All About the Hype by Paige Toon Page B

but I did. I’m so glad she’s here now, because no one else knows what I’ve been through as well as she does.
    ‘I love you, Libby,’ I say in a small voice.
    ‘I love you, too, Jessie,’ she whispers, and I can hear from her tone that she’s also crying. ‘Now try to get some sleep.’

Chapter 5
    Tom is leaving to catch a bus to San Francisco after breakfast, and I’m gutted at how quickly my time with him has slipped away. I ask if we can talk in private before he
goes.
    He nods reluctantly and we head upstairs to the rooftop. There’s a swimming pool up here and a bar, too, plus several big, red, pod-like things with mattresses inside them.
    ‘Shall we sit in there?’ I point at one of the pods and lead the way, gasping with surprise when I climb in and the mattress wobbles beneath me.
    ‘A waterbed!’ Tom exclaims, as he enters the pod through another entrance. We both try to crawl across the bed to the edges, but we give up and collapse onto our stomachs,
laughing.
    Somehow we manage to turn onto our backs. We continue to chuckle and it breaks the ice. Eventually we fall silent and lie side by side, looking out at the view of downtown’s nearby
skyscrapers piercing the dreary morning sky. The sun is hidden behind thick grey cloud today.
    Now that we’re here, I don’t know what to say, other than that I’m sorry, and I’ve already said that a hundred times.
    I reach over and take his hand, giving it a squeeze. A moment later, he squeezes it back.
    ‘Are you sure about him?’ he asks quietly.
    ‘No,’ I reply honestly.
    He turns his head to look at me. I try to roll onto my side to face him, but the movement makes me feel queasy.
    ‘Urgh,’ I say, pulling a face.
    He looks momentarily amused, but his expression soon grows sombre.
    ‘Why?’ he asks, and I think he means: why Jack? ‘I know he’s good-looking and everything, but I get the feeling he’d go for anything in a skirt.’
    I shake my head, my stomach lurching, now for reasons other than the heaving surface we’re lying on. ‘That’s not true.’ Although it might be – sort of.
‘He’s not like that with me.’
    ‘Isn’t he?’ Tom challenges.
    ‘I don’t think so…’ I reply. ‘He’s different when we’re alone.’
    ‘It shouldn’t matter if you’re alone or not,’ he says. ‘I barely even saw him speak to you last night, apart from when you were in his car.’
    He looks thoroughly sickened at the reminder. My heart twists because I really regret kissing Jack like that in full view of everyone. It just sort of happened. Jack does that to me – he
makes me act without thinking. OK, so
he
kissed
me
, but I could have stopped it from turning into a full-blown snog.
    ‘He couldn’t cosy up to me at the party because no one else knows that we’re together.’
    ‘So Lou said. To me it just sounds like he doesn’t give enough of a shit about you to rock the boat with his mates.’ He rakes his fingers through his brown hair and rests his
head on his hand, staring dismally up at the roof of the pod.
    ‘That’s not true,’ I try to convince him. ‘He
does
care about me. You don’t know him. You should have seen how he was with me in the car last
night.’
    ‘I
saw
how he was with you in the car last night,’ he reminds me with disgust.
    ‘I meant before that, when I was crying,’ I say quickly. ‘He does care about me, Tom. I know you don’t believe it but he does.’
    ‘So that’s it, then? Is he your boyfriend now? I mean, have you well and truly moved on?’
    I swallow. ‘Yes,’ I tell him truthfully, although I’m still not sure about the boyfriend part. ‘And you should move on, too.’
    He sighs heavily.
    ‘I still hope we can be friends,’ I say quietly.
    ‘I said I’d try,’ he states flatly.
    ‘I’m glad you came,’ I reiterate gently, wishing I could touch him, but knowing I should keep my distance.
    ‘I’m glad, too,’ he says eventually. ‘Despite having to see that