Paradise End by Elizabeth Laird

Author:Elizabeth Laird [Elizabeth Laird]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780330477963
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

12

If Tia hadn’t said she was sorry the way she did say it, I think I would have walked right out of Paradise End then and there. I was so angry and humiliated I wanted to do something horrible – vandalize the place, slash the faces in the portraits with a Stanley knife, or pick up one of the big silver candlesticks on the sideboard and smash the china parrots above the fireplace with it. But then I saw the look on Tia’s face, and I knew at once just how she was feeling.

It was exactly the same as I’d felt, after that horrible teatime at home, only worse, probably, because of all the stuff Frost and Dixie had said about me.

I think it was at that very moment that Tia and I became best friends.

I don’t know about you, but when I start going round with someone, nothing much happens for a while and then I realize I’ve got to make a decision. It’s happened to me before, but it was never as important as it was with Tia. I suppose it’s like that for everyone. You meet a new person, find out what they’re like, and have a few laughs. You’re curious and friendly, testing out what you’ve got in common, which bits of you are strong and which are weak, whether you can trust that person or not, and then – bang – it’s decision time. Is this person going to be my friend, my best friend, a really important person in my life? Because if so, there are things you have to be ready for, like always listening, and being loyal, and not telling secrets. It means being ready to sort things out if you disagree. Sticking by them through thick and thin. Standing up for your friend to other people.

Don’t ask me why Tia and I chose each other as best friends. I mean, how different could two people be? But we did. As I said, in my mind, it fused together there and then, in that grand, red-walled dining room. Up to then, if I’m truthful, I think I’d mostly wanted to be friends with Tia so that I’d be allowed inside Paradise End. But after that it was different. I’d have been her friend wherever she’d lived.

I said, ‘Weird, isn’t it? Your family think I’m some horrible lowlife the cat brought in and, quite honestly, as far as my family’s concerned, you could be an alien from outer space. But we’re going to be best friends, aren’t we?’

For the first time since I’d known Tia she looked really, truly happy. She grinned, and then the smile faded a bit and a look came into her eyes, scared but determined, a look I hadn’t seen before.

‘Yes!’ she said. ‘Yes, we are!’

We went up to Tia’s room after that. It looked different to me this time. I’d felt almost like a tourist before, being allowed a glimpse of the private rooms in a stately home. Now I was in my best friend’s bedroom.

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