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tight.
    ‘I still can’t believe she’s gone,’ I cry, my chin resting on his shoulder.
    ‘It’s alright,’ he says again, and I’m so thankful to him in that moment for having agreed to try to be my friend.
    But then it dawns on me that what I’m doing isn’t fair. I may have hurt him, but that doesn’t mean the feelings he had for me are gone.
    And I realise at that moment that my feelings for him haven’t left me, either, even though I’ve chosen to be with someone else.
    I blink and try to pull myself together, but, as I step back from Tom, I see Jack about twenty metres away, staring straight at us. And he does not look happy.
    ‘Jessie!’ Natalie shouts from the entrance to the igloo. Her eyes dart between Tom and me as she hurriedly beckons for me to go inside. When I look towards Jack again, he’s
gone. I brush away my tears and move in a daze towards her.
    ‘
Where is she?
’ I hear Johnny’s voice come over the sound system as I walk inside. The music is no longer playing.
    ‘She’s here!’ someone shouts and, as the crowd parts to let me through, I see Johnny standing on a small stage near the DJ decks, holding a microphone. ‘There she
is,’ my dad says in his familiar, deep drawl. ‘I thought I was going to have to send out a search party. Come through, Jessie.’
    I do as he says, my cheeks flaming as a hundred pairs of eyes turn to look at me. When I get closer, I notice that the drum kit from Johnny’s music studio has been brought out here, and
there’s an amp hooked up to what looks like…
Jack’s guitar
?
    ‘Now I know that you should really be up here instead of me,’ Johnny says as my All Hype bandmates come through the igloo’s rear entrance and take to the stage. Brandon and
Miles grin at me as the former picks up his bass guitar and the latter sits down behind the drum kit and twirls his drumsticks in his fingers.
    Jack is stony-faced as he slips his guitar strap over his head.
    Johnny continues. ‘But do your old man’s ego a favour and let me sing you a song for your birthday.’
    There are a few ‘aahs’ from the audience and then all noise is drowned out as Miles starts to hammer out a beat and Brandon comes in on the bass and I know exactly where
they’re going with this, because it’s one of my favourite All Hype songs. It’s called ‘Birthday Girl’ and it’s an ironic punk-rock number that’s guaranteed
to get people jumping.
    Johnny launches into the lyrics and, even though I hate that Jack is angry with me, I can’t help but clap my hand over my mouth and laugh at the sight of my famous dad singing an All Hype
track. At that moment, Jack lifts his eyes to meet mine, and the corners of his lips tilt up at the sight of me smiling. I beam back at him, relieved that he’s not glaring at me, and he steps
forward to his mic to sing backing vocals, never taking his eyes from mine.
    Christ, he is so sexy
.
    ‘I can see why you fancy him!’ Natalie shouts in my ear. I didn’t realise she’d come up to the front with me and I’m so happy to see her. I grab her arm and squeeze
it.
    ‘Seriously! Hot!’ she yells, as I flash her a grin and remind her to ‘
Shh!
’
    It’s then that I notice the sea of smartphones and the rapt faces around us.
    When the song ends, everyone bursts into applause and starts cheering, me included.
    ‘Get up here,’ Johnny says to me, jerking his head towards the stage. I hope he doesn’t want me to sing. There is no way in hell I’m singing.
    But then from out of the back door comes Eddie, our cook, carrying an enormous three-tiered chocolate birthday cake, its top tier alight with large candles. The band strikes up again and Johnny
reaches for my hand to pull me up on the stage while he sings ‘Happy Birthday’ straight to my face and everyone else joins in. I am so embarrassed, but he’s really ramping up the
‘aw’ factor so it’s kind of cute, too.
    Eddie comes towards me with the cake, and as I step