Lovestruck by Julia Llewellyn Read Free Book Online Page A

set for Christmas and she watched the episodes again and again. She couldn’t believe her grandson-in-law was actually spending every day with the most glamorous cast member.
    ‘There’s nothing much to tell,’ sighed Jake, who was bored of this line of questioning. ‘She’s having trouble learning the lines, she spends every break on the phone to the US and she doesn’t socialize with us.’
    ‘Does she have a fella? Someone as beautiful as her must.’
    ‘Not that I’m aware. Like I say, she doesn’t talk to us mortals. She’s not really coming to grips with Shakespeare.’
    ‘Well, why would she be? She’s comes from Nowheresville, Ohio, not Stratford-upon-Avon. And
how’s your beautiful new house? I’m so looking forward to seeing it.’
    ‘I’ll show you photos,’ Jake said, pulling out his phone. While Nanna peered at the shots of the house – ‘How will you keep it clean? Oh, you’ll have a cleaner will you? And a gardener? Well, yes, you’ll need one’ – and the boys watched CBeebies on the telly in the corner, Rosie wandered to the window and stared out at the boarded-up shopfronts across the way.
    When she’d lived here there’d been, respectively, a fish and chip shop – they must have been its best customers – and a hairdressers. Rosie remembered sitting in that chair, a scratchy black gown on, having her first professional cut aged thirteen – before that Nanna had always done it with a pudding bowl and, God, it had shown.
    There’d been a newsagents and a corner shop too. All gone now, destroyed by the power of Cribbs Causeway and the Internet. Nanna had to walk a mile both ways in each direction now, when she ran out of fags.
    She turned back to the room. Nanna was chatting to Jake as she chucked frozen peas into boiling water. On the stained wall beside her was a poster of Snoopy and Charlie Brown lying back to back. ‘All You Need Is Love’ was the slogan. For years Rosie had thought it the cutest thing she’d ever seen. Next to it there was a photo of Rosie the summer after GCSEs. God, she looked awful, she thought. That unfortunate bleached mop of hair, the horrible peachy lipstick, the terribly
applied fake tan – fake tan had dominated those years, she’d ruined so many sheets with the stuff. The grey and yellow T-shirt from Jane Norman too – whatever happened to Jane Norman? Did it still exist? What nonsense that your teens were your salad days. Every single thing about Rosie’s life was better now. The only good thing about that photo was she wasn’t wearing her horrible black-framed glasses – when she was fourteen Christy had nagged her into getting contact lenses, which Rosie had paid for with the funds from her paper round.
    She owed it all to Christy. And to Nanna, for making sure she met Christy. Brightman’s, their school, was on the other side of town, and even though they lived nowhere near the catchment, Nanna had wangled her a place by working for the feeder primary Mount Seward for a few terms as a dinner lady. Nanna was always looking out for her.
    Mount Seward wasn’t a particularly special school either, but compared to the local primary it was Eton College. Rosie’s journey there involved two bus rides, which she loved because she spent them reading: something that was very hard to do in the flat with Mum’s music always turned up full blast. Christy had lived just two roads away from Mount Seward.
    She didn’t really hang out with Christy at first. Christy had been best friends with Belinda Crighton, who was the class golden girl. But when Christy turned eight, twelve of them were invited to her birthday party. Rosie
wore her best dress, which Nanna had bought her in the Tammy Girl sale – a sailor number with a huge sailor collar shot with gold thread and – after some nagging from Rosie – money was found to buy Christy a splendid colouring book that Rosie had coveted for herself. Christy, who answered the door to Rosie, beaming, was