I let myself enjoy the feel of Liam’s hand on mine for several glorious moments – long enough to know that I didn’t want to be just friends with him. I knew for sure how much I liked him, and now I could see he was into me, too. But while I wanted to stay like this forever, I kept thinking about Annabel. What would happen on Monday when I saw her? Or the next time I saw Liam at the Wild Club? How was that going to work out? I gently slipped my hand out from under Liam’s and put it in my lap.

‘There’s something we need to talk about …’ I began, unsure what to say after that.

Sorry, I shouldn’t have …’ he paused. ‘You do have a boyfriend at Highgrove, don’t you?’

‘No,’ I whispered indignantly. ‘That’s not it. It’s because of Annabel.’

‘Annabel?’ Liam asked, a dumb look on his face.

I nodded. ‘Yes, that’s the one. Long blonde hair, bubbly, pretty.’

‘Yeah,’ he said, without smiling. ‘I know who she is. But what’s she got to do with anything?’

Now it was my turn to stare at him with a dumb look. ‘What do you mean?’

‘She’s just a friend. Annabel and I aren’t together,’ Liam said firmly.

I turned and stared at the big screen, confused. ‘You’ve been hanging out with her all week,’ I said, trying to work out the truth.

Liam nodded. ‘Working on the stall. It doesn’t mean we’re an item.’

‘What about the skate park? You invited her skating. I saw her. She was wearing your helmet.’

Liam shook his head. ‘I didn’t invite her. She just turned up. I thought she just wanted to learn to skate.’ He pulled his phone out of his pocket. ‘You want to check my messages? See if you can find anything incriminating?’

I looked at his phone and then shook my head. I didn’t want to trawl through his messages.

‘Okay, here’s one from yesterday,’ Liam went on. ‘Annabel asked me what time we were setting up. And this is how I replied.’ He showed me the screen.

Setting up at 5, it said.

That was it. There was no ‘love’ or kisses or smiley face. It was actually pretty abrupt. It seemed like Liam was telling the truth.

‘Why did Annabel tell me that things were going well with you, then?’

Liam shrugged. ‘I guess she wanted you to think they were. She also said you had a boyfriend.’

‘But she told me she didn’t say that!’

‘Well, okay. She didn’t say that exactly. I just thought maybe you did, because I saw you become friends online with this Highgrove guy called Saia, and when I asked Annabel about it she hinted you were together. And when you didn’t turn up to any meetings this week, she said you were too busy. I figured you didn’t want to hang out with me anymore.’

I swallowed hard as Liam’s eyes searched my face for a response. ‘I don’t even know Saia, I just got invited to a party he’s going to. And I’ve only been skipping Wild Club because I’ve been jealous of you and Annabel.’

‘You were … jealous?’ he smiled shyly. ‘But Annabel told me you thought we’d never be more than friends.’ He kicked at the grass with his toe. ‘Did she make that up too?’

‘Yes,’ I said. But it was a lie. I had said those exact words at the mall, right before Annabel started her campaign to get Liam. ‘Well, no. She didn’t make it up. What I meant was I thought we were just friends, and then …’ I dropped my gaze. How was I going to explain that my feelings for Liam had changed as soon as Annabel started flirting with him? ‘Things change,’ I said eventually.

And I realised that was true. Annabel hadn’t exactly been honest with me or Liam. But I hadn’t been honest with her about my feelings either. As soon as she found out the truth, she had stayed at home alone instead of coming between me and Liam.

‘What does that mean?’ asked Liam.

I took a deep breath. I could feel every hair on the back of my neck stand on end as Liam watched me, waiting for an answer. And I could have tried to explain everything, but it just felt right to show Liam how I felt. Enough words had been wasted in the past week, saying things that weren’t true. I leant towards him and gently kissed him on the lips.

‘I’d like it if we could be more than friends.’

‘Oh,’ he smiled. ‘I’d like that too.’