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

said as I looked around. The Abbey was an impressive building with enormous wooden doors, and to the left and right of them were tall ladders with
statues of people, carved in stone, climbing their way to the top. In front, a crowd was watching a human statue that was sprayed from head to toe in silver paint. He was totally still despite
having a pigeon balanced on his hat. A bunch of Japanese tourists took turns having their photo taken with him and even then he didn’t move. I took a quick photo on my phone to send to
Allegra. To our right was a long line of tourists queuing.
    ‘Where are they going?’ I asked.
    ‘The Pump Room or the Roman Baths I guess,’ said Clover.
    ‘You get posh tea in the Pump Room,’ said Tasmin as we went over and looked through tall windows into what looked like a ballroom. It was filled with tables laid with white cloths
and waiters in black-and-white uniforms rushing around carrying silver trays and serving customers. ‘The tourists love it.’
    I glanced behind me to see if the group of boys and girls by the sausage stand were still there but they’d moved on.
    ‘Er . . . That boy next door to you. Who is he?’ I asked.
    ‘Boy next door? To us at home you mean?’ Tasmin replied.
    I nodded.
    ‘Do you mean to the right? You must because there’s only a pair of wrinklies on the left – Mr and Mrs Carson.’
    ‘Yes, to the right.’
    ‘What does he look like?’
    ‘Tall. Brown, medium-length hair. Maybe about eighteen. I only got a glimpse of him.’
    ‘You must mean Niall Peterson. Have you met him already? God, he’s fast, but then that’s Niall.’
    ‘I haven’t met him. I just saw him yesterday when I was looking out the window. What’s he like?’
    Tasmin raised an eyebrow. ‘Don’t tell me you fancy him?’
    ‘No way.’
    ‘Good, because he’s so full of himself. Thinks he’s so cool.’
    ‘You used to think so too Tas,’ said Clover.
    ‘Duh. Only about a million years ago. That was back in Year Seven when I didn’t know any better. So why do you want to know about him, Paige?’
    ‘Oh no reason,’ I said. ‘Just wondering who he was, that’s all.’
    Clover and Tasmin looked at each other. ‘She fancies him,’ they said in unison.
    ‘I
don’t
,’ I said. ‘I can assure you he is about as far from my type as possible.’
    ‘Yeah right,’ they both said in unison.
    I could see that protesting was only making things worse, so I decided to give up. They’d realise soon enough I wasn’t interested in the creep next door.
    ‘So what is your type?’ asked Clover.
    I shrugged. ‘I . . . I’m not really into boys.’
    ‘You a lezzer?’ asked Tasmin. ‘It’s OK if you are. Susie Railston at our school is and she’s one of the coolest girls in our year.’
    ‘No, it’s not that. Just . . . I have better things to think about than whether some stupid boy has noticed me or not.’
    ‘Good for you, Paige,’ said Clover. ‘You’re very sensible. Boys mainly do your head in.’
    Tasmin looked me up and down. ‘Yes. Sensible, that’s a good word to describe you.’ I knew she was talking about my dress sense as well as anything else. I wished I
wasn’t. I’d like to be cool and stylish like Clover or a tad wilder like Tasmin, but I didn’t want to copy either of them. I wanted to be me, a new me, the real me – but I
didn’t know who that was. ‘But there must have been someone in London? Some secret crush?’
    I didn’t want to seem straight and boring so decided to tell her about Alex. ‘There was one boy. I really liked him. He never noticed me until recently. I’d just got the part
of Juliet in the school play and he was going to play Romeo, but it never happened . . . because of the move.’
    Tasmin and Clover looked at me sympathetically. ‘Oh bummer,’ said Clover and she put her arm around me and gave me a squeeze.
    ‘Lezzers,’ said Tasmin.
    Clover let go of me, pursed her lips and went to kiss Tasmin but she