It was our weekend at Dad’s so, in the morning, he gave me a lift to Lauren’s house. After I’d got out of the car, it took me a moment to work up the courage to walk down the drive. I couldn’t help thinking about the previous Saturday, when I’d woken up feeling so cheerful, compared to the sinking feeling I had in my stomach now. I was afraid of what kind of reception Lauren’s mum was going to give me. What if she just told me to go away again? But I had to talk to Lauren so I marched up to their door and pressed the bell firmly.

After all that, it was Lauren’s dad who opened the door.

‘Hello, Amelia,’ he said. ‘Lauren’s upstairs; go on up.’

‘Thanks.’ I don’t see Lauren’s dad that much because he’s always travelling for his job but he’s definitely a lot friendlier than her mum.

Upstairs, Lauren’s bedroom door was closed. Normally, I’d have walked right in, but for some reason I knocked.

‘Come in,’ Lauren said.

I pushed open the door.

She was lying in bed, propped up on pillows. She looked awful.

‘You look awful,’ I said. My heart was off at a gallop again. What if there really was something horribly wrong with her?

‘Thanks,’ Lauren said. ‘You look pretty disgusting yourself. I think it’s your rat teeth. Or it might be your caterpillar eyebrows.’

I tried to laugh, but it stuck in my throat. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘About being cross about bowling.’

‘It doesn’t matter. I should’ve just said yes.’

‘But you weren’t well enough, were you?’

She tensed. ‘I was just tired.’

‘It’s more than that though, isn’t it?’

‘No.’ She said it forcefully. ‘I’m just run down. It’s this time of year: everybody gets sick.’

‘But you’ve been sick for months.’

She pushed herself more upright. ‘I’ve only had a few days off school.’

‘It’s more than a few. All those days you said you were going to the orthodontist . . .’

Her eyes widened and I could tell that I’d struck on the truth.

‘There was nothing wrong with your brace, was there?’ My voice was getting louder.

She looked away. A horrible thought occurred to me.

‘Oh my God, you didn’t really go away for half-term, did you?’

She sucked in a breath. She’d lied to me; she’d lied so much. But then tears started rolling down her face and the red-hot anger inside of me just turned to icy fear. ‘Why did you lie to me, Loz?’ I could hardly get the words out.

She looked up at me. ‘I didn’t mean to.’ She gulped. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Ever since the glandular fever, I’ve been so tired and sometimes I think I’m all right and I go out and do something and then I feel so exhausted again that I can’t even get out of bed.’

I sat down beside her. ‘Why didn’t you say?’

‘I did in the beginning. But you got annoyed in the summer holidays when I was too tired to do things. You kept expecting me to have got over it.’

I felt my face getting warm. I remembered dragging her to the lido when she’d said she didn’t have the energy.

‘And it’s boring,’ she went on. ‘It’s really boring always having to tell people you can’t do things, or that you need to stop and rest, or that you can’t even walk home from school. I just didn’t want to talk about it any more.’ She wiped away more tears. ‘And it’s scary. I don’t know what’s happening. I try not to think about it.’

‘Have you been to the doctor?’

Lauren rolled her eyes. ‘I’m practically living at the doctor’s.’

My mouth was dry. ‘What do they say is the matter with you?’

‘First, they said it was the after-effects of the glandular fever, then they said I was anaemic and then they said I was depressed.’ She slumped back on to her pillows. ‘Basically, they haven’t got a clue.’

We were quiet for a moment. I was relieved that she wasn’t dying, but I could see how horrible it must be not knowing exactly what the problem was.

‘I wish you’d talked to me about it,’ I said.

‘We’ve got better things to talk about.’

‘Lauren, I’m your friend. I’m not just your friend when we’re having a laugh and talking about Cute Josh. I’m your friend when bad things happen too. I’m kind of hurt that you didn’t tell me about any of this.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Her voice wobbled. ‘I just kept hoping it would go away and it’s not very . . . nice.’

‘I’m always here. For the not-nice stuff too. Especially for the not-nice stuff.’

She gave me a watery smile. ‘Thanks, Amelia.’

I gave her a hug. ‘So what happens now? Is there something the doctors can do?’

‘I’m having tests. Mostly they just say I need to take it easy. My mum’s been talking to Iron Hair about me going part time at school.’

My heart plummeted, but I pulled my mouth into a smile. ‘Well, that’s something. The best way to attend school is not very often.’

She couldn’t return the smile. It’s funny how, even though we both say that we hate school, not being able to go is kind of a big deal. I squeezed her hand. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘It’s not forever. You’ll be better soon and then you’ll be back in the madhouse full time with the rest of us.’

She nodded, but I could tell that she didn’t believe it.

We only got to chat for a few minutes more before Lauren’s mum appeared at the door and said, ‘I think Lauren needs to rest now, Amelia.’

Lauren really did look shattered so I gave her a hug and said goodbye.

Mrs Anderson closed Lauren’s door behind us and I followed her down the stairs in silence. At the bottom, she turned round to face me.

‘Lauren tells me that she hasn’t been entirely honest about her illness with you.’

Even though I wouldn’t have said anything myself, I was glad that Lauren had because I didn’t want her mum thinking I was a horrible friend.

‘I didn’t know she was so ill,’ I said. ‘And I honestly never meant to upset her.’

‘I’m sorry if I was a bit short with you the other day. I thought that Lauren had explained things to you.’

‘That’s OK,’ I said, even though it wasn’t a particularly warm apology.

‘Lauren is ill,’ she said as if she needed to keep repeating it in case I was too stupid to understand. ‘She has very limited reserves of energy, which means she tires easily. I’d be grateful if you could do your utmost to avoid wearing Lauren out.’

‘Of course,’ I said. ‘I’ll keep an eye on her.’

And she opened the door for me to leave.

I couldn’t help feeling that she still wasn’t that keen on me.