Chapter Forty-Seven
‘Leah. Time to get up, sweetie.’
‘Just five more minutes, mum,’ I beg, pulling my pillow out from under me and placing it over the top of my head.
‘Today is a big day for you, you deserve to be there so get out of bed.’
As my mother says this she whips the duvet from over me.
‘I don’t want to go,’ I whine.
‘We’re all going and we’re all ready, so come on, get up,’ she says again. ‘I won’t tell you again.’
She absolutely will.
I sit up straight and look my mum in the eye.
‘Mum, you’re not seriously still going, are you?’
‘Yes, we’re all still going. Rory and Sally are meeting us there. Your dad and I are ready, we’re just waiting for you. We want to enjoy your big day.’
‘I’m hardly going to enjoy it,’ I reply, lying back down.
The day of the festival has crept up on me out of nowhere, and while I had hoped I’d be over all this Adam business by now – or at least mature enough to pretend I was over it – I’m not even close to feeling better about it. In fact, I popped to the shops the other day and thought I saw Adam so I actually hid behind the counter at the deli. The staff looked at me like I was mad, and it turned out it wasn’t even Adam. I had to lie and say I was trying to get a closer look at the salami, which I think the young male employee thought might be some kind of euphemism. Let’s just say I’ll be shopping elsewhere for the foreseeable.
‘Mel and Angie dropped by to see if you wanted to walk there with them. I told them you weren’t ready but that I would make sure you went. Even Mel said that you have to be there to see all your hard work pay off – although she used quite a few effs when she said it.’
“Effs” being what my mother refers to any variation of the word “fuck” as.
‘OK, fine, I’ll get up, I’ll get ready. We’re sitting at the back though,’ I insist.
‘Of course,’ my mum agrees, although I’m sure she’d say anything to get me up and out of bed. ‘I've laid you out an outfit.’
My mum leaves my room, closing the door behind her. I hop out of bed to see what outfit she has recommended for me today. My eyes widen with amazement as I see the pretty strapless floral prom dress my mum has selected from my wardrobe. I am not amazed because she has chosen something beautiful, or because it just so happens to be one of my favourite dresses, I am amazed because the first time I showed it to her she branded it “a bit London-y” and told me to give it to a charity shop.
I glance at the clock on my dressing table – I’d better get a move on. I need to shower, wash my hair and cake myself in make-up. The plan is to keep as far back as possible so that Adam hopefully won’t see me, and keep a watchful eye out for Si. He was never crazy about all this festival stuff, but he did say he’d go to support me and Adam, so maybe he’ll be there for Adam today.
While I’m worried about bumping into Adam or Si (or even worse, both of them at the same time), my mum and my friends are right, it will be great to see all my hard work pay off.
I grab a few accessories and place them down next to my dress, including an oversized pair of sunglasses that I can hopefully hide behind – all that’s left to do now is get ready and go.
I just can’t shake the feeling that there may well be fireworks… and I don’t mean the epic display Kerry has planned to round off the day.