She had offered him a shy smile but although Connor’s mouth wanted to break into a huge grin he didn’t let it, wondering whether he’d cleaned his teeth properly, if at all. As she sat down, he raised his arm to scratch his head but he didn’t have an itch. He was checking to see if his armpits smelled fresh.

They didn’t.

He had kept his elbows pinned to his sides for the rest of the lesson, his eyes lost in the silky sheet of her hair and then Connor was imagining different sheets.

His bed.

Her lying next to him, kissing, touching, the curves that were so different to his last date, Sasha, who had told him he could put his hands under her T-shirt. Her body had been hard, angular, Connor’s fingers had brushed against ribs and he hadn’t felt turned on in the slightest. Hailey’s body was different. His eyes lingered on the middle of her back where he could see the outline of her bra strap. He imagined unhooking it, sliding the straps from her shoulders. His lips kissing her neck as his hands—

‘Connor!’ Mrs Webb shouted and instantly he covered his lap with his hands, shame burning his cheeks.

Don’t ask me to come to the front. Don’t ask me to come to the front.

‘I said you’ve got a good grasp of perspectives. Hailey’s last school hasn’t gone as in-depth as we have with viewpoints. Can you catch her up?’

‘Suppose.’ He shrugged but on the inside he was singing and dancing and turning cartwheels of joy.

The second he’d said yes was the start of something, he knew. But with hindsight, if he had known how it would turn out, the tragedy that would occur, he’d have said no. Of course he would. The year he’d spent with Hailey was the best year of his life but he’d give it all up in a heartbeat, however much it hurt, to keep her safe.

‘Oi!’ A shout yanks Connor back to the present. Tyler is already rising to his feet as Amber’s boyfriend, Dino, jogs towards Connor. ‘Sitting there like you haven’t a fucking care in the world.’ He places his hands under the bag and thrusts upwards so Connor is covered with chips and ketchup. Connor stands, but before he can react, Dino shoves his chest and he stumbles back against the bus shelter, the sharp corner of the bench driving into his back, his head hitting the pavement as he tumbles to the ground. He winces in pain.

‘Hey!’ Ryan grabs Dino. There’s a scramble and Ryan’s blazer tears.

‘Fuck off.’ Tyler is pushing Dino away. Amber is crying into a tissue. She won’t look at Connor and he wants to tell her he is sorry but he knows she is not the one he really wants to tell.