Free Playlist for a Broken Heart by Cathy Hopkins Page B

our own place?
Will I ever fit in at the new school? Will Mum and Dad be OK? I couldn’t relax. Luckily Mum called that supper was ready
.
    I went downstairs to find the usual pandemonium that was Aunt Karen’s house at mealtime. It was a far cry from the quiet suppers I used to have with Mum back in Richmond when Dad came home
late most weekday evenings. She’d always have something light. She didn’t do carbs after midday so it was grilled chicken or fish and salad or steamed vegetables. I’d sometimes
have the same, or pasta.
    At Aunt Karen’s, there was always a big pot of something like chicken casserole and vegetables or chilli, or a pasta bake from the oven, that was put in the centre of the table and ladled
out into bowls, then eaten with baked potatoes or rice with grated cheese and huge chunks of wholemeal bread. I noticed that as the days went on that Mum was letting go of the no carbs rule and
helped herself to rice or potatoes along with everyone else. Jo, Jake and Simon all talked over each other to get their mother’s attention, particularly Jake, who raised the volume of any
sentence towards the end of what he was saying in order to drown out which ever other brother was attempting to get a word in.
    Tasmin was often not there at mealtimes and if she was, she ate then ran, always busy seeing Clover or friends. I didn’t feel as though I could do that without appearing rude. Uncle Mike
liked to have music – country blues – on in the background and he seemed to manage to screen out his sons’ competing voices and listen to the CDs. Dad still absented himself from
these meals saying that he preferred to eat later. I knew he couldn’t handle the noise level either. I often caught Mum watching me across the dining table. She’d smile at me
sympathetically. She knew that I found it hard too.
    After supper, I always made sure that I helped with the clearing up. I didn’t want Aunt Karen or Uncle Mike to think that I took anything for granted. The boys were good at mucking in too.
Aunt Karen had them well trained and, as the adults took their coffees into the sitting room to watch the news, Jo and Jake stacked the dishwasher then disappeared fast to play their computer
games. I wiped the surfaces down then went to put out the rubbish for the bin men in the morning.
    When I reached the street, I saw Niall was also putting out rubbish. I was about to turn back but it was too late – he was bound to have seen me. I tried to think up something funny to say
about the bins but he turned away before I got a chance to say anything. I knew he’d seen me just as clearly as I’d seen him.
I must have really annoyed him when I saw him in the
garden but he could have at least said hi
, I thought as I went back inside, where the noise levels seemed to have grown.
    The TV was on in the sitting room, Uncle Mike had moved into the kitchen and was playing his guitar along to a soundtrack, and Aunt Karen was talking to someone on the phone – or rather
shouting to make herself heard over the din. I went through and watched a bit of TV but the boys wanted to watch the cartoon channel, which I found boring after a while. Plus, it was hard to
concentrate with Mum and Aunt Karen chatting away in the background and Simon on some very annoying and loud PlayStation game. I didn’t blame Dad for making himself scarce. I went back
upstairs to read.
One day I will have my own life
, I told myself. I had my plan. Get my GCSEs, do A levels, apply for uni in London, move back to my home ground and share a flat with
Allegra and have some
space
.
    When I got back up to the room, I decided to tidy up my half. I didn’t dare touch Tasmin’s stuff though it drove me mad the way she left everything out and never ever closed drawers.
Still, it’s her room, she can do what she likes
, I reminded myself. I found my iPod, put my earphones in and pressed play as I put a few books into a pile. The first track began to