Twitter ∞ Dan Howell

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Xing, Lydia and I made a good team. 

Lydia wanted to buy everything, Xing kept on instilling in us the fact she was broke as fuck and couldn't afford anything, and I was somewhere in the middle. This way, we ended up getting just the right amount of food. What a brilliant Goldilocks trio. 

We hopped off the bus, arms heavy with plastic grocery bags. I made a snarky remark about Xing. She proceeded to dig her shoulder into mine. I grinned. I already loved this chick. 

Inside, we decided to make pasta. Lydia cooked the mince while I did the pasta and then helped Xing put everything into the cupboards. I shrugged off my jacket since the heating was on. Some music played miserably through the radio, the sounds of the kitchen clanging past the staticky drone.

Just as we were serving up, a tall, messy-haired boy walked into the room, scratching the back of his neck. He stopped when he realised there were other people there, giving us a big smile. 

'Hey, neighbours,' he said. He nodded to the food. 'That looks pretty good.'

'Do you want some?' I offered, and Xing gave me a dirty look. I rolled my shoulders like, what can you do?  I wanted to make as many friends as possible. 

'Oh gee, thanks!' He said, helping himself eagerly to the rest of the pasta. Xing gave me a look that told me I should regret that offer. We sat down at the table, and the new boy joined us, slurping down his pasta in no time. 

'I'm Peter,' he said with half a mouthful of pasta. 'Let's go clockwise. Scary chick with the eyeliner?'

Xing glare at him. I half-expected her to bare her teeth. 'Xing,' she deadpanned. Lydia was next. She gave a little wave. I smiled with half my mouth and then turned back to the pasta.

'Where are you all from?' Peter asked. He was already finished, while the others and I weren't even halfway through. Boys, I thought in exasperation to myself. They just seem to inhale food, and it goes absolute nowhere. 'I myself have no interesting story of heritage. I'm just from East London.' He nodded towards Xing. 'What about you? You seem like you've got some super-cool exotic heritage.'

I thought Xing was going to smash the rest of her pasta into Peter's face, but instead she smiled. Smiled. 'I'm half-Chinese, half-African. Black and yellow, bitches.'

Lydia was next. 'I'm from sleep ol' Cornwall, actually,' she said with a shy smile. 'So London's a bit of a change.'

And then everyone's eyes were on me.

I swallowed my pasta, putting down my fork. 'Uh, well, I'm from Adelaide, in Australia, quite obviously, with the accent' she said, and Peter's eyes went WHOA.

'That' so cool!' He said. 'Do you ride kangaroos to school?'

I had to hold my eyes in place. Don't roll. You roll too much. 'Oh, yeah, for sure. Or crocodiles, sometimes, like boats.' Peter's eyes grew even bigger. 'I'm kidding, numbnut. Of course we don't. That would be like if I asked if you ride corgis to school.'

Everyone laughed. 'What's Australia like?' Lydia asked. 'I know we've already covered kangaroos, but do they, like just hop around the streets?'

'No, no, nothing like that,' I explained. 'Further out in the suburbs you'll see a few wallabies, sometimes.'

So we talked about Australia for a while, and then England, and about all the great places to go in London. Peter was a year above us, and so he'd already figured out all the great cheap restaurants around. He promised he'd take us to this brilliant Chinese place with his mate tomorrow as we cleared the plates and headed off to bed.  

I cleaned my teeth and then changed into my pyjamas in my room, shivering at the cold. The central heating in this place was not great. I crawled under the covers, pulling them up to my chin, and tugged out my phone for a quick look through twitter. 

Just as I was about to go to bed, a message popped up at the top of my screen from Phil on twitter. I frowned, clicking across. 

Direct message from @amazingphil

@amazingphil: hey Meg!! I heard you're in London - can we catch up for coffee or something soon?

I smiled at my phone, the blue light against my face as I typed a reply. 

@phanoclock: hey Phil :) yeah, I'd absolutely love to. It's been so long! Starbucks tomorrow afternoon, say 2?

@amazingphil: sounds good to me! see you then!

@phanoclock: see you then :) 

I turned my phone over and put it on my bedside table, rolling onto my side. I stared at the chipped paint for a moment as I waited for sleep - I wondered who else had been in this bed, watched this wall. 

I closed my eyes, thinking of tomorrow. 

hey she's back at it with another chapter what a QUEEN

*bows* thank you thank you

trying to keep them short-ish so it's not like ten solid minutes of reading, i'm liking the whole light feel the shorter chapters give to the book, breaking it up a little.

let me know what you think!

xx