“What’s up with those two?”

David and Peter were coming round the side of the house, Peter almost on David’s heels, David with his eyes fixed on the ground. Something had happened after I’d left them on Smeathe’s Ridge. Whatever it was, it hadn’t done Peter’s cause any good.

“Dunno.”

“Lovers’ tiff?” There was an edge to Marcus’s voice. I could have placated him by saying something mean in agreement, or putting my hands on him, but I didn’t feel like it. It was a relief when he went back to work.

We only went out together once, to celebrate our exam results. Mine were solid. Em got an A in art, which was all she cared about. Peter’s were outstanding. Balliol would take him to read law starting October. I’d known it was coming but still had to swallow back the bitterness that flooded my mouth.

“A night on the tiles then?” Em’s mum stuck her head round the bedroom door. She was carrying a plate of cheese on toast, the bread cut into little squares. “To line your stomachs.”

When we were a bit younger, I’d made Em go nicking with me. Never in Marlborough, in Swindon where the shops were bigger. She was surprisingly good at it. Afterward we’d come home and divide the spoils. But we hadn’t been in ages, and I didn’t have anything nice. Em wanted us to wear dresses.

“I haven’t shaved my legs.”

“You can use my dad’s electric razor. I’ll tell him it was Faye.” Faye was her little sister. I tried on all of Em’s dresses, then we hit her mum’s wardrobe. June had been a teenager in the sixties and had the miniskirts to prove it. Em was swishing this way and that in a long paisley number as her mum came up the stairs.

“You put everything back afterward.” She stopped and leaned against the doorframe. “God, I used to be thin. Looks good on you, Em. Very romantic, very Joan Baez. You found anything, Andy?”

I shook my head and she went over and rifled through the rails.

“How about this?” It was violet, very short with a little collar and buttons down the front. “Go on. Try it on. It’ll go perfect with your coloring.”

It wasn’t like anything I usually wore. When I came out the bathroom, a bittersweet look passed over her face.

“I’ll tell you what. The pair of you can borrow them, but only if you let Faye join in for an hour. Slap some makeup on her. Let her show you her dances.”

Before we left, she made us stand together for a photograph. I don’t think I ever saw it. “Such young ladies,” she said and pressed the button.

Lady. Girl. Female. Woman. Each of the words made you feel a bit different, act a bit different even, when it was applied to you. They weren’t the only words for us, of course, only at Em’s house it was possible to forget the other words existed.