parents. A five minute meeting and I’d found out they knew more about what I stood for than my own parents ever did. There were no threats, no salty looks, and I hadn’t been chased out with the family shotgun pointed at my ass. Even the dog, Luna, was licking my hand. I had not expected this.
I followed Effy out of the living room, back down the hallway and up the wide staircase with its highly polished mahogany handrails. I gripped it extra hard to give me the support I needed to carry my shaking legs upstairs.
When we got to her room, I was surprised to find it wasn’t all pink and girlie. Maybe that was unfair of me. Effy never really was a girlie girl. She had some kind of fairy lights strung up around the top of her bed, but her carpets and curtains were grey and the walls left white, with just a few framed pictures dotted around. When I looked closer, I realised those pictures were ones I’d drawn, only on a larger scale.
“My dad blew them up on his computer at work. I hope it doesn’t freak you out,” she said, gesturing to the drawing I’d done of Luna that hung over her bed.
“Not at all. They actually look really cool like that.” I glanced around, not really sure what to do with myself. There was one of those swinging, hanging chair things in the corner, but I didn’t fancy my chances trying to navigate that, so I sat on the edge of her bed and threaded my fingers together, resting my hands in-between my legs. Effy moved some of the fluffy cushions from off the bed and threw them on the floor, then reached into a cupboard nearby and pulled out a grey velvet box.
“Promise you won’t freak out or hate me forever,” she said, pretending to tease but looking deadly serious as she held the box in her lap. “I swear I’m not a crazy, weirdo stalker. I just like keeping things.” She shrugged and the honesty in her eyes made my heart skip a beat.
“I promise.” I swivelled to the side to face her. “Come on, show me what you’ve got.”
She laughed and placed the box down in-between us, and when she lifted the lid, I fell a little more in love with her. She had every picture I’d ever drawn placed inside a plastic pocket to protect it. There were napkins that’d been smoothed out with my random scribbles on them. Printed messages from when we advertised our events online. I saw a few leaflets and other things from our school days, and then I saw a book. I picked it up and frowned at her as I read the title.
“Lord of the Rings? Why do you have this? I don’t think I’ve even read this book.”
She shuffled where she sat and then bit her lip, smiling.
“That book reminds me of the first time I saw you.”
I was still none the wiser.
“I think you’re gonna need to spell this one out for me.”
“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “I was in the library, at school. It was lunchtime, I was revising for a French test, and all of a sudden, I heard the librarian roaring across the room, and when I looked up, you were sat on the other side of the library looking at her like she’d gone crazy. She was bawling you out for defacing school property, throwing her arms around and everything, and you just sat there and didn’t react, didn’t even argue back. I watched her grab this book off you and all you did was stand up and walk out without looking back. I couldn’t work you out, and I realised that day that I wanted to, more than anything. You drew me in. See what I did there? Drew me in.” She laughed at her own joke, and even though it wasn’t funny, I laughed too.
When I opened the book all the memories came flooding back. Inside the front cover, I’d sketched out a plan for a piece of graffiti art I’d been working on back then. Some cartoon guy smoking a joint that I thought looked cool and edgy at the time. Now, it was dated and amateurish.
“She put the book on the desk,” Effy continued. “And then she stormed off. So I went over and took it.”
“You stole it.” I gave her an evil grin.
“I guess I did, but I knew she’d throw it away and I didn’t want her to do that. Your art should never be hidden, and neither should you.”
I held her eyes with mine and my breath started to come in short sharp gasps as my heart beat an unsteady rhythm against my chest. I glanced back down at the box to hide my nervousness and pointed to a stack of envelopes tied together with grey silk ribbon. It was an avoidance technique but it worked.
“What are those?”
“Oh fuck.” She sighed as she took them out and clasped them close to her chest. “I forgot those were in there.”
“You can’t not tell me now,” I urged, giving her my wide-eyed stare.
“But it’s embarrassing.” She could barely look me in the eye, but this time, I found it cute.
“Can’t be any more embarrassing than this,” I said, holding up the book with my God-awful cartoon stoner drawn in it.
“Fine. These are Valentine’s cards.”
“From who?” The way my stomach twisted made me grit my teeth to prepare myself for the worst. I didn’t like the thought of her keeping cards from other guys.
“From me.” She frowned. “I didn’t have the courage to send them, but every year, I bought you a Valentine’s card and put it in here.”
Fuck.
I was gone.
“There’s quite a lot of cards tied up there.”