There's something wrong with Phoebe

13 - Phoebe

I woke up the next day and instantly felt a presence in the room. I turned my head to see Kayla, Thomas and Mum all standing nervously behind the sofa.

“What?” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes.

“We need to watch the news,” said Mum, flicking on the television. Kayla looked as bewildered as I felt, and Thomas was frowning. Both of them were still in their pyjamas.

“And now we reveal a picture of what Phoebe Gold looks like now,” said the newsreader. A picture of me as I’d just opened the door yesterday flashed up on screen. “Phoebe, who was found on Tuesday, is shown here, now nineteen, and is currently resting at home. However, when photographers showed up to their house, Phoebe’s father, Robert Gold, assaulted one of the photographers. Police say there will be no charge however as the photographers were intervening on property.” We all breathed a sigh of relief. “And onto our breaking news story. A bomb was set off last night in Liverpool Town Hall causing the whole place to be destroyed and twenty seven were left dead from a wedding, whilst a further fifty nine, including the bride and groom, are injured.” My family all sucked in breath quickly as pictures were shown of the event but my mind was whirring. Liverpool. Who was in Liverpool?

And then it clicked. “Danielle,” I whispered under my breath.

“What’s that?” said Kayla, turning to me.

“What?” I replied, blankly.

“You said ‘Danielle’,” Kayla replied, blankly.

“Yeah, my friend from school moved to Liverpool at the end of year seven. We were close.” Kayla frowned but nodded slowly.

Danielle had left just three weeks before I had. I remembered that annoying scouser accent like none other. She’d always been good. Everybody said she was my rival, so this meant there was a lot of pressure on me to live up to expectations. I didn’t want to disappoint Jack.

“That’s terrible,” I said out loud, and my family nodded.

“Oh, Phoebe, I just checked in your room. Looks like it should be fine for you to sleep in there tonight,” said Mum.

“Thanks,” I replied, smiling, but I felt a little sick inside as I looked round at my family and their worried faces as they looked at the television screen. I hadn’t planned on becoming this attached to them; especially in such a short space of time.

“Well, it looks like it should be a warm day. Do you want to do anything?” Mum said, rising.

“I think I’m just going to relax,” I said. “So Kayla can visit her boyfriend and Thomas can visit his friends.” The faces of my siblings fell at this and I tried to conceal my laughter. “You haven’t seen them in a while.”

“Right,” Kayla said. “I better get ready then.”

I went up to Kayla’s room as I had to borrow some clothes as we were yet to go shopping. I got a blue vest top and some denim shorts, and she left a hoodie out if I got cold. Then, I went down to the kitchen, fishing in the cupboards for some crisps. I found some, snapping open the packet and smiling as I tasted the salty snack on my tongue. I knew I’d let my health go since I’d been back. With Jack, we’d had a cooked breakfast in the morning, but we’d then worked hard at our lessons before we got some fruit for lunch and an energy drink. We then did our more classes before sitting down to a light dinner which would normally involve meat and vegetables, flushed down with only water, and lemonade or coke on Saturdays. Here, I could eat whatever I wanted, and when I wanted. Having no structure made me feel a little uneasy, but I enjoyed it in some ways. Jack’s strict routine was drummed into you. You did the same thing every day. Now, I could do what I wanted. Well, for the time being.