page 5 of Matched Up

It might sound like a kind of twin cliché, but Niall genuinely felt like an extension of me.I remember when he went on the school ski trip in P7 and I stayed behind because I’d wanted to study.I’d never felt so lost.I got no studying done and cried when we went to pick him up at the airport.So separate schools seemed completely unthinkable.And there wasn’t anything inherently wrong with Blackport.It had better grounds and sports facilities than any of the other local schools, but it didn’t even have a football team.Boys or girls.Whatever, I had Westing.

Niall stuck his head into the kitchen before heading for the front door.‘Right, done.Thanks, Lex.Oh, and I said we’d pick up Megan this morning, so drive by Meadowview too?’

‘Bye, Mum!’I called, then followed him outside.‘She didn’t say anything to me,’ I said, confused.‘Are you sure?’

‘Yeah, she just asked last night when I was leaving her home.’Niall got into the passenger seat of my car.The brand-new BMW 1 Series that Dad had bought us both on our seventeenth birthday, mine white and Niall’s black.

When we pulled into Megan’s drive, she was already at the window waiting.Weird.She was a late person.Always.No matter how hard she tried, she was never on time.

She got into my car in a cloud of Ariana Grande perfume.

‘You smell good,’ I said, pulling out of her drive.

Megan sat forward so she was pretty much sitting between us.‘Thanks.’

‘Trying to lure a date for V-Ball?’I joked.Of course my best friend already had about five offers of dates to V-Ball, all of which she’d turned down.She said she was ‘waiting for the right one’, but from where I was standing, she could have her pick.V-Ball was Blackport’s Valentine’s ball, the insanely huge budget black-tie event of the year.Megan lived for it.I, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about it.To me it was time wasted, when I could be practising football.‘I saw Hunter looking at you in a perverted way the other day,’ I confessed.

‘Hunter’s always looking at me in a perverted way.And you.I saw him staring at your tits on Friday.Don’t blame him, though – your mum did you a solid with those.’

Niall made a retching noise and Megan laughed.‘Sorry, Niall, but your mum and your sister are hot.Deal with it.’

‘Please stop.’

At school everyone was congregating on the steps by the maths block as usual.Hunter was telling everyone about how amazing he was in his last football match, as usual.Zoe and Amina were looking at something on Zoe’s phone.As usual.

I sat down beside Zoe.Megan and Niall were chatting to each other, ignoring Hunter.

‘We’re talking V-Ball, Lexie – who’s your date?’Zoe was staring at me with her perfect almond-shaped eyes, her auburn hair tied up in a high ponytail with a white bow.She was smiling.Zoe was always smiling.I wondered if someone could smiletoomuch.Like, do smiles become worthless if they’re there all the time?

‘Earth to Lexie?’Zoe waved her hand in front of my face, and Amina laughed.

‘Sorry, em, nobody.Haven’t had any time to think about it.’I shrugged.I mean, that wasn’t entirely true.Ididthink it was a bit of a waste of potential football practice hours, but at the same time, it wasn’t like I was drowning in date offers.

‘Oh my God, let us find you a date.We’ll get you someone really hot,’ Zoe said enthusiastically.‘Oh, and you’re coming to my party on Friday, yeah?’Zoe nodded at me, like I didn’t actually have any choice in the matter.But it worked because I nodded back, even though it was the first I’d heard of a party and hadn’t had a chance to think it through.‘But Iwillfind you a date.I’m making it my mission.’

‘No, it’s fine, really.’I tried to laugh it off, but Zoe had already turned away to talk to Amina.

My heart was racing now.The one thing worse than not being asked by anyone, was Zoe Parker asking people on mybehalf and being rejected.I glanced up to catch Niall sharing a look of sympathy with me.

I tried to get Megan’s attention, throwing a ‘save me’ look across the steps to where she was sitting beside Niall.But she wasn’t looking at me; she was laughing at something Hunter had said.

‘You’re going.Leave it to us.’Zoe turned back.She put her hand on my leg and grinned at me.‘Don’t worry Lexie, we won’t let you down.’She squealed and clapped.‘I just love playing cupid.’

Great.

3

Niall was striker for the boys’ team at Westing.He’d been obsessed with being a striker ever since we were little kids, and when Harrison put him on the first team last year his happiness was contagious.His moods seeped into my bones.Like when we got our AQE results and I saw his score, it physically hurt.It didn’t happen as much now, or as deeply, but it was still there.And I wasn’t jealous.Not the way I was of Megan, how everything came so easily to her, how she walked on to the team without even thinking about it.I’d always just been happy for Niall.Proud even.And he was always the first person I wanted to tell good news to.I daydreamed about Sadie starting me on the first team and Niall would be the first person I’d tell.Well, Megan would know because she was already on the team, but then it would be Niall, andthenMum and Dad.

‘You ready to go?’I asked him on Tuesday evening.He was playing Xbox.

‘It’s only five o’clock,’ he said.

‘I know, but we should get there early.Sadie likes it when people are on time,’ I said, pacing the gaming room.

‘Like, I know you’re into being early, Lex, but that’s way too soon.’

‘Please?’

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