“Yes. See you then.”
As I finish the call, my eyes fill with tears. Why, why, why can things never go right? Why, even when something truly amazing happens, does something crappy have to happen too? I’ve never fallen out with Elliot—not even come close to it. And now it feels as if I’m losing him and I don’t even know why. And then a terrible thought occurs to me. What if he doesn’t want to be friends anymore when I get back home? I’ll be miles away from Noah and I’ll have no best friend. I’ll have nobody. I hug my pillow to me and start to cry.
“Don’t be sad,” a squeaky little voice says, making me jump out of my skin. I roll over and see Princess Autumn hovering by the ladder at the end of the bed. Bella appears behind her and climbs up onto my bunk. “Every time you feel sad you should think of three happy things to chase the sad thing away,” she says to me, propping Princess Autumn up next to her. “Noah told me that one time when I got sad about my mom and dad.”
“That’s a great idea,” I say, wiping the tears from my face.
“So go on then,” Bella says, staring at me.
“What?”
“What are three things that make you happy?”
“You,” I say straightaway. “You make me very happy.”
Bella beams at me. “OK, that’s number one. What else?”
“Being here, in this house.”
She nods. “And number three?”
“Noah,” I mumble, my cheeks flushing.
“You make him happy too.”
I look at her. “Really?”
“Oh yes. He was really grumpy last week but ever since he met you he’s been all smiley again.”
“Oh good.” I really want to ask her why he was grumpy but that feels way too inappropriate.
“You make me happy too,” Bella says to me shyly.
“Ah, thank you.”
“And you make Princess Autumn happy, doesn’t she, Princess Autumn?”
Bella picks up the doll. “Oh yes,” she says in a squeaky little voice, waving the doll about. “She makes me very happy—even though she didn’t give me a name.”
I look at Bella and I laugh. Everything will be OK. I’ll sort things out with Elliot as soon as I get home, but for now I have to make the most of my time with Noah—and Bella—and Princess Autumn.
31 December
It’s the People, not the Place Once, when my family ended up on a day trip to a place called Cow Roast and we realized that, despite its epic name, there wasn’t really anything much there apart from a row of houses, a pub (that was shut), and a petrol station, my dad gave us a really cool piece of advice. He said that it doesn’t matter what a place is like, what matters is the people you see that place with. If they are up for adventure then you can make anywhere fun. We made Cow Roast fun that day—playing hide-and-seek in some nearby woods and meeting an old lady who invited us into her cottage for tea and scones.
Even though New York is one of the least boring places in the world, seeing it with Brooklyn Boy has made it even more exciting. And the weirdest thing is that in the week I’ve been here, I haven’t been to a single tourist attraction. Instead, Brooklyn Boy has been taking me to all of his secret favorite spots. Yesterday, we drove out to a beach in New Jersey and although it was deserted because of the winter weather it was magical. We wrote our names in the sand and drank hot chocolate from flasks and I took some great pictures of a boardwalk (which is an American promenade). And I survived the drive—there and back—without having a panic attack!
Another night, we visited an art gallery called Framed because Brooklyn Boy had heard there was a really cool photography exhibition on there. The theme of the exhibition was hope and all of the photographers had interpreted it in totally different ways. My favorite was a picture of a little girl with her face pressed up against a toy-shop window. But the best thing about the exhibition was going with Brooklyn Boy: because he’s friends with the gallery owner, we got to go in at night when it was shut to everyone else. (This was doubly good for me because it meant that no one else saw when I tripped over some rope on the ground. It turned out that the rope was a piece of modern art called The Snake. Personally, I think it should be renamed The Health & Safety Hazard.) So my dad was definitely right—it’s the people you see a place with that really matters. Brooklyn Boy has shown me a really private and personal side of New York I never would have found on my own.
How about you guys?
How have the people you’ve been with made a place really fun and exciting?
Wishing you all a super-fun New Year’s Eve—with super-fun people!
Girl Online, going offline xxx
Chapter Thirty-Three
In the olden days, people used to talk about time as if it were a person. They used to call him Father Time. According to Elliot, Father Time was an old man with a long white beard who carried an hourglass everywhere. I’ve decided that he also had a really mean sense of humor. Think about it. Whenever something horrible happens to you—like you’re stuck in an algebra exam, or you’re having a filling, or you fall over onstage and show your underwear—time goes by so slowly that every second feels like an hour, but whenever something really amazing happens to you—like you might actually be falling in love for the very first time—time goes by so fast you blink and an entire week has gone.
It’s New Year’s Eve morning. We’re leaving tomorrow. We’re leaving tomorrow and I’ll be leaving the person I think I’ve fallen in love with. In the days since Christmas my list of evidence that Noah is my soul mate has grown and grown. I haven’t put any more about it on my blog, though—there’s no way I want to upset Elliot again. But, in my head, the list now includes things like:
? we both love to read books with killer twists at the end
? he takes me to special places I’d never find on my own