After they’d eaten they all lay down, enjoying the feeling of being full and slightly drunk. They gazed up at the night sky, studded with stars. It was almost completely clear above them, but a dark bank of cloud was slowly moving in from the west. Simon switched off the tape, threw a couple more logs on the fire, and picked up his guitar. He sat down with his back against a rock and began to strum a few chords. Marie noticed that Carina was resting her head on Alex’s chest and sharing a cigarette with him, which meant that the earlier argument was forgotten. Marie was used to their constant bickering, but it seemed to have become worse over the past six months. Once or twice Carina had hinted that she was thinking of finishing with him. Really finishing with him, not like all the other times when it had been part of the game between her and Alex. So far Carina hadn’t suggested that they should swap tents so that she and Alex could sleep together. Which was just as well, because Marie had no intention of agreeing this year. If she ended up sharing a tent with Bruno, she would be sending out all the wrong signals.

Bruno had placed his mat right next to hers. She tried to picture them together, but it was no good. She, Bruno, Carina and Alex had known one another since preschool. She’d known Simon even longer; there was an old, yellowed photograph in the family album of the two of them as babies, lying side by side in the same cot while their mothers, Elisabet and Ebba Vidje, stood proudly behind them in their best clothes. She and Simon were cousins, but it almost felt as if they were brother and sister. Marie still found it easier to imagine herself with him rather than Bruno. Nice, predictable Bruno.

‘Life doesn’t get much better than this,’ Alex said with a sigh. He took a long drag of the cigarette, then passed it to Carina. Simon carried on playing, soft melodies mingling with the crackling of the fire. A sudden noise from the forest made Carina sit up.

‘Was that a branch breaking?’ She sounded worried.