Forget Me Never

drawn up in their big BMW. And in the back seat had been a girl, a little younger than me, with shiny brown hair and a freckled, smiley face. She was the new me – but evidently a better version, else I’d have been the one in that seat, with the lilac bedroom and a new chance. I stared at her, and she stared at me, and then the Wilsons said, ‘Sophie?’ as though they couldn’t believe it, and I ran. And I remember thinking, crystal clear, that I would never let myself hope for anything again, because I would never be good enough, however hard I tried.
    It was ten by the time I got back to Julie’s – by bus, because I’d walked too far to go back on foot. Julie came out of the living room when she heard the front door slam.
    ‘Sophie! Where have you been? I was this close to calling the police.’
    ‘I’m fine,’ I said, sloping up the stairs.
    Julie reached through the banisters and caught my arm. ‘Sophie,’ she said softly, ‘let’s talk about this—’
    I shook her off. ‘What good will talking do? You think I was crazy to even go to the police about Dani. Leave me alone!’
    Julie stepped back, looking resigned. I went to my room. Inside, I climbed into bed fully clothed, pulling the covers over my head.

REECE
    I was pretty certain Sophie would have reacted badly to the police’s news. DI Perry had phoned Mum and explained about Aiden coming in to see him. It sounded reasonable to me. But I wasn’t Sophie.
    A freckled kid I didn’t recognize opened the door to Sophie’s house, probably a new foster-sibling. He told me Sophie was still in bed and bounded off into the living room. I could hear what sounded like a Toy Story film in the background. I went upstairs, comparing it to where I lived. This house looked like a bomb site – junk crammed on shelves, children’s toys on the stairs, laundry slung over the banisters. It made me realize how used I’d got to living in luxury.
    When Sophie didn’t answer my knock, I opened the door.
    ‘Hey,’ I said brightly. ‘Wakey-wakey.’
    Sophie rolled over and sat up, rubbing her eyes. The skin around them was puffy and stained with yesterday’s eyeliner. It looked as if she’d gone to bed in her clothes too.
    ‘What are you doing here?’
    I tossed a paper bag into her lap. ‘Elevenses delivery. Full of gooey pastry delights.’
    Sophie opened the bag and picked one out, staring at it. When she didn’t take a bite, I said, ‘Promise it isn’t spinach in disguise. Think that one’s custard.’
    Sophie put the pastry back in the bag and closed it. ‘Don’t fancy right now.’
    ‘How about a thank you? That bakery wasn’t on my way, y’know.’ I perched on the side of the desk, shifting a laptop and some books to make space. How the heck did she cope living in this shoebox of a room? It would’ve driven me spare. ‘Tried to call you yesterday. I take it the police had a word.’
    She shrugged. ‘It made sense. End of story, I guess.’
    ‘Hey, where’s your fighting spirit? I was expecting you to be insisting they’d got it wrong.’
    ‘Maybe I would be, if I hadn’t got Aiden’s side of the story afterwards.’
    She explained what had happened in the park.
    ‘Are you serious?’ I exclaimed, leaning forward and nearly falling off the desk. ‘The guy followed you? Soph, that’s proper stalker behaviour! Are you not even mildly freaked out?’
    ‘Not any more. He was OK.’
    ‘I don’t give a toss how OK he was! He still followed you.’
    ‘Yeah, but I can understand why he felt he had to talk to me. I wanted to blame him for everything, but what’s the point?’ She paused. I had nothing to say; I didn’t like hearing her sound this defeated. ‘For a while I was convinced that someone must have killed her. But it’s like Perry said, isn’t it? At most Aiden’s indirectly responsible. Or maybe he had nothing to do with it and she jumped because she was unstable. I’ll never know. I should just get over it.’
    I shrugged. Letting Danielle go probably was the best thing Sophie could do, but it didn’t seem very loyal to say so. Sophie started fiddling with the bedsheets, popping and unpopping the end of the duvet cover. After a moment she said, ‘Didn’t mean to drag you into this.’
    I made a non-committal noise.
    ‘D’you want to stay for lunch?’ Sophie asked. ‘If you don’t mind hanging around while I get up.’
    I went downstairs to wait and watched the end of Toy Story 2 with the kids. After