Heartbreak Era – Sophie Jo

Even in the more forgiving light of the entrance hall, the sweaty sheen from earlier has remained, and I think he knows it, because he lifts up an arm and uses it to mop at his brow. “Seth?” I pull my eyes away from his glistening forehead and see Gen – who, unsurprisingly, isn’t sporting one of her own. Her blunt hair has been pulled back with a claw clip and she’s changed from her white cotton dress into a pair of heather-grey jogging bottoms, paired with a black bra top.

“Oh, God,” says Seth, as if his thoughts have forced their way out of his mouth. “It’s you.” He suddenly becomes very aware of his paper cup, waving it around as he searches for somewhere to dispose of it. I offer out a hand, like a mum with a sweet-wrapper-discarding toddler. “Of course it’s me,” says Gen, her forehead crumpling slightly. “You knew I was performing tonight. What are you doing here? Why are you dressed like a funeral director?” Seth ignores the second question and takes one step closer to me.

“Our friend Lyndsey—” “Lucy,” I say, cutting across him. He waves a hand. “Lucy. Our good friend Lucy was performing, so we wanted to come along and support, didn’t we? Show some school spirit.” Gen makes a questioning sound and narrows her eyes. “That’s right … pookie,” I say, grabbing the crook of his arm like he’s an old lady I’m helping into a car.

Why I opt for pookie, I have no idea, and I’m guessing Seth doesn’t either, because he flashes a pained look in my direction and simply mouths, No. “Greaaaat,” says Gen, stretching the word out like it’s the first time she’s ever used it. She turns to look at Seth, twisting a gold hoop between finger and thumb.

“Seth, are you doing OK? After … everything. You seem a little frantic.” She’s right – he does. I mean, Seth’s always a little frantic, but after the way he acted when he met Freddie in the cafe, I’d expected a direct repeat for Gen. Hair twizzling, low-murmuring, all-the-time-in-the-world energy. This is the total opposite. This is knee-tapping, hands-shaking, teeth- chattering panic. “Frantic?” He rests a hand on my shoulder. “I’m alive with the glory of love, actually. I’m amped. I’m flourishing.” Gen puts an unconvinced hand on an unconvinced hip and scrutinizes him.

“You’re flourishing?” “Of course. If you hadn’t ended things with me, I’d never have met my Harley.” Gen flits her full attention to me now; her razor-sharp jawbone rotates back in my direction and her eyes scan me up and down. I don’t know what to do or say about this, so I offer her an awkward little bow, like a medieval jester, and immediately regret my decision.

“Hey, Vie, you want a drink?” says a deep voice behind us.

is a writer of YA fiction from the West Midlands, where she lives with her husband and a shy-but-kooky calico cat. Sophie is passionate about making sure teenagers know the difference between healthy love and straight-up- horrible-times-disguised-as-love. She’s worked with domestic violence charity Women’s Aid to spread the word via the Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan and BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.

In her spare time, Sophie likes visiting Disneyland, overanalysing cult noughties TV show The OC, and writing about relationships – of all kinds – for publications including Breathe Magazine and the Metro. OceanofPDF.com OTHER BOOKS BY SOPHIE JO Red Flags OceanofPDF.com OceanofPDF.com Published in the UK by Scholastic, 2026 This electronic edition published by Scholastic, 2026 Scholastic, Bosworth Avenue, Warwick, CV34 6UQ Scholastic Ireland, 89E Lagan Road, Dublin Industrial Estate, Glasnevin, Dublin, D11 HP5F SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

Text © Sophie Jo, 2026 Cover illustration by Bodil Jane © Scholastic, 2026 Author photo © Tania Gandrabur The moral rights of the author and photographer have been asserted by them. eISBN 978 0702 34513 5 iISBN 978 0702 34514 2 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non- transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen.

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This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 17eaa6d5ef3c3789
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,970,360 bytes (1.879 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9780702345135, 9780702345142
• Pages: 220
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 363.06 minutes
• Total Words: 72,613
• Total Characters: 392,356
• Average Words per Page: 330.06
• Average Characters per Page: 1783.44

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