Between the Lives - By Jessica Shirvington Page 0,55

up her face.

‘Okay, okay!’

I smiled triumphantly. ‘Okay then. Let’s get to work.’

It took all of lunchtime plus our study period to finalise the table plan and run sheet. When we finally emerged from the seniors’ lounge, Lucy looked positively delirious knowing she could now delegate the remaining tasks to the other committee members.

‘Now it’s just down to styling the hall on the day. Any chance you might be interested in helping?’ she asked sheepishly.

To her surprise I nodded. By then, I was hoping I’d be a lot closer to having my own life sorted. And maybe having things to keep me busy in this world would be just what I’d need.

‘No problem,’ I said. ‘I’m a brilliant supervisor.’

Lucy slapped me on the arm playfully. ‘Of course, if you’re too busy getting a bikini wax during the day …’ She elbowed me jokingly. ‘I could always make an exception.’

‘You are so funny,’ I quipped, ignoring the twist in my stomach.

‘Oh, come on, Sabine. Since when did you get all secretive about the big night? I thought you’d be planning out the entire thing. I’m surprised you haven’t worked out a script.’

I gave her a teasing smile. ‘Well, Lucy, I don’t need a script. Not much talking involved.’

She burst into a fit of giggles. But when she sobered, her next words threw me.

‘You’re happy though, right?’

‘I … ah … Why do you ask?’ I stammered.

‘You’ve just seemed a bit distracted lately. I was thinking about it the other day, and I totally get why you’ve waited this long to … you know. It’s a big thing. But you guys have been together for years. I guess I just wondered if there was any other reason that you hadn’t … before.’

I stopped walking, stunned by the insightfulness of Lucy’s comments. It was true. I had made Dex wait a long time. I’d excused it as best I could, given all the right reasons, hidden behind properness, self-respect, age, timing, blah blah blah. But it had stopped being about those things a while back. In many ways, I’d been hoping to find that missing ingredient in our otherwise perfect relationship.

‘Well, I … um.’ I sighed. ‘Luce, I’m …’

On the verge of spilling my concerns to her, I froze. This was my Wellesley life. If this life fell apart, right before graduation, what would I have then? No. I couldn’t let that happen. Couldn’t risk having both of my worlds in disarray.

I waved a dismissive hand through the air. ‘I’m absolutely happy, more than happy. Dex and I are going to be together for, like, ever. Waiting until the right time to take this step was key. If we’d jumped into bed too soon, we wouldn’t be able to look back on this time and know how much we’d wanted it.’

Lucy swooned. ‘Aw, you guys are so adorable. I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s so true.’ She nodded. ‘I hope Noah and I are like you two one day.’

I blinked, surprised it had been that easy. But I gladly latched onto the change of subject. ‘Well, you’ll never find out if you don’t do something about it. Tonight.’

‘At least if he rejects me, I won’t have to see him at school for much longer,’ she moaned as we made our way down the hall to our last class of the day.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Wellesley, Tuesday

To my surprise, Lucas was waiting for me after school and drove me, as promised, straight to the garage to collect my car. It was one of my favourite possessions. One thing Ryan, Lucas and I shared was a love of cars. Ryan loved how cool he thought he was in his vintage Porsche, Lucas loved the mechanics, and I loved the freedom that my new-model silver A1 gave me.

When we arrived at the garage, I couldn’t hide my excitement. I planned to inspect the car carefully, eager to see the new rims we’d ordered. But as soon as Frank, the mechanic, came out of the garage door to greet us, I knew the news wasn’t good.

Frank was short and thin, his wiry hair now completely grey, along with the forest of hair on his chest and arms. He’d been the family mechanic since before I was born and I imagined he would keep going until he literally couldn’t work anymore.

‘Sorry, darlin’. If I’d known you were comin’, I woulda called and told ya not to waste ya time. Those rims ain’t come in yet and next delivery’s not till Thursday.’ He