Danny Gillespie had been in the year above them at school – the same year as Cass – but had left at the end of the Easter term, less than halfway through A-levels, because his parents were moving back to America. By some kind of odd, unspoken osmosis, he had been selected by almost every girl in their year as the boy to take their virginity. The girls who wanted to lose theirs, in any case; which was only a handful. As the two oldest in their year, Georgie and Helena had been the first. Danny Gillespie was mild and sweet-looking, with a nose like a button mushroom, and his accent was a turn-on. But it was tacitly agreed that he wasn’t the sort of boy you’d fall in love with.

‘Oh goodness, so much better. No comparison. Better than Piers, too. And I thought he was pretty OK.’

Georgie had not much enjoyed her two-night stand with Danny Gillespie, the second evening an attempt to improve upon the rather sore and unsatisfactory event of the first. She had not repeated the experience with anyone else, but Helena had gone out with a boy called Piers who was the brother of a London friend, and she claimed to have slept with him several times.

‘He’s really natural and gentle and just … just lovely, actually.’

This revelation had caused Georgie to re-evaluate her opinion of Stephen. Shy, smiling, red-haired Stephen, with his daft Australian twang. Maybe he wasn’t such a clodhopper after all.

Standing in their bare feet on the warm rocks, they had taken off their clothes. Helena had a blue and white striped bikini, Cass a red one. He was used to being around a lot of half-nude females, at the local pool and on the beach at home, but he sensed the girls’ curiosity and felt suddenly embarrassed by his Speedos. He’d never given his trunks a thought before now: it was fine when there were loads of boys around, but he was acutely aware of being the only one here.

Cass was the first in. At first Stephen didn’t think he’d be able to stay in for any length of time. The water was shockingly cold after the warmth of the day, like a slap. His feet turned a strange yellowy white, but he got more used to it each time they swam, clambering back across the rocks to the rope after a few strokes, to swing themselves again across the brown rippling water.