Free Poison Heart by S.B. Hayes Page B

need more … privacy.’
    Hannah’s eyes looked huge in her delicate face. She dropped the hoop and joined us on the bed and now I was sandwiched between them both. I flopped backwards, keeping my feet on the floor, and stared at the pink chandelier, unsure if I was ready to open up. Her room was so cool, decorated in a French shabby chic style with duck-egg-blue walls, a canopy over her bed, and a series of blown-up prints from her last visit to Paris, all showing Hannah next to famous landmarks.
    ‘What’ve you done?’ Nat asked bluntly.
    I breathed in deeply. ‘Mmm … something a bit out of character.’
    Hannah reached over and covered Nat’s ears. ‘She shouldn’t listen to this – she’s wanted to be a nun since she was seven.’
    Nat blew a raspberry. ‘I have not.’
    ‘You saw
The Sound of Music
stage show and started to wear a veil and call yourself Sister Natalie.’
    Nat threw her shoe at Hannah, missing by miles. ‘Shut up and let Katy get on with it.’
    I’d started to giggle and it was ages before I could speak. ‘Well … it’s like this … Merlin has asked me to go camping with him … just for one night … and I’ve agreed.’
    Hannah’s hands flew up to her face. ‘Oh wow, that’s awesome.’
    ‘It’s soon,’ Nat commented in a completely different tone.
    ‘I know it’s soon,’ I answered defensively. ‘I mean, we haven’t been together long, but it feels like I’ve known Merlin forever and he admitted he wanted to be with me the first time he saw me but he was slow getting started …’
    ‘He did take his time,’ Hannah agreed.
    ‘But he’s making up for it now.’ I blushed.
    ‘Katy’s in
luuurve
,’ Nat gently mocked.
    Hannah sat up on her knees, her face glowing. ‘Are you?’
    I held out my hands. ‘Think so … but it’s never happened before so I’m not sure.’
    She peered at me inquisitively. ‘Symptoms?’
    ‘Well … I’ve got permanent butterflies … palpitations, insomnia, weird dreams, fever, inability to think … it feels as if I’m ill.’
    Being in love
is
an illness,’ Hannah answered knowledgeably. ‘I read somewhere that a scientist analysed all the physical symptoms and it was the same as being temporarily insane.’
    ‘That’s helpful.’ I grinned.
    Nat turned her mathematical brain to the problem. ‘Statistically the chance of meeting your soulmate is 720,000,000 to one against.’
    ‘That’s so unfair,’ Hannah cried. ‘How can you improve the odds?’
    ‘You can’t. It’s completely random.’
    ‘This makes it all the more amazing,’ I said dreamily. ‘Merlin and I being in the right place and the right time to meet like this. It was meant to be.’
    ‘You must be sure about how he feels,’ Nat commented.
    ‘Of course,’ I answered quickly, but then had to backtrack slightly. ‘Well, almost sure. Merlin is amazing, but sometimes … it’s like I’m fighting for his full attention because he can be so … deep and … preoccupied.’
    ‘Sure he’s not just playing hard to get?’ Nat joked. She stirred a smoothie with a straw and made a loud sucking noise as she drank. ‘We want all the gory details.’
    I looked from one face to the other. ‘Well … it’s like a railway station in Merlin’s house with all those
artists
milling about, and we want to be alone … that’s all.’
    ‘That’s all?’
    ‘Yes, just a chance to watch the sun going down and wake up in each other’s arms.’
    Nat began to play on an imaginary violin while Hannah tickled my neck. ‘Are you really that stupid? To wake up together you have to sleep together first.’
    ‘It’s a tent … we’ll be in sleeping bags.’
    She gripped my shoulders and spoke to me in an exaggeratedly slow voice as if I was a child or really stupid. ‘You do know what you’ve agreed to, Katy? It won’t be like camping with the Girl Guides. He’ll have
other
ideas.’
    Nat rolled over and kicked her legs in the air, convulsed with laughter.