I smile sadly, meeting her concerned gaze. “What’s one more nail in the coffin to my broken heart?”
I pull my hand from hers and climb the stairs two at a time to my room, desperate to reach my safe haven. As soon as I shut the door, I walk into my walk-in closet and pull out my backpack and start shoving clothes in there. I take a quick shower and then whilst I dry off; I book myself a train ticket home. I need to go home, back to the place that was once my place of refuge, back to the people who knew me before I lost everything I loved. I won’t ask Dom to run me to the station as he’ll no doubt refuse and try to stall me until he can get a hold of Grayson, so I book an Uber. I shove my kindle charger and phone charger into my bag and then I write a quick text to my dad, letting him know that I am heading home for a few days to support a friend.
My phone pings alerting me that my driver is turning onto our street and I throw my backpack onto my back and with a quick glance back at my room I head downstairs. Dom and Izzy are still sitting at the kitchen island, talking in hushed voices. Izzy notices me first and she searches my face before her eyes fall on the backpack on my back.
“Where are you going?” she asks me, her voice on high alert.
“I need some space, so I’m going home.”
“Ev,” Dom protests. “I really think you should—“
“Don’t,” I tell him, holding my hand out to stop him. “Don’t tell me to wait and let him explain. There is no explanation to that photo. If you care about me at all, you’ll let me go.”
Izzy places a hand on Dom’s arm and shakes her head at him. “Let her go.”
A car horn beeps outside. “That’s my Uber. I’ve texted Dad. I’ll be in touch.”
Izzy nods, offering me a sympathetic smile. “Take care and ring me if you want to talk.”
I nod and turn my back on them, and I head outside. I am running there is no denying it. I am running away from any more heartache. I should have known that he couldn’t change, and I’ve been a fool to believe otherwise. I lose everyone I love and why should he be any different to that rule?
I arrive at the train station and look for Courtney. She weaves through the crowded station, waving her arm in the air to get my attention, and when I see her I stop in my steps and burst into tears.
“Oh E,” she says softly, pulling me into her embrace and hugging me. “I’m going to castrate that rich boy.”
I chuckle through my tears. “Get in line,”
Courtney wraps her arm around my shoulder. “Come on, lets get you home. I’ve borrowed mum’s car.”
She bundles me in the car and starts the engine. Courtney turns up the radio with some cheerful music and she sings along. She is leaving me to my silence, knowing that I’m not ready to talk. My phone vibrates in my bag and I pull it out to see Lottie is calling me. With a deep sigh, I press the power button and turn my phone off. I can’t deal with anyone right now, or any offers of sympathy and support.
We arrive at Courtney’s house five minutes later. Courtney lives in a town house on the new estate. The house is spread over three floors. We enter inside and her crazy dog Fergie bounds towards us and starts jumping at my feet for attention.
“Hey Ferg.” I bend down and stroke him. He licks at my face.
I’d called Courtney when I was on the train and asked if I could stay with her. She had known straight away that something was wrong, just by the tone of my voice. I’d asked if I could stay at her house as I knew that if I went home, he would know where to find me and I didn’t want that. Courtney had been more than happy to let me come stay at her house and said she would be there to pick me up.
We say a quick hello to her mum who pulls me in for a hug and says how good it is to see me again before we head up to her room. The pull up bed has already been put out with pillows and a duvet ready for me.
When I phoned Courtney earlier, she had asked me what was wrong, and I had told her to look up Imogen Hilton on insta. She had texted me a few minutes later with a line of expletives and all the ways she was going to kill Grayson St. Clair.
“Okay,” she announces as she plonks herself down on the pull-up bed, “We are going to get in our jammies and have a duvet day. I’ll order pizza, I’ll even let you have Hawaiian, and we’ll binge watch comedy films or action movies. No romance of any sort I promise.” She crosses her heart with her fingers and I half-smile.
“Thanks for this,” I say, leaning my head on her shoulder.
She swipes away my thanks with her hand and rests her head on mine. “Don’t be daft. That’s what friends are for. I’ll always have your back E. You might be all posh now, going to private college and hanging with rich kids, but you’ll always be my friend and you’ll always have this place as your home.”
She pats my leg. “Get changed and I’ll grab goodies.” She waggles her eyebrows at me. “I may have even bought your favourites.”
I grin. “Fizzy fish or peanut M and M’s?”
She grins wider. “Maybe both.”
“I love you,” I tell her with a grin before she disappears downstairs to the kitchen.
I pull out my nightwear and change out of my clothes. I tie my hair up
