🎖 Featured on Teen Fiction Reading List #YA Ambassadors🎖Love or Music... Which should they choose and what price do they have to pay? Love will give Kit and Tully a future together, but music can make Tully's dream come true.
Sixteen-year-old Kit...
"Yeah, there's the big gig in Galway at the end of the month. Haven't you heard?"
"No?" Stuck at home, out of the loop, I haven't heard anything, but I don't remind them of that.
"That's why Baz is back," Felice explains. "That's why Len hasn't been around."
That's why Tully is out in the cold, but I don't say it out loud. After all he's only ever been a stand-in. Mac has always made that clear.
"We have to go to Galway," Felice says. "The holidays are almost over. We'll get Mac to put us on the guest list and Tully can drive us all down. Kit, you need to come. This is our last chance to do something special together, the three of us, before the summer ends."
I'm unexpectedly touched, and even though I'm still hurt and not entirely sure I want to spend the weekend with them, a peace offering from Felice is too rare to turn down.
"How will I get my parents to agree?" I can already hear my mother's nagging voice in my head. "You and Felice will have plenty of time for weekends away when you leave school. But, right now, whatever Axel Carr might think, you're still too young."
"Simple, don't tell them. It's only one night. Pretend you're staying here. They won't find out." Felice doesn't like to show emotion or reveal any chink in her armour. This is as close as she's ever going to come to saying our friendship is important and means something to her.
"Ok," I say. "I'm in."
"That wasn't so hard!" Spike's goblin-like grin spreads across his face.
Felice says nothing. She doesn't even smile but I know she's pleased.
But when I get home, it all goes wrong.
"No, Kit, you can't go over to Felice again this weekend. The holidays are nearly over and we've hardly seen you. You'll both be back at school soon. Yes," my mother forestalls me, "I know she's moving out, but you'll still see plenty of each other."
"No, come on Mum, that's not fair." I wasn't even sure I wanted to go, but now Mum's trying to stop me, getting to Galway feels like the most important thing on earth.
"Felice will survive a weekend without you," Mum replies. "You've been out there nearly all summer. I thought it was just the two of you but I've heard otherwise."
Oh, so that's what this is all about.
What has she heard? About Black Death? Does she know we've been hanging around with them? About Tully? Has she heard he sometimes stays overnight? That would drive her mad, even though nothing's ever happened, but it's not like she'd believe that.
"Apparently Peadar O'Toole has been out there too. I thought it was just for the afternoon, every now and then. You never told me he was staying over. Or that Axel is sometimes away at night."
"Oh Mum, Axel usually is there, most of the time."
My mother says nothing. She knows it makes very little difference whether Axel is there or not.
"Anyway, it's not like that. Spike is just a friend."
"He's a young man, that's what he is." She sniffs with disapproval.
If only I could tell her Spike is gay, but she and old Mrs O'Toole are great friends. And even though half of Drimshanra has guessed the truth, Spike hasn't actually come out to his family yet.
"I can't believe this is happening," I tell Felice when I ring to break the bad news.
"That's a shame." Her voice is casual, less bothered than I expected. Something else I need to get used to, now she's going to have an independent life of her own, even if she is still at school. "Spike and I can go with the band so."
"What?"
"Yeah, there's space. Baz is taking the train."
"I thought Baz was in Drimshanra?"
"He was, yeah, but he's going up to meet Jenna tonight. She's leaving on Monday, so this is his last chance to see her before she goes."
"What about Tully? Wasn't he supposed to be driving us?"
"No, turns out he's working Saturday. It's a bummer you can't make it to Galway, Kit. I'm sure they could squeeze you into the van. There must be some way around it."
"You know there isn't."
Back in my room, nerves jangling from the unsatisfactory phone-call, wishing Felice sounded more disappointed I can't go, I dig out my copy of the story the three of us made together last year. How long ago that seems. All we wanted then was be together. Now, we're all pulled in different directions.
I leaf through the purple-hued pages that bothered Felice but, to me, captured the essence of Aonghus' melancholy presence.
Aonghus, where are you when I need you?
In my dreams, he's always been my escape from Drimshanra.
Aonghus, answer my call!
He's the guide who'll show me the way out of here.
Is there anybody out there?
But of course there isn't.
The reality is I'm trapped, stuck here, until I slowly suffocate.
In my dreams, my tears are purple.
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Author's Note
What do you think about Kit's situation?
(a) Felice and Spike shouldn't go to Galway without her. It was meant to be all three of them.
(b) Kit could spend time with Tully instead.
(c) Aonghus will do... something...
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