Page 17

“What do you mean, you’re not going back?”

We’re in the kitchen at my house. Joel is out, probably doing his shift at the bookshop, but I keep my voice low – I wouldn’t put it past Carrie to be listening in with a glass pressed against the wall.

She was washing her bright yellow Beetle in her driveway when we got back, so Neon had to climb over the garden wall and sneak in through the back door while I distracted her by asking about a reality show that she’s obsessed with.

“I don’t want to,” Neon says now. “I’m going to stay here. In the real world. With you.”

He drops a piece of bread into the toaster as casually as if this was his home. For a moment, I imagine a reality where it actually is his home: where he keeps sleeping on our sofa bed and coming to school with me, and somehow my parents are fine with it. That’s beyond even my imagination.

“But you said you’d get in trouble for leaving – won’t people there notice you’re gone?” I ask. “Besides, the Realm sounds amazing! There are so many mythical or imaginary creatures that we don’t have here, and you get to meet famous characters, and…”

“Yeah, but it turns out I like being real. I like eating real food. I like breathing real air. I feel more solid here. More like myself and not … whatever I was before. A figment of your imagination, I guess.” Neon reaches into the cupboard for the peanut butter.

“They’ll be mad, sure, but I think they’ll let it go eventually.

I’m just one character, and I look human – it’s not like they’ve got King Kong on the loose. ”

“But what about your mum?” I ask. “And Cauliflower and the band and everyone?”

A flash of sadness crosses Neon’s face. “I’ll miss them.

Of course I will. But remember what I told you, about how characters in the Realm fade away when people forget about them?

That’ll happen to them eventually.” He’s quiet for a moment, his fingers tapping against the worktop as he waits for the toaster to ping. “It’ll happen to me too.”

“Neon, I could never forget you.” I give a shaky laugh. “Are you joking? Do you really think I could forget about the time my imaginary best friend actually came to visit?”

“OK, maybe not me,” he says, “but you will forget about the others. In a few years, you’ll move away and meet new people and have a new life, and all of this will be a memory – a story you told yourself long ago.

You’ll think about me from time to time, but you won’t be able to tell anyone else in your life what happened because they won’t believe you.

Everyone I love will disappear, and I’ll become more and more faded until eventually I’m almost nothing. ”

A heavy silence stretches between us. Outside a robin sings a wistful tune.

“I don’t want that. I don’t want you to disappear,” I say quietly. “But it’s more complicated than what we want, Neon. Where are you going to live, for one thing? You can’t sleep on our sofa bed forever.”

“We’ll figure something out.” He catches his toast as it pops up. “Maybe your parents will have some ideas.”

The thought of telling Mutti and Mum is a definite nope for me.

There is absolutely no chance they would believe Neon’s story about coming from a realm of fictional creations – and, to be fair, 99.

9 per cent of people on Earth wouldn’t, either.

My parents’ first step would be to get in touch with Neon’s mum, and when they realised she didn’t seem to exist they’d have a million more questions about who this boy was and how he got here.

Social services would have to get involved, maybe even the police.

They’d eventually realise that there was no record of Neon existing anywhere, and the whole thing would be a total mess, and I’d be in a ton of trouble.

“No,” I say. “Sorry. There’s no way we can tell them.”

“Well, we’ll have to find another place, then. The world is huge! There must be somewhere I can stay.”

He says this quite cheerfully as he spreads peanut butter on his toast. I don’t think he realises how complicated all this is. He might be fourteen in the Realm, but he’s brand new to reality.

There’s about a hundred and thirty pounds in my savings account. I’m not sure how much the B&Bs around here cost, but that wouldn’t get us more than a few nights. A hostel would be cheaper, but the nearest one is in Inverness, and I wouldn’t want to send him all the way there by himself.

There are so many thoughts whirling round my head that I don’t realise I’ve been silent for almost a minute.

Neon’s smile is starting to fade. “Don’t you want me to stay, Laurie?”

“Of course I do,” I say quickly, and I really mean it. “But it’s complicated.”

I run through everyone I know, trying to find someone who might be able to help us.

Hannah is one of four siblings – there’s never any room at her house.

Caitlin just lives with her mum now her sister’s moved out, but their place is tiny.

My grandparents on Mutti’s side are back in Germany, my granny on Mum’s side is in a care home, and none of my aunts or uncles live within a hundred miles of us.

Gio has a spare room at his place, but he’d definitely tell my parents if I asked.

Then it comes to me. “I know! Tilly’s house!”

Tilly’s mum and dad are artists but they live on an old farm and have lots of animals – as well as Tilly’s dog, Bella, there are chickens and rabbits and even a goat.

There are a few barns and outhouses on their land, and most of them aren’t used any more.

If Neon was careful, he could hide in there for a week or so without anyone ever noticing.

“You wouldn’t mind living in a barn for a while until we sort something out? We’ll get you a really thick sleeping bag and some blankets. And there aren’t any cows or sheep in there – don’t worry.”

“It’ll be like camping!” Neon says excitedly. “I love camping! Well, I’ve actually never done it, but I bet I’d love it.”

It’s a temporary solution, but the best one I’ve got. Now we need to hope that Tilly doesn’t hate me too much to say yes.

I know better than to turn up at Tilly’s unannounced on Saturday morning.

Her parents would insist that I come in, and then they’d bombard me with questions about how things in the bookshop are going, and what Joel’s studying, and if Mutti has another novel coming out soon.

They’d get all excited at the thought of me and Tilly being friends again, and then it would be sad and awkward when Tilly had to explain that we aren’t.

Instead, I send her a message and ask if she can meet Neon and me at the bench by the loch. She always walks her dog after breakfast, so she’ll be out anyway. The loch is miles long, and there are probably hundreds of benches parked along it, but Tilly will know which one I mean.

OK , she writes back. Be there in half an hour.

Neon and I only have to wait a few minutes before she turns up with Bella, her gorgeous cocker spaniel with the cutest floppy ears. My heart leaps when I see the dog straining on her leash, half dragging Tilly behind her.

“Hi. Hey, Bella!”

I kneel down to pet her. I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed this dog. We once looked after her when Tilly and her family went to Hong Kong for a month, and, by the end of her stay, Bella would fall asleep by my feet every night.

Tilly lets me fuss over Bella for a few minutes, then takes the dog off the leash to have a wander around. She looks from me to Neon, her eyes wary. “So, what’s this about?”

“We have a favour to ask,” I say. “It’s a really, really big one, and I don’t even expect you to say yes. But right now it’s our only option.”

“I’ve decided to stay here a little longer,” Neon says, smiling. “I don’t want to go back to – to the place that I came from. I want to stay with Laurie instead.”

“But our house is too small,” I add. “And you know my mums. There’s no way they would agree to having him there.”

“They’re coming back from London today so I need somewhere to sleep for a few nights,” Neon says. “Just until I can work out what to do long-term.”

“So I thought maybe…” My voice is getting squeaky with nerves. “Maybe he could camp out in one of the barns on the farm for a while? Your parents wouldn’t even need to know.”

Tilly’s face goes through a whole rollercoaster of emotions while we’re speaking: first she looks confused, then shocked, even angry, and finally her eyes narrow in suspicion.

“There’s something you’re not telling me,” she says, crossing her arms. “Why don’t you want to go back to New York? And what about your family?”

Neon says something about being happier here, feeling more like himself, but it’s all too vague and wishy-washy, and Tilly obviously isn’t convinced.

It occurs to me that if we’re asking this of Tilly, something that could get her into big trouble, she deserves to know the truth about what’s going on.

She might not accept it, but I should at least offer it to her.

“You’re not going to believe this. I mean, you actually won’t believe me.” I fish around for the right words. “But Neon… He comes from… He isn’t exactly…”

“Real,” Neon finishes. “Laurie made me up.”

We tell her the whole story: how I invented Neon, then started to really believe him, and the realm of fictitious creations that he comes from.

Tilly listens with wide eyes. She’s always been so easy to read, at least to me – she’s one of those people whose face always shows what they’re feeling – but I’m not prepared for the next words out of her mouth.

“I knew you made him up!”

“You did?” I glance at Neon, baffled. “How?”

Tilly sits down on the bench with a bump.

“Well, the fact that Neon never posted any videos of himself online was suspicious. He liked all the same music as you, and one time he shared a photo of a cake on a plate that’s in your house, one that your mums bought in Greece.

” She shakes her head. “I couldn’t believe it when he turned up at school.

It was so obviously you running those accounts. ”

I don’t know what to feel. On one hand, I’m embarrassed that someone was able to see through my lies so clearly.

But, on the other, I’m so relieved Tilly believes me.

It’s also sort of nice to know that she still looks at my profiles, and even the profiles of people I’m friends with. I do the same with hers sometimes.

“Why didn’t you tell Caitlin and Hannah if you knew?” I ask her.

Tilly makes a face like I’ve whipped a particularly stinky cheese out of my bag. “I didn’t want to give them more ammunition against you. The way they talk to you is really horrible sometimes.”

Neon nods. Part of me wants to defend Caitlin and Hannah, but I don’t. They can be really good friends sometimes … but not always. Not enough for me to stick up for them right now.

“So every fictional character lives in this realm?” Tilly asks. “From books and films and stuff too?”

When Neon says yes, her eyes flash with excitement. “Do you know the show Doctor Who ? Have you ever seen any of the characters there?”

Neon launches into a story about seeing one of the Doctors at a barbecue a while ago.

Tilly claps her hands and shrieks with delight, and she practically passes out when he says he’s friends with the protagonist from Shadows of the Sea .

She runs through all her favourite characters from her favourite media, and Neon has stories for five or six of them – he once helped two of the kids from Heartstopper out of a rowing boat that was about to tip over.

Tilly’s eyes sparkle with joy. She loves stories. Last time I was in her room, it was covered with her fan art of her favourite characters. They’re almost as real to her as I am. They definitely mean more to her than I do now.

“Why don’t you want to go back there?” she asks. “That place sounds a thousand times better than the real world.”

“It’s hard to explain. When I was there, I always felt like I was real enough. But now I’m here…” Neon looks around: the vast loch in front of us, Bella sniffing around in the long grass, the wooden slats of the bench beneath our legs. “My life there isn’t as full as I thought it was.”

Tilly nods thoughtfully. “OK. My parents are going to an art exhibition in Inverness today. Come over this morning, and we’ll find you somewhere to stay.”

I forget that Tilly and I aren’t friends any more and throw my arms round her. “Thank you so much. You’re a life saver.”

She stiffens at first, then awkwardly pats my back. When she pulls away from me, there’s a small smile on her face.

“It’s only for a few days, though, right? Mum and Dad are both pretty busy with their work right now, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to host a stowaway without them noticing.”

“Right, right. A few days.” Neon nods. “We’ll find something else after that.”