Remix by Non Pratt Read Free Book Online

a laugh that I assume means it is. “Me and Stella are feeling a bit gooseberry-ish.”
    I try and think back to which one was Stella, but I can’t. Either way, it’s not going to change my answer.
    “Of course. I’ll come and meet you by the crossroads.” I tell the others where I’m going, and the mention of Rugby Tom sends Dongle into a chorus of delighted whoops. I deliberately avoid looking at Lee. I’m glad his sister’s not here. Better phone her, though; ambushing her with Tom isn’t likely to put Ruby in the most amenable of moods.
    The call goes through to voicemail. The mention of
“Stuart Cheating Shitbag Garside”
reminds me of the unanswered question of Tom’s new girlfriend. Even as I’m texting her, I dismiss Ruby’s doubts. So what if Tom isn’t keen on being paired off with this Stella girl? It doesn’t mean it’s because he’s already taken. It could be that he doesn’t fancy her – or she doesn’t fancy him.
    It could be that he fancies someone else…
    Like me.
RUBY
    When I get back, bouncing along with Owen’s beaten-up guitar on my shoulder Dick Whittington-style, I’m surprised to find Kaz missing. Before I even sit down, Lee tells me where she’s gone. I try not to look too disappointed. Kaz was too lazy to come for a walk up the hill with me, but she’s fine to toddle off across the other side of the campsite to fetch her ex-boyfriend? How’s that for priorities?
    I reach into my pocket to pull out my phone, but it’s not there. Before I can panic, Dongle hands it over. “Kaz tried to call you and this thing started singing ‘Sweet Caroline’ at me, you loser.”
    “It’s Kaz’s favourite song,” I lie, reading her message.
    Sorry about this – Tom’s friends have abandoned him. Hope you don’t mind him singing along with everyone else?
She’s stuck a hopeful-looking emoji on the end. I wish I could punch its tiny little face.
KAZ
    Stella is very attractive. She has shoulder-length hair that she’s dyed a pretty pale pink and her eyelashes are impossibly long. As are her limbs. She’s as tall as me and half the width, but for all that, as we’re walking up the South Slope path, it’s my eye that Tom keeps catching. I watch as he talks to Stella, thinking of how perfectly we fit together when his arm’s around me and my fingers flex open, remembering how it was to rest the flat of my hand on his chest and feel the beating of his heart.
    Tom turns to ask which way he’s meant to go, his eyes lingering on mine.
    The college lot know Tom well enough for me not to bother with introductions, and within minutes I lose him to Dongle, who says he’s been deprived of sports talk since he got here. Stella takes a seat next to Lee while Ruby gestures at the guitar.
    “Is that a guitar on your lap or are you just pleased to see me?” Dongle shouts out and Ruby flicks the cap of her beer bottle at him, catching him perfectly on the chin.
    “Idiot,” she says. “I was wondering whether Kaz might use it to play something suitably awesome.”
    If she’s annoyed with me about Tom, there’s no sign of it. She grins up at me as she hands over the guitar, although when I start up with the first chords of the duet from
Frozen
, she throws an empty plastic bottle at me (which is preferable to a beer cap, judging by the cut on Dongle’s chin).
    Ruby hates that song.
    When the laughter dies down, Anna suggests that I play something we’ll hear this weekend: I know exactly what to play.
RUBY
    I recognize the intro within a nanosecond. “Everything Ends Midnight.” My –
our
– favourite Gold’ntone song. It’s not that it doesn’t get to me when Adam Wexler sings it, but there’s something special hearing it Kaz-style. On the track it’s fairly upbeat, despite the gut-grabbing lyrics, but when Kaz takes it and turns it about, the song becomes haunting and hurty.
    Watching her like this, singing, losing herself, even though we’re watching, makes me feel fiercely