Chapter 45

“I will sort this out. I promise you.”

“Shall we start at the beginning?” Will asked. He sat at one end of the sofa. Sophie sat at the other. Amy was in the kitchen making coffee.

Sophie shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Sophie, if you want me to help you—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I need to fess up. I get it, Dad.”

“So...?”

She shrugged again and looked around the room. Anywhere but at her dad. Will knew her well enough to know she was working out what to say in her head. He also knew that what he was about to hear was as truthful as it could possibly be. It would be a thirteen-year-old girl’s version of the truth, but it would be what she absolutely believed to be the truth.

“You want to know why Kitty and I fell out, don’t you? It won’t make any difference. It’s not like we can ever go back to how it was before.”

“Why not?”

She shook her head. “We just, like, can’t, you know. Not after that.”

“So what was that?”

“Kitty knows about Mom and Jenni. You know, what they are and stuff. I mean, how could she not know? She was always around at mine and, like, Mom doesn’t hide it. I keep telling her that, like, it’s embarrassing when she and Jenni kiss and stuff in front of my friends, but she doesn’t care. She likes to embarrass me. I know she does. So Kitty, like, knew Mom was a lezza. But she was cool about it and didn’t, like, make a big deal of it or say anything at school and stuff.”

“But she does now?”

“Yeah. I mean, like...” She shrugged. “I dunno.”

“So...? Why did you fall out?”

After a short pause, Sophie said, “We were having, like, this slumber party at her house. Me and Kitty and Rachel Jones and Jackie Moore and Alice Beyts. It was pretty cool. We were all in our jammies in Kitty’s room and we stayed up really late watching this really scary film until, like, her Mom came in and made us turn it off cause we all kept screaming and keeping everyone else awake.

“So, like, we decided to go to sleep. Rachel, Jackie and Alice had sleeping bags on the floor and I was in the bed with Kitty, cause, like, I was her best friend so it was only fair that I didn’t have to sleep on the floor.”

Will nodded. “Go on.”

“It was fine to start with. I mean, like, it was weird lying next to her in her bed and under the covers but it was fine except I couldn’t get comfortable lying on my back so I rolled onto my side. I was facing away from Kitty and she cuddled up behind me, which felt sorta nice. Then she put her arm around me and...”

Sophie looked away and bit her lip.

“And?”

“She grabbed my boob. I know they’re not very big and stuff, but she grabbed my boob. And I know it wasn’t an accident because she actually squeezed it. Twice. I turned around and asked her what she was doing and she said didn’t I like it and I told her no and she said I must do and tried to kiss me.” Her voice got louder now. “She tried to kiss me, Dad! I mean properly kiss me. On the lips, like I was her girlfriend for something.”

“What did you do?”

“I pushed her away and got out of bed to go to the bathroom. She followed me and asked what was wrong? I said like she didn’t know and she said she thought it would be okay because I was a lezza. I told her I wasn’t and she said I must be cause Mom is and I told her not to be so stupid being a lezza isn’t genetic or something.

“She said she just wanted to see what it was like and thought it would be okay and I told her that it wasn’t okay. Then she got all scary mean and told me not to tell anyone. I said why would I and she said I better not because no one would believe me if I did anyway because I’m the one with a lezza for a Mom.”

“And did you tell anyone?”