Page 61 of Unscripted

“I’m so glad you asked, because do you know what I’ve been doing for the past two days? Watching you and Sara carry on like some happy couple.”

“You didn’t seem to mind so much when you were cozying up to James last night.”

“This isn’t about me. This whole thing, us, was your idea! You were the one who said we should stick together. That we should try to make it to the end and now you’re all over another girl.”

I took a breath and asked the question I had been dreading hearing the answer to.

“Do you want to be with Sara, is that what this is?”

“Do you want to be with James?”

“I made it clear I was in this with you. For fuck’s sake, I kissed you!”

“You kissed James!”

“He kissed me. In a game. Which is honestly more than I can say for you. For someone who had this grand plan to get us to the final, you’re really doing a shitty job at it.”

“I’m doing a shitty job? You never come around me; you’re always either with Chiara or Jess. What am I supposed to do with that?”

“You know what, don’t worry about it anymore. At the next matching, why don’t you just choose Sara?”

“Fine, maybe I will.”

“Fine.”

I blinked up at him, the reality of what we’d just said sinking in. I had felt out of my body during our conversation and coming back down to Earth now, I wasn’t sure how we had gotten so far off course in such a short amount of time.

Frustration and hurt bloomed in my chest. I didn’t want to feel it, especially not while standing in front of Callum, so I pushed past him and back into the garden.

Crossing the lawn, I tried to make sense of what had just happened. What I hoped would be a moment for us to get back on the same page had blown up in my face. Now I wasn’t sure where we stood.

Not together, it seemed.

I was moving without seeing and found myself joining Jess and Ella where they were sitting at the daybeds.

I didn’t say anything, just plopped myself down next to them.

My head was spinning, replaying my conversation with Callum on a loop. Did he really want this to be over?

Did I?

“Pop, are you alright?” Jess asked delicately.

“Yeah, totally fine,” I said, trying to force a smile.

“Poppy, you’re crying,” Ella said.

Was I? It was then that I realized there were tears streaming down my face. I hadn’t even realized it was happening; I was so lost in my head.

Wiping the tears away, I shook my head, trying to get a grip.

“Yeah, I just . . . ” I didn’t know how to finish that sentence. Even if I could have told them the truth, I wouldn’t have known where to start.

“Are you and Callum alright?” Jess said, looking at me with concern.

That I could at least be honest about.

“No,” I said. “We’re not.”