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Riley shook her head and began to cry.

‘Is it Mia? Johnny?’

‘No,’ Riley sobbed. ‘It’s me.’

‘Oh, you poor thing, come in.’ Sarah guided her into the kitchen and sat her up at the counter. ‘Would a hot chocolate and a brownie help?’

Riley nodded.

Sarah busied herself microwaving the milk and mixing in the chocolate powder, while Riley’s sobs subsided, then handed her the steaming mug and put a plate with a homemade brownie beside her. Riley took a sip and a bite and sighed. ‘I wish I lived here. It’s always so peaceful and calm and, I dunno, nice.’

Sarah wiped the counter and put the cloth in the box under the sink. She moved around and sat opposite her niece. ‘It’s not always calm, I can assure you. Now talk to me.’

Riley filled her in on the party, falling over, the concussion and the hospital fiasco. ‘I’m the big joke in school. Everyone is talking about what a fool I made of myself. Mum’s gone mental and grounded me pretty much for life.’

Yikes, Sarah thought. This was not good. Riley should not have been drinking, certainly not getting paralytic and falling over. But she couldn’t help feeling sorry for her: she’d been dumped and humiliated. ‘Oh, Riley, that sounds like a total nightmare. You know, I was bullied a bit in school so I do understand a little of what you’re going through.’

‘Mum told me, but I just can’t imagine anyone bullying you. You’re so cool and nice.’

Sarah laughed. ‘Flatterer! It was in my last year of school, so it wasn’t too bad. I had just a few months to put up with it. But I remember how long and lonely the days were. The best thing to do is ignore people and their comments. It’ll pass – it’ll be yesterday’s news soon. Someone else will do something and the attention will move to them. You just need to brave it out. If you act like you don’t care, people will stop talking about it.’

‘I’m trying, but it’s hard. I see Zach every day in school and stupid bloody Zoë.’

‘I can imagine that’s really difficult. But on the drinking thing, please tell me that you’ve learned your lesson and won’t drink again.’

Riley dabbed some brownie crumbs on her finger and licked them off. ‘I’ll never drink again. I’ve never felt so sick in my life.’

Sarah smiled. ‘At least that’s one positive to come out of the mess. Look, Riley, I know you like him, but maybe Zach isn’t for you. Maybe this needed to happen so you could see that he’s not such a great guy.’

‘No, he is great,’ Riley said. ‘Honestly, he’s so nice and – andhe made me feel really special and said all these amazing things about me and … Well, it was kind of magic.’

Sarah rubbed her temple. Her headache was back again. ‘I’m glad he made you feel good about yourself because a boyfriend should always make you feel that way. Besides, youareamazing. But there are lots of other nice boys out there.’

Riley chewed her thumbnail. ‘Not like Zach. I know he and Zoë are wrong – I just know it. I’m not like one of those delusional girls who thinks someone way out of their league will fancy them. I’ve been with Zach and we work well together.’

‘Maybe he’ll get sick of Zoë soon and break up with her.’

‘Yeah, but even if he does, we’ll never get together. I might as well join a convent because I’ve basically been locked up until I’m eighteen. Mum is being such a cow. She keeps saying, “I never should have let Sarah talk me into letting you go to that party.”’

Oh, great. Now Sarah was in trouble, too. Still, she wasn’t surprised that Mia had flipped out. She wouldn’t be too happy if Izzy ended up in hospital drunk out of her mind at fifteen. ‘Look, Riley, you need to be on your best behaviour for a few weeks. Let your mum cool down. It’s understandable that she’s cross with you.’

‘Isn’t losing Zach and making a complete fool of myself punishment enough?’ Riley’s eyes filled with tears. ‘I don’t need Mum going on about it all the time.’

Sarah reached over and patted her hand. ‘As parents we worry. It’s our job to keep you safe from harm. Mia’s probably just really concerned about you and about what happened. You have to understand it from her point of view. She got a call in the middle of the night to say you were unconscious in hospital. No mother wants to get a call like that.’

Riley shrugged her shoulders. ‘I guess so.’

‘You gave her a fright. Give her some time. It only happened five days ago.’

‘If she mentions it to you, will you please try to put my side across? I was devastated. I didn’t mean to get drunk – I was just so miserable.’

‘I’ll try, but you have to be patient, Riley. It’ll probably take Mia a while to get over this.’

‘I feel like such a loser.’ Riley wiped a tear away.

Sarah stood up and put her arms around her. ‘You’re not a loser. You’re wonderful, smart and gorgeous, and any boy would be lucky to go out with you. Don’t settle for second best. You deserve a great guy who puts you on a pedestal. Being a teenager can be really hard, but being a parent can be hard too. Mia loves you so much, she just wants the best for you.’

‘She’s got a weird way of showing it. She’s on my back all the time, telling me I need to study harder, get better results, stop going out, eat healthier, clean my room – she never stops.’