Free Bet Your Life by Jane Casey

stopped short of touching him. “Will.”
    He turned and looked down at me, and I’d have said his expression was tender rather than anything more hostile.
    “You said you had two questions.”
    “I did.”
    “You only really asked one.”
    “I’m going to save the other one, I think. I will ask you. But not now.”
    “Because what my life needs is more suspense.”
    “Everyone needs something to make their hearts beat faster,” Will said, and gave me a smile that made my heart race, as I thought he probably knew it would.
    I stood in the kitchen after he’d gone. I couldn’t follow him. I couldn’t be in the same room as him and listen to him making arrangements to go out without me. I didn’t want everyone to watch me and how I was around him or, worse, not watch me because it was too embarrassing all round. In the end I slipped through the hall, past the door to the sitting room, which was thankfully closed. I ran up the many stairs to my room, where I got into bed to read. It was cold in my lovely attic room with all its windows, and bed was the best solution.
    It would also make it easy to decline a belated invitation to join them, I thought. Who gets out of bed to go out drinking? Not me.
    As it turned out, it didn’t matter. No one asked me to.
    Ella tapped on my door about an hour later and poked her head in. “Are you all right?”
    “Never better,” I lied. “What’s going on?”
    “Nothing much. I’m heading to bed too.”
    “Not out?”
    She smiled. “Not this time. Although Hugo did try to persuade me to go.”
    “And you said no.”
    “Playing hard to get.”
    “Good idea. Keenness is anathema to Hugo. He hates enthusiasm.”
    “How sweet,” Ella said, and I thought she was properly smitten if she imagined Hugo was sweet.
    “Is Hugo going?”
    “Gone.”
    “Where were they heading?”
    “They didn’t know. They said they’d find something to do.”
    “On a Sunday night? Good luck.”
    Ella came into the room properly and shut the door behind her, then sat on the edge of my bed. “So.”
    “So?”
    “I met Will.”
    “I thought you might have, given that you were in the same room and everything.” I put my book down. “Well?”
    “He’s—” Ella shook her head. “Oh, girl. I see the problem.”
    “Do you?”
    “I think so.” She held up her hands and counted off on her fingers. “Gorgeous. Nice voice. Beautiful eyes. Good manners. Sense of humor. Obviously clever—I mean, Hugo said he wants to study medicine so he must be intelligent. What am I forgetting? Oh, he’s really impressively fit. Marks out of ten? I’d give him a solid nine.”
    “Why did he lose a mark?”
    “You can see a mile off that he has ishoos .” Ella rolled her eyes. “Life’s too short for that kind of thing.”
    “It’s a little harsh to punish him for something he can’t help.”
    “Oh, I only took off a half-mark for that. The other half was for breaking your heart.”
    I gave a little sigh. “Well, that wasn’t his fault. That was all mine.”
    “You see, I’m going to need the full story.”
    “The full story is that I broke up with him.” I couldn’t look at her. I didn’t want to see the surprise on her face. “I broke my own heart and maybe chipped a bit off his. Take it from me, you should give him ten out of ten.”
    “Why did you break up? Did he cheat on you?”
    “No. Nothing like that.”
    “Well, I don’t get it. If he’s super-perfect and he wanted to be with you and you are completely damaged by breaking up with him, why did you do it?”
    “It’s complicated.”
    “I’m pretty good at listening.”
    “Will’s dad told him he’d send him away to boarding school to stop us from being together. Don’t even ask me to explain why he’d care.” I couldn’t go into the whole Dan-loved-my-mother-once-and-maybe-still-does thing there and then. “I thought I’d save him the trouble. If we broke up, Will could stay and be with his mother. You know