Each of the books in the Ashes to Ashes series can be read as a stand-alone suspense thriller. Bad Things Happen (book #1) is Joey Baptiste’s story; Less You Know (book #2) is Allie Brown’s story. If you like the sound of my Ashes to Ashes series the eBooks can be found exclusively on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. My print books are available everywhere. Just ask you friendly bookstore owner.
As you may know by now, Less You Know is about the disappearance of central character Charlotte Ashe’s bestfriend Allie Brown.
Today I wanted to share with you some of the experiences that helped inform the relationship between Allie and Charlotte.
When I sat down to write this I intended it to be a little less personal, to talk about relationships in general terms. That came out a little staid, to say the least. And as I sighed in frustration, I remembered with vivid clarity an incident between me and my best friend at high school (one I had all but forgotten) which nonetheless helped shape Allie’s relationship with Charlotte.
Below is that story.
Keep reading for a tale of me and my childhood bestie…
Me and my Bestie
At school did you have one special friend with whom you shared your secrets or deepest desires? Did they keep those secrets or did they whisper them to someone else? How did they react if that secret was exposed?
My first bestie was Lyn. She was the daughter of one of Mum’s friends. Mum and ‘Aunty’ Dorothy met when they were both pregnant and as their offspring were around the same age and both families had similar backgrounds we spent a lot of time together.
Lyn and I were best friends all through our formative years.
Though we lived near each other, Lyn and I went to different schools. As far as we were concerned that was a disaster of epic proportions. We longed to spend more time together. Being with each other every waking hour of every weekend was just not enough.
Lyn was the only girl in her family. Her parents often allowed me to stay for the weekend and like true sisters we shared a room, giggling over stupid things, singing into a hairbrush pretending to be “Abba”, and giving her two brothers a hard time. I was also invited to join them for holidays to keep Lyn company. It was a charmed life. We played together, rode horses together, swam together, laughed, argued, and made up.
I think I spent more of my pre-teen years in their home than in mine.
Then finally it happened: Lyn and I were to attend the same highschool. We were in raptures although no self-respecting twelve-year-old would have owned up to that. But we were. At least for the first term.
Trouble started early.
Perhaps it had started even before that. The year before I started highschool my parents upped sticks and dragged the family ‘back home’ to England. We lived in my grandparent’s Victorian row house in Portsmouth (the house that is the inspiration for Allie’s home in Less You Know) and stayed for a year, almost to the day. My parents realised they identified more as “Aussie” than “Pommie” and took us all home again.
Maybe that year was when my bestie and I began to grow in different directions. When I returned home things were just not the same between us though we did’nt acknowledge it. After a year apart it was bound to be different.
To enter highschool (year 8) we had to sit a test and were assigned a class ‘level’ based on the results. Top results got in Year 8 level 1 (8.1) and then into 8.2, 8.3, and so on until all students were assigned. Talk about being pigeon-holed before you’ve even begun! I was assigned to 8.1 and Lyn was in 8.3. We still weren’t in the same class, but the classrooms were in the same block and at least we could hangout at lunch and recess and every day after school.
But that wasn’t the only crack in our relationship.
It turned out ‘high school Lyn’ was cool.
My introverted, glasses-wearing, book-nerdy self was definitely not. I was Daria without the sarcasm! And if a boy paid me attention I became a stammering mess. Lyn had boyfriends. I had silent crushes. Lyn excelled at sport. I was last to be picked (and glad of it). It didn’t take long for us to drift toward other friends, and over time those new friends had less and less in common.
For that first year we clung to our friendship and tried to ignore that our bestie wasn’t the person we thought she was.
And then one day during lunch break in the school yard I foolishly shared with her my most embrassing secret.
Can you guess where this is going? …
My secret was a crush on one of the older boys. A cool boy. Vito. He just had to look my way and I couldn’t lift my eyes off my shoes. My face became a beacon of embarrassment. It was probably obvious to anyone to cared to look, but no-one did. And I was so glad they didn’t. We introverts are generally happy to remain invisible.
One lunchtime Lyn teased me about not having a boyfriend and how nerdy I was and I blurted out my secret crush.
“Vito” she cried. ‘Eew. How can you like Vito? He’s gross.”
To me it sounded like she’d taken to the loudspeaker. All eyes turned our way. Or so it seemed. I shushed her and waited for the earth to open up, for teams of jeering teenagers to descend with pointing fingers, for all my peers to laugh out loud. Nothing happened. We went in for afternoon classes and it was all forgotten.
But the next day…
We were walking through the lunch shed into the main building. We’d argued about something, probably my lack of a boyfriend, so we were a bit terse with each other and I was lagging behind. Just as Lyn opened the door to the main building three boys walked out—Vito and his two beefy mates. My gaze hit my shoes. I shrank behind my cloak of invisibility and waited for them to pass.
“You’re that girl who’s got a crush on Vito,” one of them said.
Seriously, I nearly died!
Oh God, how did they know? What would I say? What would hesay?!
My gaze shot up. My mouth was dry. I went hot all over though it was winter and raining.
One of them had hold of Lyn’s jumper and wouldn’t let go. Vito, all cool hair and confidence, grinned down at her from his exalted height. Red-faced and angry, she let rip with language ripe enough to leave him in no doubt she found him utterly repulsive. The entire time I held my breath waiting for her to tell them it was me, wanting to run but unable to move, wishing I had the courage to defend her and tell the truth yet absolutely certain she was going to throw me under the bus.
She never did. Vito and his mates slunk off. I’d had a lucky escape. And it cured my crush in one fell swoop.
You never forget…
I’ve never forgotten how it felt to stand there yearning to be seen yet longing just as hard to remain invisible. And I’ve never forgotten that envy-tinged awe I had for my friend who seemed to have it all together while I struggled to find myself.
Much of those feelings I gave to Allie. Poor thing. I really hamstrung her. But as is often the way when writing, her character blossomed in ways I couldn’t forsee and her story became far more layered than I had intended.
In Less You Know, she and Charlotte share the story. We get to know Allie as Charlotte searches for her and comes to the realisation that maybe she doesn’t know her best friend as well as she thought.
About the Series
The central character is the Ashes to Ashes series is Charlotte Ashe, an ambitious journalist who begins the series trapped in the role of weahter girl and the light relief. A role she detests. Ashes to Ashes follows her journey in pursuit of her longing to be a respected investigative reporter. in a world that values immediacy and opinion over resource and labour-intensive investigation.
As the series progresses, new characters enter and leave.
Each of the books in the Ashes to Ashes series can be read as a stand-alone suspense thriller. Bad Things Happen (book #1) is Joey Baptiste’s story; Less You Know (book #2) is Allie Brown’s story. If you like the sound of my Ashes to Ashes series the eBooks can be found exclusively on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. My print books are available everywhere. Just ask you friendly bookstore owner.
About Rowena Holloway
I consider myself a reformed academic who discovered fiction writing was preferable to the real world. My love of suspense fiction is thoroughly indulged through writing novels and short stories about Fractured Families and Killer Secrets. My novels have been nominated for the Ned Kelly Award and semi-finaled in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and my short stories have been included in several anthologies including the Anthology of Award Winning Australian Writing. I also review my favourite books, interview fellow writers, and blog about books and writing.
- the links to various sites in this article are purely for your convenience. I do am not affilliated with any businesses and do not generate income when you click a link.
