Barnaby Rudge: At the beginning? It's a very good place to start. Did okay for Julie Andrews, didn't it?

Joey: LOL. Yeah, I guess.

Barnaby Rudge: Try me. I'm very good at dilemmas. Well, usually.

Joey: I found something out about someone and I don't know what to do about it.

Barnaby Rudge: Well, share! I'll help you decide what to do. Well, hopefully!

Joey: You might not like this, though. It's about you and Fickle.

I frowned at the computer screen. Me and Fickle?

Barnaby Rudge: Go on.

Joey: More specifically Fickle.

Barnaby Rudge: Fickle? What about Fickle?

Joey: And I don't really know how to tell you about what I found out about her.

Barnaby Rudge: I'm listening.

Joey: It's difficult...

Barnaby Rudge: Jeez, Joe! Just cut to the chase, will you?

Joey: Fickle. I think she's cheating on you, Imms.

Chapter Sixteen.

I stared at Joey's words in front of me, my mouth slightly open, my heart caught well and truly in my throat. Fickle, cheating on me?

Barnaby Rudge: What are you talking about, Joe?

Joey: Don't get angry with me. Promise you won't get angry with me?

Barnaby Rudge: I can't promise anything.

Joey: Then I won't tell you.

Barnaby Rudge: Oh, you will! You can't tell me you think Fickle's cheating on me then not tell me anything about it.

Joey: I don't want to upset you.

Barnaby Rudge: Then why bring it up in the first place??

Joey: 'Cos I've been wrestling with it for days and I know things and I think you should know them too. Specially 'cos you like Fickle so much. It's only fair.

Like Fickle? I loved Fickle. At least I thought I did.

Barnaby Rudge: So tell me what you've "found out" then.

Joey: I post on another website as well as the L&S one. Another one dedicated to Jess and Ali from Lovers and Sinners, you knew that, yeah?

Barnaby Rudge: OK.

Joey: And they have a message board there as well, kinda like the one we all post on.

Barnaby Rudge: OK.

Joey: And last week I saw Fickle's name on there.

I laughed.

Barnaby Rudge: She's allowed to, you know! And, y'know, it could have been another Fickle.

Joey: I know, but it wasn't, I checked. It was her. Same e-mail address, same location, same date of birth, everything.

Barnaby Rudge: Why did you check?

Joey: Because she was flirting on there like there was no tomorrow.

Barnaby Rudge: So she likes to flirt! I knew that when I hooked up with her! That's what made me fall for her in the first place, Joe!

Joey: But she was flirting with one girl on there in particular. Like, PROPER flirting.

A whooshing sound enveloped me and I realised it was blood pumping furiously in my head. I stared at Joey's words.

Barnaby Rudge: What a crock of shit! I don't believe you.

Joey: Why would I lie? I'm not doing this to hurt you!

Barnaby Rudge: I dunno. 'Cos you're sore about Claire? 'Cos you think everyone's like Claire and cheats? You tell me.

Joey: Don't be like this, Imms. I'm telling you 'cos I don't want you getting hurt.

Barnaby Rudge: Even though you're talking bollocks? Fickle wouldn't do that to me. She loves me, she told me.

I looked down and saw that my hands were shaking. My breath was getting faster and faster and I suddenly felt like the room was going round. Without waiting for Joey to reply, I quickly typed: Barnaby Rudge: So what was it that Fickle was supposedly saying to this other girl? I assume it was a girl?

Joey: Yeah, it was a girl. It was just dead flirty, very sexual, you know? She was telling her she missed her and couldn't stop thinking about her. You want me to show you the link, if you don't believe me?

Barnaby Rudge: Why not? It'll all be a mistake so I'm not bothered what you do.

The truth was, I felt sick. Staring dumbly at the screen, I suddenly said to Joey: Barnaby Rudge: Still could have been someone pretending to be Fickle. Why would Fickle go onto another board and start flirting with someone else when she knows I could see it? It's a bit public, isn't it?

Yeah, I know. It was desperate, but what was I supposed to do? I was clasping at straws right now.

Joey: I don't know, Imms! Maybe she just doesn't care? Who knows what goes on inside her head?

I watched as Joey posted the link to the website and read her last message again. Who knows what goes on inside her head? Not me, obviously.

Barnaby Rudge: If it's her, then that would show I don't know her as well as I thought I did, huh?

Joey: Go read it, Imms. It's deffo her. I got chatting to someone who knew the girl that Fickle was flirting with on MSN and asked her if she knew what Fickle's real name was. She told me it was Gemma. That's Fickle's real name, isn't it?

I paused.

Barnaby Rudge: Yeah.

Joey: I'm sorry, Imms. Seems Fickle ain't what you think she is.

I thought for a minute.

Barnaby Rudge: Yeah. Listen, Joe, I'm gonna go. See ya.

Without waiting for a reply, I minimised MSN and walked slowly to my bed, kinda in a daze. My phone rang pretty much immediately, but when I saw it was Joey ringing me, I cancelled the call and switched the phone off, flinging myself down onto my bed, and my phone to the floor. I lay there for a while, hands folded behind my head, just staring up at the ceiling, my mind blank. Finally I closed my eyes and let the tears that had been threatening for the last ten minutes come streaming down my cheeks.

After an hour of just lying there, turning things over and over in my head until I was beginning to think I was incapable of rational thoughts anymore, I suddenly got back up and went over to my computer, which was still switched on. I maximised MSN again and found the link that Joey had sent me, directing me straight to the Ali and Jess website's message board.

Joey had made a mistake, that was all there was to it. Fickle wouldn't do this-not to me. Not wanting to, but knowing that I had to, I scrolled down the numerous threads and messages until I found what I was looking for: Username = Fickle.

There she was. Attached to her name were, like, about thirty or so threads and messages; it looked like she'd been busy over the past few days. Almost as if I was on autopilot, I clicked on some of her messages and read them, my heart racing, my hands shaking. There were messages, dozens of them, to someone called LisaD, and as I read them in silence, I could feel the tears that had only just dried up ten minutes before start to fall down my cheeks again.

There was no mistaking that it was Fickle. I recognised the words, the style of writing, the flirting, the winking signs-everything she'd been doing to me over the last month, she was now doing to LisaD. I couldn't stop reading their messages to each other, almost as if I wanted to punish myself, like I wanted to prove to myself what an idiot I'd been. Then I saw that she'd posted a message only about a few hours ago-when she'd told me she had been too busy to talk to me on MSN.

A message from Twiggy flashing in the corner of my screen suddenly caught my eye. I'd been so engrossed in what I'd been reading I hadn't even noticed that she'd logged on. I didn't want to speak to her and really wished I'd killed MSN or set my status to Away, or whatever. But it was too late. Her message was there waiting for me.

Twiggy: Hey, BR! How are you?

Did she know? Did Twiggy know? I was being paranoid! How could she know?

Barnaby Rudge: Twiggy.

Twiggy: How's your day been?

Barnaby Rudge: OK till now. Now it's shit.

I carried on reading Fickle's messages to LisaD, not wanting to, but unable to stop myself. It was like torture, but something seemed to force me to keep reading.

Twiggy: Wassup?

How would Twiggy understand? She always thought it was wrong anyway, me and Fickle. Just how the hell would she understand?

Barnaby Rudge: Nothing. S'OK.

Twiggy: I'm here if you wanna talk?

Barnaby Rudge: Have you seen Joey on here in the last hour?

Twiggy: No, but then I only logged on five minutes ago.

Barnaby Rudge: Yeah, course. Sorry.

Twiggy: You got a message for her, in case I see her later?

I frowned, suddenly angry.

Barnaby Rudge: Yeah, tell her from me that in the future she needs to butt out of my business.

There was a long pause.

Twiggy: Erk! Everything okay with you guys?

Barnaby Rudge: Not now, no.

There was a long pause, then suddenly: Twiggy: How's Fickle?

WTF?? Why was she asking me that? We were talking about Joey and now she was asking me about Fickle. Why? Because she knew.

Barnaby Rudge: Why you asking?

Twiggy: Just am.

Barnaby Rudge: Joey's told you, then?

There was another pause. Real long this time.

Twiggy: Yeah.

Barnaby Rudge: Why did she have to tell people? I suppose you're all laughing at me now, aren't you? Stupid, dumb Imogen gets taken in by a girl she'd never even fucking-well met and then meets her, falls for her, hook, line, and sinker, and then finds out a week later the girl's doing the same thing to someone else. Brilliant! Couldn't make it up, that one.

Twiggy: It wasn't just you that Fickle did it to, if that's any consolation.

Barnaby Rudge: What?? Ohhh it just gets better! Do tell!

Twiggy: And no one's laughing at you, BR.