Free Loving the Band by Emily Baker Page B

laughed. ‘That sounds great fun, Riley. Count us in’
    ‘It’s about eight now, so if we come pick you guys up at nine is that OK? Because it will take, like, an hour or so to get –’ He got cut off by someone shouting in the background.
    I heard him cover the phone up and shout something back, but it was too muffled for me to hear. I grabbed my bottle of water and took a swig while waiting for him.
    He uncovered the phone. ‘Sorry about that. Um, remember your bikini.’
    I nearly choked on my water. ‘
Excuse me?
’ I spluttered.
    ‘Oh! I mean in case you want to go in the water you know …’ He trailed off.
    I giggled. ‘See you in an hour, Riley.’
    I went and knocked on Tegan’s bedroom door and then peeked in – she was already up.
    I was so glad to see her smiling, sleepy face. ‘Tegan, I’ve missed you! I’m so sorry we haven’t had a chance to catch up, but I think today I will be able to make up for it. Is there any chance you could be ready in half an hour?’
    She looked surprised. ‘I think so. Why?’
    ‘We’re off to Brighton with the The Only Truth boys,’ I grinned.
    ‘What?’ Her eyes lit up with excitement. ‘Will, erm … Callum be there?’ she asked hopefully.
    Now this was interesting. I smiled. ‘Yes … They will all be there. So I’m guessing you read my text, then!’
    She blushed hotly. ‘Well … Yes … Oh! Is that the time? I better get ready!’ and she shut the bedroom door in my face.
    ‘How rude!’ I said to the closed door, laughing as I headed back to my room. It looked like I wasn’t the only one intent on having lots of fun this holiday.
    I rummaged through my suitcase, finally coming across my floral-print bikini. The only reason I’d packed it was because Tegan had declared that ‘you never know what will happen’. At the time I’d laughed at her, but now I was eternally grateful.
    I slipped on the strapless top and the bottoms, now I just needed something to wear over it. Since it was warm outside I decided on a pair of cut-off ‘rock star’ shorts, with cool flag pockets and then I just threw on a grey shirt. I left my hair down for now, but slipped a fewcolourful bobbles along with some bracelets on my wrist. Pocketing my phone and some money, I made my way downstairs. I walked into the kitchen and took a bowl from the shelf and made myself some breakfast. I had just settled on the sofa as Tegan came down the stairs. She was dressed in a pair of denim shorts and a white top. You could see her bikini straps tied round the back of her neck.
    ‘Morning,’ she mumbled, still not quite meeting my eye after our bedroom chat. She sat on the other sofa.
    ‘So …’ I tried to be as casual as possible. ‘About Callum … ?’
    She tried playing dumb. ‘What about him?’
    ‘Oh, come off it, Tegan,’ I scoffed. ‘You like him!’
    She looked down and blushed. ‘Do not.’
    ‘Do too!’ I got up and launched myself next to her in excitement. She squealed.
    ‘I hardly know him, Jess!’
    ‘Well, then, today will be a good time to get to know each other, won’t it?’ I poked her arm and she swatted it away, laughing.
    ‘Anyway, enough about me, Jess. What about you and Shaq? Or Riley even? I saw him looking at you over our dinner. But then he wasn’t the one who stayed over.’ She winked at me.
    So much had happened since that evening that I didn’t know where to begin. Things were starting to be really lovely with Riley and I was having fun. But before everything had gone wrong with Shaq, they’d been, well,amazing with
him
. I sighed deeply. That was all gone now and I needed to move on.
    ‘Jess?’ Tegan looked at my troubled face with concern.
    A loud honk outside saved me from spilling it all out. I took a deep breath. ‘That must be them. Got everything?’
    Tegan nodded, but put a hand on my shoulder. ‘Later, yeah? We’ll discuss all this then.’ I gave her a massive hug. She really was an amazing friend.
    Stepping outside