late.” I make a show of looking at my watch, and shaking my head. On my present performance if I entered Nerd Olympics I could well be in the running for a medal.
“Sure,” he says shrugging. We walk in silence to the car. All I can think about is: what’s Guy going to say if he finds out my whole life since moving here has been based on one big fat lie?
***
“Oh Maddie, it was awful. I’ve been in some sticky situations before but this has to be the worst ever ever ever. My entire life flashed before my eyes. Worse than drowning I reckon. I just wanted the ground to swallow me whole. It was so embarrassing I didn’t know what to do. And he just stood there staring at me as if—”
“Whoa, girl. Breathe.”
Breathe? That’s a laugh. It’s easy for her to say breathe when she’s not involved.
“I am, it’s just that—”
“Suzy,” she bellows in my ear before I have chance to finish. I hold the phone out in front of me and stare at it. She’s still coming over loud and clear, despite the distance between the phone and my ear. “Breathe. Do you hear me?” I nod my head. “I said, do you hear me?”
“Yes. Yes. I hear you. The whole world can hear you you’re shouting so much.” I sigh very loudly to make my point. “I’m breathing. Okay? But that’s not going to help me if Ryan decides to blurt out my secret to everyone is it?” I pace up and down the room, running my fingers through my hair, until they get stuck in a knot and I end up yanking out a handful and squealing in pain.
“And you think he’s likely to tell?”
“How the hell do I know? Why not? He’s got nothing to lose.”
“And nothing to gain.”
“Apart from getting me back for not contacting him. This is going to screw up my whole life I just know it.” I tear up and roughly wipe them away with the back of my hand. I’m not a cry baby so why they’ve decided to fall now I’ve no idea. Unless it’s a premonition of the bad things to come.
“Suzy, you need to think rationally. I remember him from camp. He’s a sweet guy. He won’t drop you in it. And anyway, he doesn’t know all about your lies.”
“Lie,” I correct. “Just the one. Even if it is like the hugest lie in the history of time.” Okay, so I’m not normally prone to melodrama (well, in my eyes I’m not. Maddie would probably disagree) but really this situation would lead even the most reserved person ever to over-the-top behavior.
“Well it is bigger than most, I have to agree with you there.”
“You don’t say.”
Maddie starts to giggle. “Sorry. It’s not funny. It’s just that why do these things happen to you all the time?”
She’s not wrong. I think I have a sign above my head saying ‘all trouble walk this way’.
“Yeah, but there’s trouble and there’s trouble. And if this lie gets out my life is ruined.” A sob escapes my lips. I sit on the end of my bed and lean forward, resting my arms on my knees.
“Oh, Suzy. Don’t cry. It’ll be okay. We just have to work out a plan.” The concern in Maddie’s voice gets me even more and I launch into a fully blown cry-attack.
“Sorry,” I say between sniffs. “Come on. Wow me with your failsafe plan.”
Chapter Eleven
“I didn’t say I had a plan,” Maddie says.
“Yes you did. I heard you. And now you’re telling me you don’t have one. So what is it? Do you or don’t you have a plan?”
“I don’t.”
“So what the hell am I to do then?” I ask through clenched teeth, anger and frustration replacing my tears.
“First you go to the side of your bed, pull out a tissue from the box on the bedside table, wipe your eyes and calm down.” What did I say about Maddie and her special powers? She’s never seen my bedroom yet she knows exactly how it’s laid out. She truly has an awesome gift.
“Have you done that?” She adds a few seconds later.
“Yes.” I screw up the tissue and throw it in the direction of my rubbish bin. It goes in. Yay. That is definitely a sign. “I wish you could be here to help me. Especially as you know Ryan.”
“Well I can’t.”
“I’ll give you my signed photo of Justin.” We both love Justin Bieber more than