One True Thing by Nicole Hayes

Author:Nicole Hayes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2015-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

Kessie’s room is silent when I knock. I don’t wait to open the door, the need to see my friend is so powerful, just knowing she’s here gives me strength –

‘Tyler!’ I say, shocked.

Tyler.

With Kessie.

Tyler and Kessie.

Together.

They’re just sitting there, quiet and still, and yet they are so completely together. Their shoulders are touching – just – their clothes are neat and unruffled. Nothing about their appearance suggests anything more than two friends hanging out together.

Except for their hands, side by side, splayed on Kessie’s quilt, their fingers resting in the gaps of each other’s. Skin barely touching skin. Relaxed and unselfconscious.

Intimate.

I step back without meaning to. The room suddenly feels too small and close for the three of us. Kessie’s huge poster of Emma Watson towers over us all. Al Gore warns us of an inconvenient truth, shouting at me from across the room.

Kessie and Tyler watch me, waiting. Here it is, they’re saying, with their easy, natural warmth. Here we are.

I turn and leave for – I don’t even know where; anywhere but here – when I hear Tyler behind me.

‘Frankie?’ She touches my arm gingerly.

I stare at her hand, and she lets it fall away.

‘I’m sorry,’ she mutters miserably. ‘Kessie wanted to tell you but I wouldn’t let her.’ She glances at Kessie, who’s beside her again, a careful, almost daring look on my best friend’s face.

Kessie and Tyler. Tyler and Kessie.

I knew I was losing Kess. I could feel something falling away. But it’s worse than I thought – much worse. I’ve lost them both.

Somewhere in the back of my mind a voice is screaming that this isn’t how it works, that Kessie loves bimbos. Pretty, silly girls who don’t matter. That she’ll always come back to me. She always comes back.

But this is Tyler. Our friend. My friend. Someone I don’t want to lose. Someone you don’t just walk away from.

They’re staring at me in mutual sadness, a hint of fear. Regret. And … pity?

Pity. Like a fist between my eyes. I almost reel back at the impact. It shakes something loose in me. ‘Got it,’ I say.

Kessie is beside me now. ‘Come on, Frank. Seriously? You didn’t know?’

I turn away from them angrily, hating how stupid I feel, how obvious it must have been.

Kessie holds out her hands, helpless. ‘What could I do? I knew you’d freak out –’

‘It’s my fault,’ Tyler says, turning to face her. ‘You wanted to tell her and I wouldn’t let you.’

‘No, Ty. I should have said something.’ For now it’s just them, locked in this moment, shouldering each other’s blame.

I look from one to the other. Perhaps this is what hurts the most – the awful truth that they’re in this together.

And I’m standing here alone.

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