SATURDAY 27 AUGUST

Bad news: Mum is still cross. It didn’t help that Bella refused to eat her organic porridge and blueberries for breakfast and kept trying to grab my Coco Pops.

Good news: my sunburn has finally disappeared – WHOOP!

My skin is still a little flaky though, so I put loads of Mum’s expensive face cream on to help stick the flakes back down. I may look a bit greasy but that’s better than being red … I think?!

I’m going to meet the girls at the park for a picnic and it’s going to be so good being FREE again. This must be what it feels like when you get out of prison, but slightly better, I imagine.

First, I met Jess at Sainsbury’s Local to get picnic items. Mum gave me a fiver to buy something ‘healthy and filling’, which sounded boring, so I ended up getting a bag of Jelly Belly beans, a six-pack of Monster Munch and some Hubba Bubba, which seemed like a nutritious meal to me. The Monster Munch were pickled-onion flavour, so they tick the carbohydrate and vegetable box (I think).

My choices were healthier than Jess’s anyway, as she spent her fiver on a massive bottle of orangeade, five packets of strawberry laces and Heat magazine!

When we arrived at the park, Amber, Molly and Poppy were already there, sprawled out over a large fleecy picnic blanket covered in a watermelon pattern.

‘Aha – speak of the devil!’ said Amber, as we settled ourselves down on the picnic blanket. ‘Would you like some pink lemonade?’

‘Yes please,’ I said, suddenly realizing how thirsty I was.

She opened up a cute pink cool box and poured some delicious-looking fizz from a bottle into a plastic wine glass and then added a few cubes of ice. Amber always has the fanciest stuff.

‘Thanks,’ I said, taking a sip. ‘It’s delicious.’

‘Yeh, it’s from Harrods or somewhere posh like that. My mum gets it delivered.’

‘Wow, you are SO lucky,’ said Jess, who had already downed most of hers.

‘Yeh, well whatever,’ said Amber, looking bored. ‘Anyway, we were just talking about you, Lottie.’

I frowned. I didn’t like the thought of them discussing me when I wasn’t there.

Amber went on. ‘Poppy was telling us all about your holiday romance with your HFB … What was his name again?’

I scowled at Poppy, because that was private. If I had wanted Amber to know about my Handsome French Boy, I would have told her myself.

Poppy looked down guiltily and fiddled with her shoelaces. ‘Sorry, Lottie … It kind of slipped out … accidentally …’

‘Why are you sorry?’ Amber piped up. ‘Lottie doesn’t mind, do you? I want to hear all about it!’

I sighed. ‘It’s fine. I just didn’t want everyone to know …’

‘OOOOH, I get it – because of Daniel, right?!’ said Amber.

‘No, well … maybe, I –’

‘Look,’ Amber said, interrupting me. ‘We aren’t going to tell Daniel, are we, girls?’

I could feel my cheeks getting hot, and it wasn’t the after-effect of the sunburn. ‘There is nothing to tell! Nothing happened and anyway … I’m not sure what’s going on with Daniel.’

‘Poppy said you kissed him before you went on holiday!’ added Amber.

What?! I gave Poppy another scowl.

‘Ooops!’ she said meekly.

I felt really cross with her, but I suppose I hadn’t specifically told her not to say that either.

‘Well, it was just a little –’ I began.

‘That’s so EXCITING!’ shrieked Amber.

I blushed a little bit. I guess it was kind of nice to have the attention for once.

‘It is exciting,’ said Molly, looking kind of sad. ‘I just can’t believe you didn’t tell me …’

Oh God. Why hadn’t I told my oldest friend my biggest news?! I felt terrible.

‘I’m sorry,’ I blurted. ‘It was right before I went away, and you were on holiday too, and then we were so busy with Jess’s birthday and … I was only waiting for the right time. I promise.’

‘It’s OK,’ Molly said, smiling. ‘I get it … but, Lottie, it all sounds a bit of a mess. You have both an HFB and Daniel interested in you?!’

‘Don’t forget Bailey!’ said Jess, laughing.

‘Who is Bailey?!’ said Molly.

’OH GOD!’ I said, putting my head in my hands. ‘It’s a long story …’

And then I told them everything … I think I’d had my head in the sand until now, because suddenly I started to feel quite nervous about it all.