The Boyfriend Dilemma by Fiona Foden Page B

wails. “Your iPad!”
    Rosalind sits down on the bench and puts her head in her hands. “Just … leave it, Olivia. I’m not up to this. It really is too much.”

Chapter eight

    â€œSpeak up, Zoe,” I yell. “I can hardly hear you.”
    There’s a whispered jumble of words that I can’t decipher, no matter how hard I try. It doesn’t help that Kyle’s still playing music in his room, even though it’s half eleven at night and Mum asked him to turn it down ages ago. Amber, who could probably sleep through an earthquake, is snoring softly on the top bunk.
    â€œâ€¦ hate it here…” Zoe sounds as if she’s choking back tears. “She’s horrible, Layla. They both are. I can’t stand coming here any more…”
    â€œYou mean Rosalind and Olivia?” I whisper. Uh-oh – Amber’s stirring now, muttering in her sleep. Still clutching my phone, I slip out of bed and creep to the bathroom, locking the door behind me.
    â€œâ€¦ yelled at Matty,” Zoe goes on. “I’m sure he didn’t do it on purpose…”
    â€œDo what?”
    â€œBroke Rosalind’s iPad.”
    â€œOh, God…”
    â€œâ€¦ I know it’s bad,” she adds, “but she shouldn’t have gone on at us, saying she couldn’t handle us and it was all too much for her…”
    â€œThat’s not fair,” I exclaim, and I mean it. Zoe is lucky, but she knows that not everyone has a massive bedroom and balcony, and besides, she doesn’t get everything she wants. While I had my ears pierced years ago, she’s not allowed until she’s about twenty-seven or something. I’m not having some stranger puncturing your lobes! is how her mum put it, making it sound as if they pin you down and stab you with a needle. “Didn’t your dad stick up for you?” I ask.
    She sniffs loudly. “You know what he’s like. He’d never do anything to upset Rosalind. He was pretty mad at Matty and then he said we don’t appreciate what we have…” I think about Rosalind, who gave up her job about five minutes after Zoe’s dad moved in so she could spend more time with the ponies. “And Mum confiscated my phone,” she adds, “’cause I was late picking Matty up from holiday club…”
    â€œOh, no… I wondered what had happened. I’ve been trying to call—”
    â€œAnd you know what else? We’re getting an au pair!”
    â€œWhat?” I gasp.
    â€œMum thinks we need one, after I forgot about Matty…”
    I pause, not knowing what to say to make her feel better. “Well, things have been pretty bad here too,” I murmur, filling her in on the changing-tent horrror, and CJ and Toni following me to the park.
    â€œThat’s awful!” she gasps as another voice cuts through the air. “Uh, sorry, better go. I snuck downstairs to use the phone…”
    She stops abruptly as Rosalind’s voice booms out, “Zoe! What are you doing up at this time? It’s nearly midnight!”
    Seconds later, I hear her dad’s voice. “Rosalind, go back to bed, sweetheart. Zoe, what are you thinking, phoning someone in the middle of the night? Is it Mum you’re talking to?”
    â€œNo,” Zoe says miserably, “it’s Layla.”
    â€œTell her goodnight then,” her dad says.
    â€œShe shouldn’t be using our phone without asking, Mark,” Rosalind snaps.
    â€œIt’s only the phone, for goodness’ sake…”
    â€œWell, it all adds up,” she argues. “Our last bill was huge.”
    â€œYes, I’ll remember that when you’re ordering horse blankets that cost four hundred pounds, not to mention the iPad—”
    â€œThe one your son broke!” Rosalind shrieks.
    My teeth are jammed together now. I should probably just put the phone down, but I don’t