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Carrie turns to me, but another fight with her is the last thing I need so I turn to go.

‘Wait,’ she says to me.

I don’t though and carry on walking.

Carrie trots to catch up with me. ‘You not going to choose anything?’

‘Not what I’m into right now.’

I want to catch up with Billie and ask her what’s going on – it’s all I can think of.

‘Reva.’ Carrie gets in front of me and I’ll have to either stop or plough right through her – which is my first choice until she puts a hand on my wrist.
‘We’ve got to do this some time.’

‘I don’t even know what “this” is,’ I say, desperate to get past her.

‘I know you want to get to Johnson.’

This surprises me.

‘You think a girl wouldn’t notice?’ she asks. ‘Seriously?’

I almost blush. ‘You’ve got that wrong.’ But she hasn’t, has she? And it seems that I’m the last person to get that I like Johnson.

‘I’m glad you’re not going to get what you want for once.’

I tighten immediately. It’s the same old Carrie.

‘You don’t know that.’

‘You weren’t in the cubicle with him. Billie was.’

Her comment lands like a punch.

‘But that’s good,’ Carrie continues. ‘You’ll understand a lot better now.’

I don’t have a clue what she means, and I wish she’d get out of my way.

‘You and Kyle,’ she says.

‘Not sure there is a me and Kyle, considering everyone’s disappeared.’ I make to walk away but again she gets in front of me.

‘I liked him.’ Her words are almost inaudible and because she’s not sure I heard her she repeats it. ‘A lot.’

‘Kyle?’

‘I saw him now and then, when he had that job in the clothes shop. I used to go in there. He was always nice to me, and I think he pretty much liked me. Something was about to happen,
I’m sure it was, and next thing I know I see him with you.’

We fall silent and for the first time ever Carrie looks vulnerable.

‘He rejected me, just like Johnson is going to reject you. So now you know what I feel – well
felt
– like. He doesn’t know he rejected me, but when do boys ever
know anything?’

‘You like Kyle?’ I repeat.

‘Liked.’

‘I never knew.’

When she sees that I had no earthly idea about this she hardens a little. ‘Don’t make fun of me.’

‘I didn’t know, I promise.’

‘You must have seen I was interested in him and jumped in.’

‘No.’

Carrie hesitates again. ‘He would’ve said something.’

‘You just said he didn’t know.’

Carrie looks shocked. ‘He didn’t even mention me?’

I shake my head.

‘Oh,’ she says.

‘I don’t understand. Is that the “this” you wanted to talk about?’

Carrie is starting to look embarrassed.

‘That why you hate me so much? I got the boy you wanted?’

Carrie runs a delicate finger over her bruised forehead. ‘I thought . . . I thought you knew and you’d be secretly gloating . . . He didn’t mention me, not at all, not
ever?’ She is bewildered.

I remain silent and she slaps a hand on her forehead, forgetting her bruise for a millisecond, and she yelps because she slaps it pretty hard. She staggers back and has to throw out a bony arm
and balance herself on a shop window.

‘Carrie.’

‘I’m OK.’

But her eyes are watering from the pain and it takes her a second or two to gather herself.

‘Carrie . . . He, uh, he’s not that great.’

‘You’re just saying that.’

‘The others think he’s a leprechaun. And he’s not that much fun, or even that bright. I liked that he was two years older than me, and that he had a Saturday job that meant he
could afford to take me to the cinema. But most of all I liked him because he was the first boy who didn’t talk to my chest. Other than that, he isn’t as exciting as I’d hoped.
You’d have spotted it soon enough.’

‘You didn’t,’ she says bluntly.

‘Yeah, but I’m stupid,’ I tell her.

‘Makes two of us then.’

Our eyes meet at this. ‘Two idiots,’ I say. ‘Except you’re not because you’ve moved on.’

‘I have?’

‘Duh,’ I say, using one of her all-time favourite expressions. ‘You’ll see. Girls notice things, remember?’

Carrie studies me for a long moment. ‘I’m not going to apologise for hating you.’

I can’t help the smile that spreads across my lips. ‘Wouldn’t expect you to.’

‘And this doesn’t make us best buddies.’

‘With you on that.’

‘Boys,’ she says as she moves away. ‘I hate them all. Well, almost all of them.’

I know the feeling
, I think, because I hate them all too. Until I realise I don’t.

We are all sitting at a dining table big enough to seat twenty people and Billie and I have set it with glasses and plates. Carrie offered to help, but I told her to take it
easy because the lump on her head doesn’t look too healthy. I was going to choose some new clothes just like the others did but instead I trekked back to the honeymoon suite to retrieve my
jeans and top. I guess I was avoiding seeing Johnson and Billie shopping together. But when I got up there I found that GG had already laid out a green velvet dress for me. I slipped it on and it
fitted perfectly, stopping halfway to my knees. He had even found a pair of black knee length suede boots for me. When we get back home I’m going to go to him for fashion advice.

GG has cooked us all a giant lasagne in the hotel’s industrial-sized oven, and we’re tucking in. The Ape guzzles the lasagne, forking great mouthfuls into his gullet and washing it
down with what we think is probably very expensive wine. It sloshes down his front and he somehow manages to belch even with his mouth full – Carrie immediately pushes her plate away from
her.

‘Gross.’

‘Not want that?’ The Ape doesn’t even bother to wait for her reply as he grabs her plate and drags it over to him. He’s wearing a huge dark overcoat that GG convinced him
was the absolute best look for him – so much so that I doubt the Ape will ever take it off again.

‘So, what can you tell us, Moth?’ asks Johnson.

‘Ah,’ says the cravat- and leather jacket-wearing Moth, who lets GG – now wearing a T-shirt and boxers under the HERS dressing gown along with the complimentary slippers and a
chef’s hat – sprinkle parmesan over his lasagne.

Everyone seems more relaxed after a bit of rest and food. It’s probably helping that we’re also pretty sure our dopplegangers aren’t going to find us. But there is a nagging
voice in my head that’s telling me they definitely will. Because they
are
us, so if our GG headed straight to the poshest hotel in London then a Non-GG would do exactly the same
thing. I’m keeping this thought to myself for now because, as GG explained, London is huge and we’re like speck of sand in a concrete jungle. Besides I want us to be normal for a while.
To eat and drink and talk. To be who we used to be.

‘I haven’t read it all,’ admits the Moth. ‘But I’m getting the gist, I think.’

The Ape belches again. ‘Got any more?’

I watch the Ape for a moment – his hugeness seems fitting for a table this size, and he makes me think that he would fit right in at a medieval banquet. He hasn’t mentioned his
crushed ribs once and I make mental note to ask him about them. I’m sure he’s hiding the pain from us.

‘Can we stay focused please?’ says Billie. She has decked herself out in a simple dress with a ton of jewellery to complement it. She has rings on every finger and wears outrageously
expensive bracelets and a necklace. I think it might be to draw attention from her scarred face, but then again maybe Johnson chose them for her.

‘Help yourself,’ says GG to the Ape, pushing the lasagne dish towards him. ‘He won’t get it anyway,’ he whispers behind his hand to the rest of us,

‘Go on, Hawkings,’ says Carrie to the Moth.

The Moth realises we are all staring at him now and are about to hang off his every word, and he becomes nervous. ‘I’m going to start with the facts. First one being the other
versions have come from somewhere not unlike where we’re from. They know this world as well as we do, it’s just as familiar.’

‘I could’ve told you that,’ says Billie, disappointed. She is sitting beside Johnson and there’s a closeness to them that I’m trying to ignore. He’s found
another pair of tight jeans and a crisp white shirt that has the top three buttons undone. I am trying so hard not to look at him.

‘But they have evolved in a different way,’ continues the Moth.

‘They’re aliens then?’ asks Carrie.

‘Aliens, zombies, vampires. Told you,’ the Ape says to no one in particular, his mouth crammed with lasagne.

‘They’re alien to us. But I don’t think they’re aliens. Which is a big difference.’

‘Clones?’ asks GG. ‘If I saw me I’d want to clone me. Hundreds of times over.’ He giggles. ‘The world would be such a beautiful place.’

The Ape pours more wine for himself and it glops loudly into his glass. The Moth waits for him to finish before carrying on.

‘In the scientific paper he wrote, Rev’s dad claims he opened a door in our world and walked through it. He had been working on something called the multiverse theory.’ The
Ape’s slurping and munching is drowning out half of what the Moth is saying.

‘Ape,’ I say.

He looks over, sees that everyone is looking at him. ‘What?’

The Moth starts again, talking a little louder as the Ape ploughs through the lasagne.

‘The multiverse theory postulates that hundreds of Earths exist side by side. It’s a hypothetical set of infinite parallel universes. Well, it was hypothetical until Rev’s dad
proved it wasn’t.’

‘Are we in one now?’ Johnson asks.

‘I think that, somehow, our original one sort of gave birth to this one.’

‘Who’s the father?’ GG can’t help himself, but then gets a dark look from Carrie and falls quiet again.

The Moth continues. ‘Your dad opened the gateway and came here, Rev. He wrote down how he did it, and how it’s a world with no one in it. A carbon copy of our world, minus the
people. A place that runs directly alongside ours from the exact moment you enter it.’

‘You lost me on “postulates”,’ quips GG, already confused.

The Moth clears his throat. ‘Maybe I’m not explaining it clearly enough.’ He pauses and then starts reading from my dad’s pages, as if this will make it easier for all of
us to understand. ‘In nineteen hundred, a physicist called Max Planck introduced the concept of quantum physics after his study of radiation yielded some unusual findings that contradicted
the universally accepted physical laws. His findings suggested that there are other laws at work in the universe, operating on a much deeper and reality-challenging level than the ones we know.
Hence the idea of parallel universes where wars may have different outcomes, or species evolve and adapt differently. The worlds are twisted echoes of ours. This was just a theory, but not any
more. Because I have found some of them.’ The Moth looks up from the page expectantly.

‘That’s all a load of big words to me, Hawkings. All I want to know is how the hell do we get out of it, this parallel world or whatever?’ says Billie.

‘And how did we even get in it?’ asks Carrie.

‘I’m still reading. For now that’s all I’ve got.’

‘So your dad did this to us?’ Carrie isn’t as accusing as she could be but all eyes immediately fall on me as if I’m to blame.

The Moth clears his throat to try and get the attention back on him. ‘The main thing though is that everyone else hasn’t disappeared. We have.’

A big heavy lead weight of silence descends. I can feel it pressing me down into my chair.

‘We’re not where we were?’ Carrie states.

‘I don’t think so,’ says the Moth, almost apologetically.

‘We were moved?’ asks Billie, who looks ready to implode and Johnson slips a hand onto her arm for comfort. I immediately look away.

Our moment in the hotel room had started to gently ease the Other-Johnson away from me, but now it looks like whatever happened between us didn’t mean what I thought it did . . . Johnson
likes Billie and it’s becoming more painful by the second.

‘So our home world is still there?’ GG asks. ‘My dad and mum are still alive?’ He claps his hands and lets out a whoop. ‘Well that’s something!’

‘But who moved us and why?’ asks Johnson.

The Ape is about to refill his glass when Carrie snatches the bottle from him. ‘I’m trying to listen!’

‘Listen to what?’ The Ape couldn’t care less. ‘We’re here, everything’s free and we can do what we like. What’s the problem?’

Carrie takes the bottle and necks the wine straight down, glugging quickly. When she stops she finds us all looking at her. ‘What? Who wouldn’t need a drink after hearing all
that!’

The Moth taps the table, again trying to keep us all focused. ‘I have no idea why we’re here but it happened after we heard the fire alarm and then there was the white
light.’

Johnson takes a moment to compose a thought. ‘The fire alarm.’

We wait for more.

‘The burned man.’ He furrows his brow a little as he processes his thoughts. ‘What if they’re connected? What if that fire alarm went off because the burned man had tried
to come through to our world in the school? That’s why everyone was shouting, the hallway was on fire.’

‘He wasn’t coming through,’ says the Moth. ‘He was shifting us to here.’

Silence is a strange thing when it happens. You don’t realise how much noise is actually going on until there isn’t any. Voices and cutlery on plates, the Ape belching, even
someone’s breathing – when all of that stops, that’s when you know what silence really sounds like.

It’s eerie and it’s jam-packed with fear. Not the fear of anything specific, more the fear of the unknown. The question that no one wants to answer hangs in that silence like a dead
man on a gallows. I’m only being ultra descriptive because the silence is expanding and I can’t think of anything to say that will break into it. No one can.

‘Cool.’

It’s the Ape – isn’t it always? – who smashes the delicate moment apart.

‘I’m liking this guy!’