Playlist for a Broken Heart by Cathy Hopkins Read Free Book Online Page A

lived. The bus
passed a park and children’s playground to our left where I could vaguely remember playing with Tasmin when we were small. We passed a row of terraced houses all with signs advertising B and
B outside. Then rows of streets lined with tall, honey-coloured houses began to appear. They looked like something from a period costume drama and I could see more houses with the same stone
nestling in woodland on hills to the right behind the town. Very pretty, I thought as we got off the bus opposite an Odeon cinema complex and walked through a square lined with shops and
cafés.
    Tasmin pointed out a café to our right. ‘Good tea and cakes in there.’
    There were a number of eateries around the square, some with tables and chairs outside, all occupied with people enjoying the mild weather between the showers. The place had a buzz about it,
with a market stall in the middle selling fruit and vegetables, and benches where students sat eating pizza or tortillas from the Mexican restaurant nearby.
    ‘Is this where you hang out?’ I asked.
    ‘Sometimes, but we cruise all over. We like to go to McDonald’s too,’ replied Tasmin. ‘Everyone does.’
    ‘We always see someone we know in there,’ Clover added. ‘And sometimes we hang out on the turf in the middle of the shopping centre. It’s paved so no cars go there and
there’s this fake grass with deck chairs on it in the warm weather. We also like to go up to the Royal Crescent. There’s a huge park in front of it and people hang out there too.
We’ll show you one day.’
    ‘Royal Crescent?’ I asked.
    Tasmin rolled her eyes. ‘Haven’t you heard of it? Big curved row of houses at the top of Bath? It’s famous. There are loads of other crescents too.’
    ‘Eight in all,’ said Clover, ‘not loads. She always exaggerates everything.’
    ‘People come from all over the world to see the architecture here,’ said Tasmin. ‘That’s not an exaggeration.’
    ‘Let’s take her to the square next to the Abbey,’ said Clover as we came into a street lined with shops. ‘It’s a good place to hang out and listen to live music
– someone’s always playing there. Take no notice of Tasmin, Paige. Why should you know about the Royal Crescent if you’ve never lived here?’
    ‘It’s not such a bad place to live,’ said Tasmin. ‘OK yeah, there’s all the history stuff but there’s a good music scene here, though Bristol is better. Mum
and Dad don’t like me going there any more though, since I went to a gig with a bunch of mates and didn’t get back to Bath til past midnight. They had to pick me up from the train
station. I was so in the doghouse that week.’
    As we turned into a pedestrianised street, to our right, a woman in her twenties was singing opera in a very wobbly voice. ‘God, she warbles,’ said Tasmin in a voice loud enough for
the street performer to hear. ‘I’d like to shoot her.’
    Clover sighed. ‘Little Miss Subtle with her opinions,’ she said.
    ‘I’m beginning to realise,’ I replied, though I quite liked Tasmin being so outspoken. I didn’t have to worry about what she was thinking because it was out before she
could stop herself, so I knew exactly what was going on in her head.
    ‘Take no notice of her. I quite often pretend I’m not with her,’ said Clover.
    Ahead of us, a bunch of boys and girls were sitting on benches by a hot sausage stall. One of them looked like the boy I’d seen yesterday outside the house. He had his arm around a girl
with short chestnut-coloured hair. She wasn’t either of the girls I’d seen him with before. He saw me staring so I quickly turned away. He might be good-looking but he was clearly a
love rat and I didn’t want him thinking I was a contender for his list of conquests. I caught up with Tasmin and Clover and we took a left through some pillars to find there was a huge Abbey
in front of us, and an open square to our right.
    ‘Wow, this is
amazing
,’ I