Me:OK.
Chloe:Tonight?
Me:I’m staying at my grandparents, but I can come to yours?
When Chloe answers the door, her expression isn’t exactly friendly. We sayhiand she leads me through to the living room. She invites me to sit and asks me if I want a drink. It’s weird her talking to me like I’m a guest. I usually make myself right at home.
I sit across from her on the L-shaped sofa.
‘How’s your stomach?’ I ask.
‘Still sore, but I’m not taking so many painkillers now.’
‘That’s good.’
‘Thanks for the book,’ she says.
‘No problem. Thankyoufor all the fun memories.’
We go to speak at the same time.
‘You go,’ she says.
‘I’m so sorry I went to Beatland without you,’ I say. ‘It would have been way more fun if you’d been there.’
She looks doubtful.
‘Seriously,’ I tell her. ‘The whole time I was there I kept wanting to call you and tell you what was happening.’
Her face reddens as she smiles. ‘Maybe next year.’
‘Oh my God – yes! I’ll ask Tumi to get us both VIP passes.’
She goes quiet. Pulls at a loose thread on the hem of her sweatshirt. ‘I think we both know my parents won’t let me go.’
‘They might – we’ll be seventeen by then.’
She smiles at me, eyebrows high, as if to sayyeah right.
‘Okay, so we go the year after, when we’re eighteen. But we’re definitely going, okay?’
Her shoulders slump. ‘I want to be a normal teenager. To go to festivals and parties and have a boyfriend. But I have allthis pressure on me to do well in school, to get the next piano grading. To win tennis tournaments, all that stuff. It’s such a cliché being the Asian girl with the Tiger Mum.’
‘What’s a Tiger Mum?’
‘A strict Chinese mum who pushes her kids to study.’
‘But it’s your dad that’s Chinese, not your mum.’
Chloe huffs. ‘I know, ironic, right?’
‘But I thought you liked that stuff. You love playing the piano. You love tennis.’
‘I used to love them but practising piano two hours a day, every day, isn’t fun. I hate playing piano now. And tennis sessions three times a week. And the maths tutor. It’s too much. I actually enjoyed being in hospital. I got to stay in bed and watch YouTube for three days.’
I laugh. ‘Hardly any kids stick to a hobby unless their parents make them. I started piano lessons at the same time as you. I gave up after a month. I wish my mum had made me keep going. How amazing is it that you can play piano? Your achievements will look brilliant on your uni applications. I’ve got nothing to put on mine.’
‘You do now you’ve been working on a magazine.’