I closed my eyes for a second and did my breathing exercises. In for a count of five, hold for five, out for five. Cloud tops of Venus. It was the idea of someone’s mother being ill.

I calmed myself down.

‘Do it,’ Joe said. I wasn’t sure whether he’d noticed me panicking. ‘I mean, if you want to. I can manage without seeing you tomorrow. Plus, I’m seeing you twice today.’

I nodded and gathered myself to reply to Abby. Sorry to hear about your mum, I wrote. Hope she’s OK? Yes, that’s no prob.

You are amazing!! she replied. Mum’s fine. It’s a scan, nothing immediately worrying. So it’s Manor Park Primary and the after-school club is in the hall. The girls will be deeeee-lighted! xxx

I turned back to Joe, aware that people would start to arrive soon, and I had an idea. Of course it was fine to be holding one side of a conversation in a deserted corridor. I could be as animated as I wanted, as long as I changed one thing.

I fished my earphones out of a pocket, plugged them into my phone and put one into my ear. ‘Now I can say what I want without looking mad,’ I told him, pleased with myself.

He nodded. ‘Don’t you feel stupid, though? Talking on a mobile phone? I do when I use mine.’

‘Not at all. Everyone does it.’

He looked around. ‘I can’t believe we can meet somewhere else. This kind of opens things up?’

‘I saw a boy once,’ I said, remembering. ‘He was writing “help me” on the wall out in the playground. It wasn’t you. I don’t know why it wasn’t you. It should have been, don’t you think?’

‘What did he –’ Joe started, but then a boy came into focus. He walked up to Joe. I thought of blue and he was blue.

‘Talking to yourself?’ he said.

Joe sighed and pulled a face I hadn’t seen before – irritated, mean even. ‘Lucas,’ he said with a bit of a swagger – maybe this was what his human self had actually been like. ‘No, you twat. I was practising for the play.’

‘What play?’

‘It’s not a school thing. It’s for a drama course I got into. National Youth Theatre.’

I laughed at that. What a random lie, and how easily he’d told it.

Lucas laughed too, not believing him any more than I did. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Right. Sure it is. Shouldn’t you be parlaying en fransay today?’

‘If I knew how to say fuck off in French, mate, then believe me I would.’

Joe walked away, looking cocky and completely unlike the Joe I knew.

I walked with him.