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But today my own big story begins.

Today is the day my best friend Neon is due to visit.

I glance up from the screen. My mums’ bookshop is called Every Book & Cranny, and for the past year I’ve been helping out here for a few hours at the weekend.

As well as the people-watching opportunities, I love organising the window displays and writing recommendation cards after I’ve read a good book.

I still can’t really picture it. Neon is like his name, loud and bright and colourful. He’d stand out a mile in my small Scottish town.

“Sorry.” I put my phone down on the counter. Mum is still glowering at me, so I spin round and tuck it behind the vase of flowers on the windowsill. “I’m back to being employee of the month now. Promise.”

My older brother Joel pokes his head out from behind the non-fiction shelves. “Uh, excuse me. I’m employee of the month.”

“We’ve never picked an employee of the month, but if we did it would obviously be Gio,” Mum says, which is true – Gio is the bookshop manager, and the entire place would probably fall to pieces if he wasn’t there to run the show.

“I’m counting on you two to help out while we’re away this week, though. Especially on Gio’s days off.”

Joel moves his hand up and down to gesture at his body. “Hello? I came all the way from St Andrews to do exactly that, even though I have about a million essays to write. But have I had a thank you from Mutti? One single danke schon ? No.”

Mutti, our other mum, is an author. She has a new book coming out on Thursday, and tonight she’s flying down to London for a whole week of interviews and events.

Usually she goes alone, but this time Mum is tagging along.

She claims it’s to network and provide moral support, but I think she secretly wants a break to wander round galleries and drink overpriced coffee.

Joel has come home from university for the week to help Gio out and make sure I don’t burn the house down, or whatever it is my parents think I’d do if I was left alone for a week.

That’s why I thought this would be the perfect time for Neon to visit. My mums are pretty relaxed, but I haven’t told them anything about our friendship. They wouldn’t understand.

“You’re a saint and a martyr, Joel.” Mum ruffles his dark brown hair. “Just don’t leave the door unlocked again and we’ll be fine.”

As Joel protests that he only did that one time, the bell on the door tinkles and Mutti shuffles in wearing her favourite fuzzy red cardigan and holding a cup of coffee.

‘Mutti’ is the German word for ‘Mum’. Joel and I call her that because she’s originally from Munich, though she’s lived in Scotland for so long that she’s almost completely lost her accent.

“Morning,” she says, yawning. “Is it still morning?”

“It’s almost midday, so just.” Mum smiles but her words are clipped around the edges. “What time did you go to bed?”

“Three, I think? I fell asleep in the middle of editing.” Mutti edges on to the seat beside me and hugs me with her free arm. Her eyes light up at the stack of hardbacks on the counter. “Ooh, is that the new Ruth Ozeki? I didn’t think we’d get it in until next week.”

While she and Mum are distracted, I slip out from behind the counter with my phone, curl up in the cosy armchair in the children’s section and open Neon’s profile again.

Our most recent comments to each other are below a video uploaded this morning, a short compilation of tourist spots around Edinburgh.

New favorite city , the caption reads. ( Nah , second favorite.

Nothing beats NYC. ) Now heading north to go see Laurie!

I replied a few minutes after it was posted: So so SO excited!

followed by a dozen of the yellow hearts I use only for Neon.

His response was a line of purple ones, the colour he saves for me.

I wonder how many purple and yellow hearts have been sent between our accounts in the past six months.

Probably millions. Usually my phone doesn’t go more than an hour without lighting up with a notification, apart from the seven or eight hours when the East Coast is asleep.

But since that photo there’s been nothing. No new posts, no messages to me. Anyone looking at his profile could tell that’s not like Neon. I bite the corner of my nail and refresh the page, as if that might make something pop up. Still nothing.

The bell on the door tinkles again. Mum looks up hopefully – we’ve only had a handful of customers since we opened two hours ago, and one was just looking for a bathroom. Her shoulders sink slightly when she sees who’s arrived.

“Hi, girls. Laurie? Caitlin and Hannah are here.”

My heart instantly drops at the sound of my friends’ names.

I stand up, the phone almost slipping from my hands, and hurry out from behind the shelves.

Caitlin and Hannah are wearing matching denim jackets and they both have their hair up in high ponytails.

They beam at me and Caitlin bounces on the balls of her feet.

“Today’s the big day!” she says in a sing-song voice. “Are you excited?”

I widen my eyes to tell her to be quiet, then quickly usher her and Hannah outside, letting the door slam behind us.

It’s a cold Saturday morning in October, with only a few people wandering down the high street.

The shop windows are thin, and Joel is nosy, so I drag Caitlin and Hannah away from the door and towards the Co-op.

“My parents don’t know about Neon, remember?” I hiss.

“Oh, sorry, I forgot!” Caitlin clamps a hand to her forehead, but her smile still stretches right across her face. “I’m just excited for you! Are you nervous?”

“Yeah,” I say, pushing my hair behind my ears. “I mean, a bit.”

“Don’t you need to leave for the station soon?” Hannah checks the time on her phone. “His train is due in at around one thirty, right?”

I didn’t tell her or Caitlin that. They must have looked up the timetables, worked it out from the post on Neon’s account this morning. “Um, yeah, I think so. But I told Neon how to get here, what bus he needs to take…”

Caitlin looks scandalised. “Laurie, no! This is your big romantic reunion – you have to meet him off the train.”

My cheeks instantly go red. As I’ve told them a hundred times, there’s nothing romantic between me and Neon. “It’s not like that. He’s my friend.”

“Sure. If you say so.” Caitlin tries to wink at me, but it looks like she’s got a lash in her eye. “Don’t worry – we’ll come with you.”

“No, you don’t have to…”

“But we want to!” She crosses her arms, her expression suddenly serious. “Plus it’s safer. Isn’t that the number-one rule of meeting someone off the internet? You don’t go alone.”

“Neon isn’t exactly off the internet ,” I say.

That’s another thing I’ve told Hannah and Caitlin multiple times – that Neon and I met in Brighton last summer, while he was on holiday and I was visiting some family friends with my mums.

“Still, better safe than sorry,” Hannah says. “I want to go to the shops anyway. I need some new mascara.”

“Let’s go, then. There’s a bus in ten minutes.” Caitlin peers past me and towards the bookshop. “Or maybe we could ask Joel for a lift?”

“No!”

The word is almost a shriek, but Caitlin’s smile doesn’t fade. A sickly feeling creeps into my stomach. Going to the station to pick Neon up with them is honestly the last thing I want to do, but I know Caitlin, and I know she’s not going to back down now.

“Fine, we’ll take the bus,” I mutter. “I just need to get my money.”

I trudge back to Every Book & Cranny, leaving Caitlin and Hannah outside – I can already sense the way they’re grinning at each other behind my back.

Inside the shop, Joel and Mutti are rearranging the fiction table to make room for the new arrivals while Mum is frowning at the computer by the till.

“What was all that about?” Joel asks, raising his eyebrows. “What did Caitlin mean by the big day?”

“Um, Lewis Capaldi has a new single coming out. She’s a big fan.

” Joel thinks he’s above listening to anything that makes it on to the charts, so I know that’ll put an end to his questions.

I lean on the counter and turn to Mum. “Is it all right if I go into town? And can I have my pay for this week now, please?”

Her face falls. “Your shift isn’t over for another hour, Laurie.”

Mutti waves a hand at Mum to say it’s fine. “Let her go, Liv. It’s quiet anyway.”

“She needs to learn some responsibility!” Mum’s expression turns stormy. “She won’t be able to wander off whenever she likes when she has a real job.”

“She’s fourteen. She’s got plenty of time to learn.”

Mutti takes her wallet from her cardigan pocket and pulls out a couple of notes.

Mum throws her hands up and disappears into the storeroom, muttering something about “never listens” that could be about me or Mutti, or maybe both of us.

I catch Joel’s eye, and he pulls a face.

Our parents have been snapping at each other a lot lately.

Whether we’re at home or in the shop, the atmosphere often feels like it’s about to shatter under a weight I don’t quite understand.

“It doesn’t matter,” I say, trying to smooth over the tension. “I’ll stay and finish the shift. Caitlin and Hannah won’t mind.”

“No, it’s fine. Go.” Mutti hands me the money with a tight smile. “But be back at five so we can say goodbye before our flight, OK?”

I pocket the notes with a thank you, then shout bye to Mum and Joel and head outside.

Caitlin and Hannah are waiting on the doorstep, both grinning widely.

The nervous feeling in my stomach expands into full-blown nausea, and I mentally kick myself for ever telling them about Neon’s visit.

This is one turn I did not want my story to take.