Anyone Else But You

Chapter 1 - The Best Party Ever - Not!

Taylor Swift - We are never getting back together.

It was supposed to be the party of the century. Everyone had been talking about it for weeks, discussing what might happen, which celebrity might make a guest appearance, deciding what they were going to wear. It was a well-known fact that Harriet Van de Burrow was one of the richest teenagers in London, let alone at school. A top-end private school would have been much more her scene, more than the North London Comprehensive she frequented anyway. Goodness knows Daddy could afford it; however within three seconds it was obvious why she’d never been invited into such an establishment. Harriet had the attention span of a goldfish and that was being kind, she was like a magpie seeing a shiny, new object every few seconds.

Anyway that’s beside the point; she was extremely rich, therefore her 18th birthday party was always going to be a big deal. Everybody was dressed to the nines, the alcohol was flowing and there was a rumour going round that some of the Made in Chelsea cast would turn up later. Unfortunately none of that could stop the horror show that was currently taking place in front of Maddie McCarthy’s - and basically everyone else from schools – eyes.

She watched in terror, wanting to look away but being unable to. If there was one thing she’d learnt about going to parties with people from school, it was that you didn’t do anything you’d regret the next morning. That list now included getting dumped by your boyfriend of five months in front of anyone and everyone. Alicia Jenkins and Jasper Barratt had been the year’s ‘it’ couple; she was beautiful, the head girl, captain of the girls’ football team and he was the prince of popular, the guy everyone wanted to be friends with. Now the celebrity couple in school had had the biggest bust up known to man and somebody had caught it all on film.

Maddie looked round as more people pulled out smart phones and began to record the destruction of her best friend’s dignity. It would be on Youtube before the night was out, another reason not to do something you’d regret; it was most definitely going to get plastered all over the internet for the world to see. She couldn’t just stand and watch this, she had to do something.

Maddie made up her mind and headed towards the pair arguing in the middle of the circle. She reached for Ali’s hand but just got swatted away, she was a lot stronger than she appeared. Ali was stick-thin and looked like the wind would blow her over but her insides were made of steel. If you hit her you’d probably come off the worst for it. Maddie needed a different tact. How had the night turned out like this?

It had started off so well, Maddie’s parents had finally decided to let her go to the party at Harriett’s parents’ townhouse. It had taken a lot of persuasion, the promise of a week’s laundry and two week’s washing up and an official police check on the Van de Burrows. That’s what happened when your dad was an inspector in the London Metropolitan police service and your older brother had misbehaved at many a party previously. Then again she couldn’t blame it all on Ben; the last time she’d been to a party herself, she’d got blind drunk and stumbled home at three in the morning to a very annoyed Inspector McCarthy.

Since then she’d hardly set a foot out of place and with Ben away at University he hadn’t been there to lead her astray. She was getting straight A’s and had sent off her application for university with a brilliant letter of recommendation from her tutor Mr Donaldson. In other words her parents had no reason to say she couldn’t go to Harriett’s, on the other hand she’d been 18 and officially an adult for ten days now; so she could make her own decisions. Not that she’d say that directly to her parents’ faces.