Red Flags by Sophie Jo

Author:Sophie Jo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2025-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

23

POPPY

When they change who they are around other people

The party spills out into the back garden despite Dave’s best efforts to keep us all inside. People are lazing on the patio, making out on the trampoline, stretching across his parents’ garden furniture while a couple of scandalized next-door neighbours pretend not to be watching the whole thing from behind their bedroom curtains. I offer one of them a cartoonish wave as I take a large gulp of my drink and consider the utter outlandishness of having Cameron Davis and friend as my awkward plus-two.

Williams and Jordan have taken it upon themselves to set us up in a little circle on the grass. I’m next to Stephanie, who’s looking around for Ciaran, who seems to have disappeared. Next to the Ciaran-shaped gap is Jordan. Then Williams. Cam. Then back to me. I make eye contact with Williams for a second and she pulls a peace sign, flinging her long braids behind a shoulder.

I’ve only heard Williams in conversation a few times this evening – I’ve eavesdropped on her and Jordan’s discussions, walked past as she’s been speaking to Cam. She has a high, sweet, generous voice, almost like a child’s, and the kind of personality I can tell isn’t the least bit forced – like she’d be the exact same version of herself, no matter which party she attended. That is my kind of person.

Cameron, on the other hand, is evidently not that kind of person. He’s being mysteriously nice to me this evening – as we walked from the drinks zone back over to our strange new friend-group merger he kept babbling on about space and asking questions about my personal connection to Saturn. “I don’t have one,” I told him. “I just liked the necklace.”

When he’s like this, when he reverts back to being Bus Boy, it does make more sense that he’d be friends with Williams. She’s straight-talking and blunt, definitely, like I am, but she’s also very kind, and she does not strike me as a woman who’d happily put up with any of Cam’s hijinks. Who knows, maybe he tones it down around Williams. Maybe he buys her cans of Coke and tells her she’s got phenomenal taste in literature, and then chooses to save up all of his dastardly ways for other people, such as myself.

“I’m gonna travel,” Williams is telling Jordan excitedly. Her legs are curled to one side and her white linen skirt is f lowing out across the grass. “Camp America, touring afterwards, all that stuff. I don’t know if I want to do university, to be honest, so I guess I’ll see how I feel when I’m out there.”

“That sounds amazing.” Jord grins. “Especially the travelling afterwards. I want to go to Salem. Visit the Witch Museum.” She sighs wistfully. “Oh! And New Orleans, obviously. It just sounds a lot more appealing than uni, somehow.”

“University is the single largest stress in my life right now,” groans Stephanie, leaning into their conversation. “Not even the work side of it.

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