Page 54 of The Chemistry Test
Penny
‘The gang’s back together!’ Amy squeals, letting Ro in. It’s the first time he’s visited since he left and it feels so natural, yet so strange. He left his LED lights here, so when he pulls his speakers out of his backpack and plugs them into his laptop, it’s like he never left.
‘You guys, I can’t believe we’re doing Christmas in January,’ he says, washing his hands, ready to start cooking.
‘Of course! It wouldn’t have been right without you,’ I say, adding some songs to our playlist.
‘You’re going to have to come back every Christmas for this,’ Amy says, peeling the potatoes, and sliding them over to Ro to chop.
‘I won’t be able to,’ he says, taking a break and turning to us both. ‘Things will be so different next year.’
She looks at him sadly. ‘I know, I’m sorry. I just meant, if you could, and if you wanted to.’
‘I can’t visit next year,’ he says, grinning, ‘because I’ll already be living with you, if you want me to.
Turns out I’m pretty annoying to live with when I’m not doing what I want to do.
And I finally figured out how to get through to Amma and Abba.
They were on board with the whole idea pretty quickly once I changed tactics,’ he says, eyes sparkling. ‘We’ve got two more years together!’
Amy drops the peeler at the same time as I get up to hug him. ‘I’m so thrilled for you, Ro! What was the tactic? What changed?’
‘Turns out, it wasn’t about fighting my case and beating them, after all.
They didn’t want to win the argument, they just wanted to be good parents.
So, when I switched the focus from fashion – which they couldn’t care less about – to me – their whole world – they came round pretty quickly.
The issue wasn’t that they didn’t understand enough about fashion, it was that they didn’t know enough about me.
After I opened up to them, fully and wholly, I didn’t need to win the argument anymore, as we were already on the same side. ’
Amy squeals. ‘Way to go, Ro! How did you figure out that’s what was wrong?’
He breathes in deeply, looking at the floor. ‘I don’t know if I should say.’
‘What? You can tell us whatever you’re comfortable with,’ she says, resuming her peeling duties.
Ro looks up at me sheepishly. ‘It was actually CJ who gave me the idea. He didn’t mean to, but he did. We kind of got chatting for a while, but I haven’t spoken to him since then, I swear,’ he says, waving his arms frantically, before showing me the conversation in his inbox.
Oh. The name leaves me winded for a second, but no longer.
What a bizarre conversation, is my first thought.
Although when I think about it properly – it’s not really.
The two have a lot in common with their absurd jokes and crossover interest in red-carpet fashion.
They both, unknowingly, complimented each other while talking to me, so it’s not a huge leap for them to have started talking directly to each other and to get along.
‘You can speak to him, Ro,’ I say, nudging him. His loyalty to me after just a few months of knowing each other is so sweet. ‘He hasn’t done anything wrong and neither have you.’ Just don’t upgrade him to in-person friend status, I silently beg. I don’t know if I could handle that.
‘Really?’
‘Really,’ I say, forcing a smile. I’ve already denied CJ one friendship, I’m not about to deny him another. Or Ro, for that matter. If that’s not what friends are for, I don’t know what is. My heart will just have to toughen up a little, for both of them. I can do that.
With smiles all around, real or otherwise, Amy finally bursts, jumping up and down excitedly. ‘So, when are you leaving again, and more importantly, when are you coming back ... for good?’ she squeals. ‘ For good. I can’t believe I get to say that!’
Ro joins in the happy hopping. ‘I don’t go back home until the eleventh, so we’ve got a few more days together, and then I’ll be back properly in September,’ he says, and the world feels a little bit more right. But it also reminds me of something else. I have a lot to do.