A normal, everyday, school day.

I woke up on Monday morning and immediately reached for my phone. There was nothing from Trish. I checked our conversation, just to make sure I hadn't missed anything, then put the phone back on my bedside table. I wasn't sure what I’d expected. It wasn't as though she'd promised to reply straight away. Still, after finding her note beneath my pillow the night before, I'd hoped she'd have something to say. I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for school.

By the time I made it to the family area, Mum had already left for work, and Dad was finishing his coffee at the kitchen counter.

“Big weekend?” he asked, glancing at me over his mug.

“Not really.”

“Your mother tells me you got in rather late on Friday.”

“She's been telling you that for two days?”

“It's one of her favourite subjects.”

I grabbed some toast and ate it standing at the counter. Dad gave me a knowing look but thankfully didn't pursue the subject. I finished breakfast, collected my bag, and headed out. My phone was still sitting on my bedside table. I didn't realise until I was halfway to school. By then, there wasn't much point going back for it. I'd managed without it plenty of times before, and it wasn't as though I was waiting for any important calls. I carried on, figuring I'd check it when I got home.

Michael and Lyndsay were waiting near the entrance when I arrived.

“Look who decided to show up,” Michael said.

“I didn’t know you missed me so much when we were apart.” I countered, making the two of them laugh.

Lyndsay’s expression quickly turned from a smile to a grimace. “You two were absolute bastards yesterday.”

“He was making the noises first,” I pointed at Michael.

“And you kept doing it!” Michael grinned. “And we'll keep doing it until you stop throwing up at parties.”

“I hate both of you.”

We headed inside, still arguing, and for a while it felt like any other Monday morning. Until I saw Rebecca. She was standing with Kat and Carla near the lockers, talking to them as though nothing in the world was wrong. I caught sight of her just as we came around the corner. For a moment, I thought she might look over. She didn't. Not even a glance. She carried on talking to Kat, smiling at something Carla said, completely ignoring the fact that I was standing barely twenty feet away. I slowed slightly, waiting for some acknowledgement. Anything. A look, a frown, even one of those pointed expressions she was so good at giving me when I’d annoyed her. Nothing.

Michael nudged me with his elbow. “You coming?”

“Yeah.” I forced myself to keep walking.

Rebecca had always been good at this. One minute she could make me feel like I was the most important person in the world; the next, I might as well have been a stranger. Usually, I could work out what I'd done to deserve it. This time, I wasn't so sure. I told myself I didn't care. That lasted about thirty seconds.

By the time we reached our lockers, Michael was talking about something that had happened in class last week, and I made a reasonable effort to listen. I wasn't going to spend the entire day worrying about Rebecca. If she wanted to ignore me, that was her business. Besides, I had other things to think about.

Kat caught up with me just before our first class. “Hey.”

I turned, glad to see her smiling. It was a lot better than whatever Rebecca was doing. “Hey. How are you?”

“Good.” She fell into step beside me. “So, Wednesday.”

I felt a little guilty at how quickly I'd forgotten about the date. Not that I'd forgotten it was happening, exactly. I'd just had other things occupying my mind.

“Wednesday,” I agreed.

“Have you thought about where we're going?”

“Not really. I was going to ask you.”

Kat laughed. “That's a promising start. I have such high hopes!”

“I thought I'd let you choose. It's your date, after all.”

“Is that how it works?”

“Seems fair to me.”

She considered it as we walked. “Well, I don't want to go somewhere ridiculously expensive. And I don't want to spend the whole evening sitting in a dark cinema, either.”

“Dinner, then?” I said cautiously.

“Dinner sounds good.”

“Any particular place?”

“There's that Italian place near the shopping centre. I've been wanting to try it.”

“I know the one. We could go there.”

“Okay.” Her smile widened. “It's a date, then.”

“It's a date.”

She seemed genuinely pleased, and I found myself smiling too. Kat was easy to talk to when she wasn't furious with me, which until recently hadn’t been that often, and I was looking forward to spending time with her. Whatever happened on Wednesday, at least I owed her a proper evening after the way I'd treated her. We spent the next few minutes discussing what time we’d meet up and whether she wanted to do anything afterwards. Kat would drive as I was sure I wasn’t going to get the car off Heather again anytime soon. By the time we reached the classroom, we'd settled on dinner and a walk around the shops if we felt like it.

“Don't stand me up this time,” she said as she turned towards her seat.

“I won't.”

“You'd better not.” She gave me one last smile before joining her friends.

Carla was sitting nearby. She glanced over as I took my seat and gave me a perfectly ordinary smile.

“Morning,” Carla said, turning in her seat to face me.

“Morning.”

“Did you get home okay yesterday?”

“Yeah. Eventually.”

“Good. I was worried you might have got lost.”

I laughed. “I managed to find my front door.”

“Impressive.”

And that was it. No lingering looks. No private jokes. No hint that we'd spent the night together. She treated me exactly as she always had, and I did the same. If anything, I was relieved. There was something reassuring about how normal she was being.

When Ms Holmes arrived, Carla turned around, and the conversation was over.

First period was Media, and when we weren’t in the school’s studio, Ms Holmes liked to teach the class from the front, sitting on her desk.

Michael and Lyndsay spent the class trying to discreetly lean back in their chairs and try to look up Ms Holmes's skirt. They thought they were being completely subtle, but they were painfully obvious. Still, Ms Holmes never said anything to them, and the lesson went on.

The rest of the school day passed much the same way. Kat was friendly whenever we crossed paths, and we exchanged a few more words about Wednesday. Rebecca continued to ignore me completely. I saw her several times, but she never once looked in my direction. By lunchtime, I was starting to find it irritating. I hadn't expected her to apologise for being angry with me, but the complete silence felt deliberate. It was as though she wanted me to notice that she wasn't speaking to me. Which, of course, I had.

I spent lunch with Michael and Lyndsay, doing my best to ignore the whole thing. Michael was more interested in arguing about football, and Lyndsay had apparently recovered enough to threaten revenge for the previous day's abuse. When the final bell rang, I was more than ready to go home.

The first thing I did when I got through the door was head back to my room and retrieve my phone.

There were several notifications waiting for me. A couple of messages from Michael that he could have just told me at school, a reminder I'd forgotten to dismiss, and one from Trish.

I stopped scrolling.

I read it again, then opened the conversation. A second message had arrived a little later.

I sat down on the edge of my bed, staring at the screen. That was encouraging, wasn't it? I started typing a reply, then stopped. I didn't want to make too much of it, or say something that would make things awkward. After a moment, I settled on something simple.

I sent it before I could overthink it. Then I put the phone down, got changed, and went back out to find something to eat. It wasn't until I had finished making myself a sandwich that I went back and checked again.

I thought about it for a moment. I didn't want to leave everything up to Trish. I'd already asked Kat to choose where we were going on Wednesday, and I wasn't about to make a habit of expecting girls to organise my dates for me. I racked my brain, but unfortunately, I couldn’t come up with something right then. Who knew Heather was going to be such a pain in the arse. Well, I knew she already was, but this was extra. That’s what I get for trying it on with her best friend, I guessed.

I didn’t want to leave Trish hanging without something at least.