Playlist for a Broken Heart (6 page)

‘It’s OK,’ I said. ‘My friend Allegra often said the same – that I hadn’t found my style yet – so I’m not offended.’

Clover got up. ‘OK, Paige, so get your lippie on. Tasmin and I are going to take you into town and we can look in some shops and try on some different styles.’

‘And show you some of the boy talent in Bath,’ added Tasmin.

I didn’t like to refuse, seeing as they were being so friendly, and I liked Clover from our short meeting. I obliged by smearing on a bit of lip gloss then set off with the girls to
explore my new city.

We caught the bus to the centre of town and, as I gazed out of the window, I began to remember that there was more to Bath than just what was around where Tasmin lived. The bus
passed a park and children’s playground to our left where I could vaguely remember playing with Tasmin when we were small. We passed a row of terraced houses all with signs advertising B and
B outside. Then rows of streets lined with tall, honey-coloured houses began to appear. They looked like something from a period costume drama and I could see more houses with the same stone
nestling in woodland on hills to the right behind the town. Very pretty, I thought as we got off the bus opposite an Odeon cinema complex and walked through a square lined with shops and
cafés.

Tasmin pointed out a café to our right. ‘Good tea and cakes in there.’

There were a number of eateries around the square, some with tables and chairs outside, all occupied with people enjoying the mild weather between the showers. The place had a buzz about it,
with a market stall in the middle selling fruit and vegetables, and benches where students sat eating pizza or tortillas from the Mexican restaurant nearby.

‘Is this where you hang out?’ I asked.

‘Sometimes, but we cruise all over. We like to go to McDonald’s too,’ replied Tasmin. ‘Everyone does.’

‘We always see someone we know in there,’ Clover added. ‘And sometimes we hang out on the turf in the middle of the shopping centre. It’s paved so no cars go there and
there’s this fake grass with deck chairs on it in the warm weather. We also like to go up to the Royal Crescent. There’s a huge park in front of it and people hang out there too.
We’ll show you one day.’

‘Royal Crescent?’ I asked.

Tasmin rolled her eyes. ‘Haven’t you heard of it? Big curved row of houses at the top of Bath? It’s famous. There are loads of other crescents too.’

‘Eight in all,’ said Clover, ‘not loads. She always exaggerates everything.’

‘People come from all over the world to see the architecture here,’ said Tasmin. ‘That’s not an exaggeration.’

‘Let’s take her to the square next to the Abbey,’ said Clover as we came into a street lined with shops. ‘It’s a good place to hang out and listen to live music
– someone’s always playing there. Take no notice of Tasmin, Paige. Why should you know about the Royal Crescent if you’ve never lived here?’

‘It’s not such a bad place to live,’ said Tasmin. ‘OK yeah, there’s all the history stuff but there’s a good music scene here, though Bristol is better. Mum
and Dad don’t like me going there any more though, since I went to a gig with a bunch of mates and didn’t get back to Bath til past midnight. They had to pick me up from the train
station. I was so in the doghouse that week.’

As we turned into a pedestrianised street, to our right, a woman in her twenties was singing opera in a very wobbly voice. ‘God, she warbles,’ said Tasmin in a voice loud enough for
the street performer to hear. ‘I’d like to shoot her.’

Clover sighed. ‘Little Miss Subtle with her opinions,’ she said.

‘I’m beginning to realise,’ I replied, though I quite liked Tasmin being so outspoken. I didn’t have to worry about what she was thinking because it was out before she
could stop herself, so I knew exactly what was going on in her head.

‘Take no notice of her. I quite often pretend I’m not with her,’ said Clover.

Ahead of us, a bunch of boys and girls were sitting on benches by a hot sausage stall. One of them looked like the boy I’d seen yesterday outside the house. He had his arm around a girl
with short chestnut-coloured hair. She wasn’t either of the girls I’d seen him with before. He saw me staring so I quickly turned away. He might be good-looking but he was clearly a
love rat and I didn’t want him thinking I was a contender for his list of conquests. I caught up with Tasmin and Clover and we took a left through some pillars to find there was a huge Abbey
in front of us, and an open square to our right.

‘Wow, this is
amazing
,’ I said as I looked around. The Abbey was an impressive building with enormous wooden doors, and to the left and right of them were tall ladders with
statues of people, carved in stone, climbing their way to the top. In front, a crowd was watching a human statue that was sprayed from head to toe in silver paint. He was totally still despite
having a pigeon balanced on his hat. A bunch of Japanese tourists took turns having their photo taken with him and even then he didn’t move. I took a quick photo on my phone to send to
Allegra. To our right was a long line of tourists queuing.

‘Where are they going?’ I asked.

‘The Pump Room or the Roman Baths I guess,’ said Clover.

‘You get posh tea in the Pump Room,’ said Tasmin as we went over and looked through tall windows into what looked like a ballroom. It was filled with tables laid with white cloths
and waiters in black-and-white uniforms rushing around carrying silver trays and serving customers. ‘The tourists love it.’

I glanced behind me to see if the group of boys and girls by the sausage stand were still there but they’d moved on.

‘Er . . . That boy next door to you. Who is he?’ I asked.

‘Boy next door? To us at home you mean?’ Tasmin replied.

I nodded.

‘Do you mean to the right? You must because there’s only a pair of wrinklies on the left – Mr and Mrs Carson.’

‘Yes, to the right.’

‘What does he look like?’

‘Tall. Brown, medium-length hair. Maybe about eighteen. I only got a glimpse of him.’

‘You must mean Niall Peterson. Have you met him already? God, he’s fast, but then that’s Niall.’

‘I haven’t met him. I just saw him yesterday when I was looking out the window. What’s he like?’

Tasmin raised an eyebrow. ‘Don’t tell me you fancy him?’

‘No way.’

‘Good, because he’s so full of himself. Thinks he’s so cool.’

‘You used to think so too Tas,’ said Clover.

‘Duh. Only about a million years ago. That was back in Year Seven when I didn’t know any better. So why do you want to know about him, Paige?’

‘Oh no reason,’ I said. ‘Just wondering who he was, that’s all.’

Clover and Tasmin looked at each other. ‘She fancies him,’ they said in unison.

‘I
don’t
,’ I said. ‘I can assure you he is about as far from my type as possible.’

‘Yeah right,’ they both said in unison.

I could see that protesting was only making things worse, so I decided to give up. They’d realise soon enough I wasn’t interested in the creep next door.

‘So what is your type?’ asked Clover.

I shrugged. ‘I . . . I’m not really into boys.’

‘You a lezzer?’ asked Tasmin. ‘It’s OK if you are. Susie Railston at our school is and she’s one of the coolest girls in our year.’

‘No, it’s not that. Just . . . I have better things to think about than whether some stupid boy has noticed me or not.’

‘Good for you, Paige,’ said Clover. ‘You’re very sensible. Boys mainly do your head in.’

Tasmin looked me up and down. ‘Yes. Sensible, that’s a good word to describe you.’ I knew she was talking about my dress sense as well as anything else. I wished I
wasn’t. I’d like to be cool and stylish like Clover or a tad wilder like Tasmin, but I didn’t want to copy either of them. I wanted to be me, a new me, the real me – but I
didn’t know who that was. ‘But there must have been someone in London? Some secret crush?’

I didn’t want to seem straight and boring so decided to tell her about Alex. ‘There was one boy. I really liked him. He never noticed me until recently. I’d just got the part
of Juliet in the school play and he was going to play Romeo, but it never happened . . . because of the move.’

Tasmin and Clover looked at me sympathetically. ‘Oh bummer,’ said Clover and she put her arm around me and gave me a squeeze.

‘Lezzers,’ said Tasmin.

Clover let go of me, pursed her lips and went to kiss Tasmin but she ducked away.

I laughed and it felt good to be with them joshing each other and, for the first time in weeks, I felt myself relax slightly. Maybe it would be all right in Bath after all.

My spirits rose as we made our way further up into the town. There were some of the usual shops you see in every city – Next, BHS, Gap, Office shoes, The Body Shop –but as we went
higher up the road and through a narrow lane, there were little boutiques, jewellery shops, all with windows full of knick-knacks, linens, soaps, bath gels. The area was heaving with people looking
at the displays, and it was obviously a great place for shopping. I glimpsed a girl with blonde hair ahead of us. She looked exactly like Allegra from the back. I knew it couldn’t be her and
felt a pang of missing her.
I wish she was here
, I thought.
We could have explored together
.

We walked into the square to the right of the Abbey, which was lined with benches, most occupied by people watching a couple with guitars in the middle. Some people were eating ice creams,
others just sitting watching. To our right, I noticed a line of Italian-looking statues high above a wall.

‘What’s in there?’ I asked.

‘The Roman Baths,’ replied Clover. ‘Lots of bits of ancient stones and stuff and a huge pool full of water. It’s quite interesting but a bit hot and smelly. Bath water
has sulphur in it and smells of bad eggs.’

Tasmin laughed. ‘Sell it to her, why don’t you?’ she said. ‘Actually it’s interesting in there if you like learning about history.’

We crossed the square, took a left down a narrow street and the area opened up again. Opposite were the green hills I’d seen from the bus and it looked like there were some lovely old
houses there, all built in the soft honey-stone that I was beginning to see was typical of the area.

We crossed the road and watched tourists get on a red open-topped, double-decker tourist bus to our right. We leant against a wall and looked below where there was a sunken park and beyond that
was a river with a weir. On the opposite bank, a couple of double-decked boats were filling up with more tourists.

‘This is a real holiday place, isn’t it?’ I commented. ‘I don’t think I ever realised when we visited you before.’

‘Understatement,’ said Clover. ‘The tourists are here all year round.’

‘To your left is Pulteney Bridge,’ said Tasmin putting on a loud tour-guide type voice, which caused some people to turn and look at her. ‘Famous because it has shops on it.
Apparently there are only two others like it in the world.’

‘One is in Florence,’ I said.

‘Ooh, get you, clever clogs,’ said Tasmin. ‘Jane Austen lived here once so the tourists come to see all her hang-out places too, not just the Roman parts. There’s even a
day when people dress up in clothes from that period and parade around like a bunch of tossers.’

‘Seriously?’ I asked.

Tasmin nodded. ‘It’s called the Regency parade. It happens every June. We should make sure we’re around this year so we can have a laugh watching everyone.’

‘Some of them look mad in the bonnets and the feathers, but those high breeches and long coats look pretty hot on some boys,’ said Clover. ‘Have you been to Italy,
Paige?’

I nodded but didn’t elaborate in case she thought I was showing off. I’d been to Venice last year, Tuscany to stay in an old farmhouse the year before, Florence, Sicily, Sardinia,
the Amalfi coast and Ravello in years before that. Mum and Dad loved Italy.

‘I’m going to go one day,’ said Tasmin. ‘I want to travel the world.’

I thought it best not to say I’d also been to India, Peru and the Seychelles. We’d had two holidays a year for as long as I could remember.
No more of those either
, I
thought as Tasmin and Clover moved off again.

We walked up and down lanes, through an indoor market, then stopped for a cappuccino at a café at the top of the town where there were even more shops and cafés. I couldn’t
wait to report back to Allegra that first impressions were good. Very good. Bath was buzzing.

Along the way, I learnt that Clover was in a relationship with a boy called Chas who was at Bath Spa University. He was eighteen and a musician who played gigs and earned a fortune busking at
the weekends. Tasmin had just broken up with a guy called Stu after three months because ‘the spark had gone’, though apparently he wanted her back. He was a musician too and played in
the same band as Chas. Tasmin had had six boyfriends so far. ‘A sl-ut,’ said Clover, though none of them sounded that serious or like they’d lasted that long.

Clover seemed to have quite a relationship history too, with four ex-boyfriends, all who’d lasted about four months. I felt inexperienced and naïve as I listened to them talk about
boys, school and future plans. Tasmin wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she left school, but a gap year travelling in the Far East was high on the list, and Clover wanted to do something
in fashion when she went to college and maybe have her own vintage clothes shop.

‘What about you, Paige?’ asked Clover.

‘I want to study literature or art,’ I said, ‘though I’m not really sure yet.’

‘Literature,’ mimicked Tasmin.

‘Don’t be mean,’ said Clover.

Tasmin rolled her eyes. ‘Sorry, Paige but you don’t half sound posh. Lit-er-a-
ture
.’

I ignored her. I was starting to realise she didn’t intend to be mean. She just said what popped into her head. ‘Not sure what I’ll do with it. Maybe write, but I’m not
sure what yet, or paint . . .’

‘Write about us,’ said Tasmin. ‘Can we be in your first novel?’

‘Deffo,’ I said as we stopped to listen to a boy standing in the middle of the pavement at the top of town. He was playing guitar and singing his heart out.