Lime and Soda ✓

twelve - blossom

I'm still on a high as I skip home from Heather's. My feet don't touch the tarmac roads at all, I fly home, head in the clouds, floating. I feel weightless, my face aches from smiling so much. I wonder if this is what birds feel like.

He likes me! These three words repeat themselves in my head over and over. I'm home before I know it, barely registering as I fly down the path, crash through the front door, come to land on the kitchen tiles. Even the sight of Jules, the table invisible under stacks of her art supplies, leaning over a painting she's finishing, reminding me that my room is no longer mine, isn't enough to bring me down. So what? I'd sleep in the bath if it meant I could relive that date with Jay. And I will, as well, because that's what he said to me: as we left, he said, 'When can I see you again?' Tonight, as far as I'm concerned. I could have happily spent the rest of this life and the next sat at that table in Heather's cafe, learning everything there is to know about Jay Houldsworth. Even thinking his name brings a flush of colour into my cheeks. I think this is what my mum means when she calls someone lovesick. I don't think I will ever stop smiling.

'Hey!' I say breathlessly, leaning on the doorframe to catch my balance. Jules looks up, smiles at me.

'Hey, Vi. You look happy!' She brushes her hair out of her face, leaving a streak of white paint across her cheek. For some reason I find this incredibly amusing.

'Why are you laughing?' she asks, nonplussed. 'You're not usually this excitable, are you?'

I don't answer, just make a cup of mint tea, singing under my breath, then skip up to my room and fling myself down on my bed. I feel like air.

Before I can really get settled into swooning over Jay for the rest of the day, my phone rings. I flip over onto my side, scrabbling to pick it up, my stomach flipping over and over. It's Jay! He wants to meet up! He misses me already! I finally locate my phone, shoved underneath my pillow, and pick it up, turning it over to look at the name on the screen. My insides deflate. It's not Jay. It's my mum.

I swipe to answer and her face appears on the screen, slightly pixelated. 'Hey, sweetheart!' she says, her face lighting up when she sees me. She looks brown, suntanned; her curly hair is swept up into a knot on top of her head, and she's outside, lying in what looks like a rainbow-coloured hammock.

'Mum!' I say, trying to sound excited. Come on, I tell myself. You haven't spoken to her for weeks, act like you miss her. And I do. But I'm so happy here, with my friends, with Jay, with Bea, that I have zero interest in speaking to anyone else.

'How are you, lovely?' she asks. There's a lag, the signal's bad, her lips move a few seconds before the sound of her voice reaches me. 'Your skin looks so good! What's Bea been feeding you? I swear, that woman always knows how to sort you out.'

'Actually, I'm on a detox,' I tell her. 'It's working pretty good so far.'

'Ah, what a good idea! Are you using those chakra aligning creams I got you? They'll work wonders, I promise!'

'Oh, yeah, all the time,' I lie, thinking of the dusty tubs of herbal smelling handcream shoved into a corner at the back of my wardrobe.

'Excellent! So, tell me all the gossip! How's everything in sunny Lyme?'

'Yeah, it's good. Hot. Jules and Elliot turned up this morning, so looks like I'll be moving to the spare room. Bea seems happy, I think she likes all the company. Astrid's round a lot, we went surfing yesterday...'

'And what about her and that boy? The one that's always causing her so much grief? What's his name now... Rowan?'

'Ross?'