13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough

All this shit will blow over.’
    ‘I know,’ she said. ‘I guess it’s just brought it all back. What bitches they were to me.’ More than that , she wanted to say. It’s brought back how much I wanted to keep them. How I would have let them be bitches to me forever if I could have stayed in the circle . I was such a loser. Some humiliations, however, you had to keep to yourself if you wanted to keep your boyfriend. No one needed to know what a twat she could be, least of all Aiden.
    ‘Jamie went up to see her,’ Aiden said, ‘but she was too tired, apparently. I think it made him feel like a bit of an idiot. He doesn’t do people at the best of times.’ She offered him the joint back but he shook his head. ‘You finish that. I’ve got to play guitar in a bit.’
    It was the only thing that irritated Becca about Aiden working with Jamie McMahon – they recorded at night from seven or eight through to midnight, or even later if they were close to a deadline. It meant that sometimes she barely saw Aiden at all for days, whereas if they worked during the day like normal people his evenings would be free.
    ‘I’d want to see him if he’d saved me,’ Aiden continued. ‘To say thank you if nothing else.’
    ‘She didn’t text Hayley back, either. Maybe she’s not as well as they think. When I was reading to her in the hospital she was so still. It was hard to believe she wasn’t dying. Or dead or whatever. Maybe you can’t just bounce back from that stuff?’ Why was she suddenly defending Natasha? How hard did old habits die?
    ‘Still odd. And very Natasha not to give a shit that he’d gone all that way to see her. She could have managed five minutes.’
    ‘True,’ Becca said. ‘Her mum rang mine. Apparently she doesn’t remember very much. Like, nothing from that whole day.’
    ‘All the more reason you’d think she’d want to see him.’
    ‘Yeah, but this is Tasha. I’m not sure hospital-bed hellos would be her thing.’
    Aiden looked quizzical.
    ‘No make-up. No hair straighteners. No padded bra.’
    ‘Oh, meow.’ Aiden laughed, pulling her up to him. ‘You can be such a bitch.’ His tone was light, though, and he had one hand in her hair as he leaned in to kiss her. She loved the way he kissed. Gentle, sweet exploration. It was even better when they were stoned – which was most of the time they were together, if she was honest. The tingle in her tongue ran through to the buzz in her veins and it was only ever a moment or two until her whole body was throbbing. She’d never get tired of Aiden. Never. Natasha had been stupid to turn him down.
    She had Natasha’s cast-off. She tried not to think about that. Aiden loved her ,Becca. He would never have loved Natasha, not like this. Not in this soulmate way. But it still bothered her that he’d wanted Tasha. That he’d thought she was beautiful. She was beautiful. That made it worse. But even if they had dated it wouldn’t have lasted. He would have found Rebecca eventually. Once Tasha’s gold-plated shine had worn away to show the cheap metal underneath, he’d have seen that Becca was his diamond. Of course he would.
    ‘What?’ he asked, pulling away from her as if he could feel the distraction in her kiss. His eyes were hazy red and his smile soft.
    ‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘Nothing at all.’ They only had half an hour or so before he’d have to drop her home and then head off to work on whatever soundtrack Mr McMahon was composing for the rest of the night. She didn’t want to spend it thinking about Natasha Howland. Natasha Howland was part of her history. She could stay there. Even if Tasha came crawling back to her – which she never would – Becca would have nothing to do with her. If it had been Becca out by the river, she wasn’t even sure she’d have pulled her ex-best friend out. So much for forever. The only thing that lasted forever was death. The thought made her insides cool a little. Death and her love for