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When I sensed that the lookout was near, I slowed and pulled in. It was too dark to see the ocean and at first I didn’t notice the bike – a racer – leaning
against the wall. And even when I did my first thought was,
That’s weird. Someone’s left a bike here
. But of course, a moment later I saw the bike’s owner sitting
cross-legged on the wall, staring out at the ocean.

Lachlan looked so peaceful. So smooth and untroubled. I felt a pang of envy.
Nothing bad could ever happen to someone like him.
Lachlan Ford was one of those people who would just cruise
through life, steadily and easily.

I used to be like that too. Although I guess I was less of a cruiser and more a steamroller, flattening whatever was in my path. The old Olive did what she wanted, when she wanted.

I steadied my breathing.
Get going. Before he sees you.
Because if Lachlan had smiled at me right then I suspected that all the medication in the world wouldn’t be able to stop me
bursting into tears. Silently, I pointed the wheel of my bike towards home. Put my foot on the pedals. And rode straight over some broken glass. I heard the viper-hiss of air as my front tyre
deflated.

Lachlan must have heard it too. Or maybe he’d known all along that I was there. As I busied myself with examining the flabby mess that was my front tyre, I heard him jump off the wall and
walk over – in that unhurried, casual way of his. ‘Got anything to fix it with?’

Just like that. No greeting. No mention of the fact that I’d been avoiding eye contact every day in home room and ignoring him in the halls these last few weeks. My heart leapt and once
again I felt the annoying flicker of doubt. The one that made me wonder if maybe Lachlan’s apparent interest was genuine and not just some kind of cruel gag. But I quickly squashed this.
There was just no way it could be true. God knows what his weird pseudo-flirting was about though. Maybe he did it with everyone.

‘Of course I do,’ I said. I kept a small puncture-repair kit in a bag under my bike seat. It was something Dad had been big on – knowing how to mend stuff yourself.
You
can’t rely on anyone else to patch things up for you,
he’d say.
Better you learn for yourself.

I upended my bike and released the wheel. Then I fished out the tool that helped remove the tyre from the rim. I could feel Lachlan close beside me, watching, warmth radiating from his body.

‘Need a hand?’

‘No thanks.’ Then I added, a little tersely, ‘You don’t have to stick around. It’s under control.’ Did he think I wasn’t capable of changing a tyre?
That all girls had to wait around for
big, strong
guys like him to help them out?

‘Actually, I do have to stick around.’ Lachlan gestured to the racer. ‘I’ve got a flat too,’ he said, a little sheepishly. ‘Can I borrow your repair
kit?’

I stared at him curiously. ‘How long have you been waiting?’ He’d looked so calm sitting there on the wall, gazing out to sea. Not like someone who was stranded with a
flat.

‘Half an hour? Maybe longer.’

‘You didn’t call anyone?’ I said. ‘Or start walking back into town?’

Lachlan shrugged. ‘No. I figured someone would come along eventually.’ He grinned at me. ‘And someone did.’

I dropped the bike pump. Picked it up again. ‘Butter fingers,’ I muttered. I scooped up the stuff from the repair kit and held it out. ‘Here.’

Lachlan looked at the kit doubtfully. ‘Feel like giving me a hand?’

‘Don’t tell me you don’t know how to patch a tyre!’

‘Of course I do,’ Lachlan said quickly. ‘But not as well as you. You’re like a tyre-fixing machine.’

How was it that he always managed to make me laugh?

‘OK. I’ll help you,’ I said. ‘Watch and learn.’

He smiled gratefully. ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘Next time I’ll change yours.’

‘Yeah, sure,’ I said. As if there would be a next time.

So I helped Lachlan fix his tyre and pump it back up. Then somehow, without even discussing it, we started riding back into town together like it was the most natural thing in the world.
It
doesn’t mean anything,
I told myself sternly.
It’s just the logical thing to do.

We didn’t speak much on the ride back, but it was a comfortable, easy silence. I didn’t exactly forget the stuff that had been on my mind – Mum going off about Ami, my growing
concerns about Miranda – but they kind of fell away a little. Even the ocean, falling and swelling only metres away on the other side of the road, didn’t seem quite so scary right
then.

We stopped at the intersection at the outskirts of town.

‘Usually I go right here,’ said Lachlan. ‘But how about I ride home with you? It’s pretty dark.’

‘No thanks, Mr Lifesaver Guy.’ I was aiming for cheery and casual, but it came out sounding defensive and rude.

Lachlan studied my face for a moment. ‘Is it just me you say no to?’

‘Hey, don’t get cocky,’ I said, glad that he couldn’t see the rising blush on my neck. ‘I say no to heaps of things. Commercial radio. Leggings that look like
jeans. Tofu schnitzels. At least, I’d say no to them if I could.’

‘
Tofu schnitzels?
’ winced Lachlan. ‘I don’t even know what those are and I’m saying no to them.’

I laughed. Despite myself. ‘Good decision.’

A car drove up to the lights, filled with people and pumping with music. The passengers turned to stare when the car stopped, laughing about something.
Hey, everyone! What’s wrong with
this picture?
I imagined them snickering as they looked at me there next to Lachlan.

Lachlan didn’t seem to have noticed the car. He was watching me. ‘Are you still saying no to school formals too?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, making a close examination of my handlebars. ‘I’m still saying no to those.’

The traffic lights changed and the car took off. For a moment Lachlan didn’t move. I stayed there next to him, although I don’t know why. I guess I was waiting for something.

Finally Lachlan raised his hand. ‘Well, bye then, I guess. See you around.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘See you.’

As Lachlan took off down the street, I was suddenly aware of the wind blowing hard and cold across my neck. I hadn’t noticed it before. It was like I’d been wearing a scarf and it
had suddenly been removed.

‘Well hello, beautiful,’ said Noah from the ticket office as I rushed in on date night a few days later.

‘Enough with the sarcasm, thanks,’ I said as I slotted myself behind the snack bar counter.

‘I wasn’t being sarcastic,’ insisted Noah. ‘You look good, even with a red face and helmet hair. So, is this just a social visit?’

‘OK, OK,’ I said, ruffling up my hair with my hands. ‘Watch me, I’m working.’

And I did work, solidly, for the next half an hour or so. Scooping popcorn, squirting soft drinks into cups, passing back change. Ami sat on the end of the counter, swinging her legs and making
quiet jokes about the customers’ purchases, but I was too flat out to join in. I even forgot to keep an eye out for Lachlan. It wasn’t that I wanted him to come in for another
ice-cream. But I half-thought he might.

It was after the first surge had passed and I was at the cash register that I saw Cameron reflected in the thief mirror, coming in the front door. On his arm was someone skinny and hunched.

‘My god,’ said Ami. ‘Look at Katie.’

‘No.’ I shoved the drawer of the cash register closed and turned around. ‘It
can’t
be.’

Shapeless.
That was the word that came to my head as I looked at Katie that night. Standing next to Cameron – so buff and solid and high-school handsome – only highlighted the
difference between them. No-one would’ve picked these two as a couple. They barely looked like they belonged to the same species.

I found myself staring, practically open-mouthed. What the hell had
happened
to her? Was she sick? It was only a month or so ago that Katie had torn the pink thread from Miranda’s
wrist and tried to humiliate her in front of the whole school. Since she’d strolled around the pool in her bathers, her supermodel glow radiating in waves.

Katie wasn’t even a shadow of her former self. She was the whisper of a shadow.

The Mercury door swung open again and this time Miranda walked in, wearing one of Katie’s dresses. It bothered me, even though Katie and I had swapped clothes all the time when we were the
same size. Maybe it was that the dress would have been way too big for Katie now, and yet it fitted Miranda perfectly. In fact, it looked better than it had
ever
looked on Katie, especially
across the chest. You could feel everyone in the foyer turning to look. Miranda had become the sort of girl that people openly gaped at. And once their eyes were fixed on her, it was hard to look
away. Cameron, I noticed, didn’t even bother to try.

Miranda waltzed up and pushed her way between Cameron and Katie, draping an arm around each of them. ‘Hi, my honeys,’ she said. Cameron’s whole face glowed at her touch.
‘Do we have tickets?’

‘Not yet,’ said Cameron, the eager puppy. ‘I’ll go and get them now.’

Cameron unhooked his arm from around Katie and walked towards the counter. Katie swayed for a moment, then leant against the wall, her hands pressed against her concave stomach. I saw her say
something to Miranda. I couldn’t hear it, but it was clear from her eyes what she was saying.
‘I’m hungry.’

For a moment, Miranda crossed her arms and looked at Katie. But finally she sighed and walked briskly towards the snack bar where I was waiting, my hands pressed onto the smooth lino
surface.

‘I’ll take a bottle of water.’

I got a bottle from the fridge and took a choc-top out of the freezer, placing them in front of Miranda. She stared at the ice-cream, like it was something I’d just coughed up.

‘I didn’t ask for that,’ she said. ‘Just the water.’

‘It’s not for you,’ I said. ‘It’s for Katie. She always has one. This one’s on the house.’

I was suddenly determined for Katie to get her ice-cream. It was her first date night in weeks, and that probably meant her first non-diet food in ages too. It felt like some fundamental law of
nature would be upset if she didn’t get a choc-top.

‘You think I’m
stopping
her?’ said Miranda icily.

I leant forward on the counter. ‘I don’t know.
Are
you?’

Miranda held my gaze for a few seconds before swivelling round. ‘Hey, Katie? Honey? Do you want a choc-top?’

Katie was still leaning against the wall. But now her eyes were closed. A word formed on her lips. But the sound that came out didn’t match the expression of longing on her face.
‘No.’

Miranda turned back to me and smiled that victorious smile she’d recently perfected. She picked up the bottle of water and strolled off.

Fifteen minutes after Miranda had gone, I was still fuming, smarting from the humiliation of defeat. I just couldn’t shake it. So, after a bit of angry restocking – slamming down
coffee cups so hard they buckled – I went over to the freezer and fished out a fresh choc-top.

‘What are you plotting?’ asked Ami.

‘Katie is going to get an ice-cream,’ I said determinedly. ‘I’m going to deliver it myself.’

Ami frowned. ‘Aren’t we steering clear of Miranda?’

‘I’m not asking you to come with me,’ I said, heading towards the closed cinema doors. But Ami slid off the bench and followed me. Just as I knew she would.

My plan was pretty basic. Sneak into the cinema, wait until my eyes adjusted to the dark, locate Katie, deposit the ice-cream in her lap, and sneak out again. More complicated was my motive for
wanting to do it in the first place. Was it because Katie looked like she needed help? Or was it about proving something to Miranda? I decided not to dwell on it.

The soundtrack was blaring loudly as Ami and I slipped into the cinema. As my eyes adjusted, heads and shoulders of varying heights and widths began to emerge.

Ami nudged me. ‘Over there.’

Sure enough, up the back of the cinema, not far from where we were standing, were the outlines of a tall guy with a longhaired girl on either side of him. Katie had her head resting against
Cam’s shoulder and he had his arm draped around her neck. Miranda was slumped down in her seat. I smiled in the darkness.
Easy
. I could just lean over Katie’s shoulder and hand
her the ice-cream. But as I stepped forward Ami stopped me.

‘Something’s not right. It’s all around the wrong way.’

I peered at the three shapes again and saw what she meant. The girl with her head on Cameron’s shoulder – the one he was holding so close – wasn’t Katie. It was Miranda.
Katie was the one scrunched up in her seat. And when I edged a bit closer, I heard soft, snoring sounds coming from her. I hesitated. Should I shake Katie awake and tell her what was going on? I
curled my hand around the choc-top and the plastic wrapper crinkled. It wasn’t very loud, but it was enough to cause Miranda’s head to turn.

My eyes had adjusted to the gloom enough for me to see her face quite clearly. She looked at me, and when she smirked, it was clear she knew exactly what I’d been planning to do. I froze,
half-expecting her to speak, but she turned back again without saying a word. A moment later she gave a contented sigh and nuzzled her head deeper into Cameron’s shoulder.