Love in Lockdown by Chloe James

Author:Chloe James [James, Chloe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-10-19T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Sophia

I need to concentrate on today’s lessons. The busier I am the less I can think about things like pandemics, the number of people who are sick, lonely people stuck in the flats, the daily update and Jack. It’s best to just block it all out. Like it never happened. Like our friendship never existed. After all, it might as well not have happened. As it turns out, I don’t know him at all. I don’t even think we’re friends. Friends don’t leave out vital details like the fact that they’re married. There are no secrets between good mates.

This relationship, whatever it is, was all in my head, the result of being in my flat too much and my usual way of feeling sorry for people. I can’t help it, I’m just one of those people who always worries about the underdog. Whenever I’m watching movies with the girls and someone gets their just desserts, I still feel kind of bad for them. The others always say, ‘You’re too soft, Sophia,’ and I probably am. So no more Miss Nice, hello Miss Reality Check. This is how it is from now on.

‘So,’ I say to the neatly spaced expectant faces, sitting carefully at two metres distant from each other and in front of me. ‘Today I’ve asked you to bring in something that’s special to you and I’ve brought some things that mean a great deal to me too.’

‘I’ve brought my Spider-Man,’ shouts out Milo waving a vivid red figure dressed in a spider-web-covered suit.

‘I thought you might.’ I smile. ‘Now you can each have a turn – one at a time, Milo! Wait a moment please. Each person can have a go at showing the rest of us their favourite thing and explaining why it means so much to them. So who wants to go first? Zane? Hold on, Milo, you can go second.’ Milo sits down again, but I’m worried he might burst if he has to wait much longer.

‘I’ve brought my bunny,’ says Zane, lifting a white toy bunny up in the air the wrong way up, so his long floppy ears hang down in a comical fashion.

‘How lovely – is he a he or a she?’

‘He’s a he.’

‘Okay and what’s he called?’

‘Bunny.’

‘Of course! He’s very special and looks really fluffy.’

‘Yes he is.’ Zane nods his head vigorously. ‘He is fluffy, except when he falls into the drain outside our house.’

‘Oh,’ I say, taken aback. ‘Does he often fall into the drain?’

‘No, just the once.’

‘I should think that was enough. So how is he so lovely and snowy white now?’

‘Mummy washed him in the sink and then put him in the washing machine.’

‘Sensible Mummy. Well at least he’s nice and clean now and he has a unique talent – he obviously likes exploring drains. Let’s hope he doesn’t make a habit of it at the moment though.’ And let’s hope this all happened before the virus outbreak.

‘No, my mummy says I have to keep hold of him, especially when passing anything wet.

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