Memphis Wills wants out of Whitehaven, the tiny village she's lived in her whole life. So aged sixteen she leaves for college in the city and never looks back.
Until five years later when she finally wises up and leaves her dirt bag boyfriend. Fee...
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The first time Jerri cheated on me we'd only been official for a month. It had only been a kiss. I could forgive that. Right?
A year on and I told myself I was being paranoid when he was late getting to mine. Or when he'd set his phone down with the screen hidden. Even when he called me another girls name in bed, his excuse being we'd been watching TV before things had got heated and the girl onscreen had been called Rachel; I knew for a fact one of his classmates was Rachel, but I ignored it.
Maybe this is all my fault. If I'd only been more honest with myself then I wouldn't be so heartbroken right now. One minute I'm fine and then the next I'm wearing one of his t-shirts that I packed without Mel seeing, crying over how it still smells like him.
Mel keeps up her promise of ringing me every evening to check up on me and hearing her voice lifts my spirits but as soon as I'm alone in my room again, my mood slips.
Dad had loved the carbonara I'd cooked him on Monday, so he'd instructed me to have something more edible than frozen waffles and fishfingers on the table for him when he got back from the office on Thursday. I'd been happy for the excuse to leave the house, having spent the last couple of days in a Netflix hole again.
Presley's working a late shift at a restaurant in Rockport where he waits tables, so it's just me and Dad tonight. I've just set two plates of lasagne down on the table when Norm runs to greet Dad at the front door.
"That smells amazing!"
I smile despite my low mood. "Thanks."
Dad appears through the open doorway, his shirt sleeves rolled to his elbows and his brown chinos a little dirty for having been at the office all day.
He spots my confused expression and shrugs. "I was halfway home when I noticed one of the sheep from Bury Farm had gotten out of the field through a hole in the fence. Bleedin' thing put up a fight when it tried to help it."
"Oh. Village life, huh." I sit down at the table and Dad joins me after washing his hands and grabbing himself a glass of water.
"This looks lovely, Memphis. You'd give your mum a run for her money."
"Doubt it," I reply. "Mum wouldn't have used jar sauce."
"No, but your brother's effort would have come from the freezer."
We eat in silence, Norm sniffing around by my legs for any scraps but when we're done we both stay seated at the table.
"So you're going to a gig tomorrow."
I nod. "Yeah, Presley's driving us. I think we should be home around midnight."
"I won't wait up," Dad says with a smile. "It's nice you can do things together. I remember a time when you were constantly at each other's throats. It used to stress your mum out to no end."
