Leaving London

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

The second I peel back the curtains, all I can see is destruction. It's morning, and overnight the storm must have gotten several times worse because all I can see is our lawn strewn with cakey mud and sprigs of clumped weeds and flowers. The pool's water is foamy and peppered with strands of grass and rubbish. Ew.

I hoist a cardigan over my shoulders and head outside, grabbing a net from the garage. It's surprisingly fairly warm, so my legs don't get chilly from my pyjama shorts. Mum looks shattered already, still dozing off in one of the chairs, so I decide to try and help a little bit. It takes a while to fish out all the random litter and make sure the water is clear again, but I manage it finally. I take a quick scour round the garden, looking at all the damage. In the distance I can see a ripped up electricity line (which probably caused the power cut), and a few trees seem to have been torn from their roots and lie strewn across roads, gardens and driveways like matchsticks.

As I'm propping the net back up, I hear the phone shrilling for attention from inside. I dart to its side so it doesn't have time to wake up Mum, and answer it.

"Hello?" A sharp British accent rings into my ear. It sounds weird hearing such an English voice again, and I feel embarrassed to reply with an accent-tinged 'hi'. It takes me a moment to register that the voice belongs to Kayla - it's been a while since I've heard it in person.

"I really need to talk to you," She gulps, "I need advice," I hurriedly traipse up to my room to give us a bit of privacy, shutting my door and shuffling over to my balcony.

"What's wrong?" I question, an edge of worry slicing into my tone; she must have had a lot on her plate recently.

"Just Amy again. She's struggling with my news, like she was with you. I don't even know whether to go now. Things just aren't the same without you here anymore. And honestly Fearne, she's changed so much. For the worse."

"She doesn't control you, Kayla. I think you should just ignore her. She'll come around eventually, like she did with me!"

"It's not just her now, though, Fearne. Eve has taken it to heart as well. She's been feeling down since you've been gone, and I think I've just made things a million times worse." Kayla says forlornly.

"They've both fallen out with you over this?" I ask, shocked. I'm not surprised that Amy reacted in that way, but Eve?

"Yup. Amy has changed though, so I don't think she's just upset, I think it's more than that."

"What do you mean?" I falter, puzzled.

"I mean...our friendship has kind of split apart since...well, since you left really," I sense a hint of something deeper in her voice.

"What happened?" I whisper, eyebrows furrowing.

"We fell out...I fell out with them over this and something that happened with Amy - she's changed, as I said."

"Why... what's she done?" My mind buzzes with a billion different ideas and thoughts...

"I...maybe you should ask her yourself, but she's split off from us completely. Remember how she was so rude and moody when she found out about you moving? It's like that again."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I say forlornly, "But maybe she's just growing up? Everyone changes at some point."

"I don't know," Kayla falters, and then her voice drops an octave, "Fearne, you know how Alfie likes you?"

My heart starts beating faster and I feel the blood rushing to my head as I reply. "Um...yeah?"

"Well...Amy, she's...oh my God I don't know how to put this, maybe you should just call her. I don't wanna go through it. I'm sorry Fearne, I can't cope with her anymore. I just can't..." I hear her voice catch as the phone clicks off abruptly. Startled, I go to set the phone back on it's stand, left in a whirling state of confusion. What's happened to Amy all of a sudden? She's barely messaged me since I've got here, maybe that's some sort of sign that she's moving on.