She grins and sits at the other end of the little bench. We’re close together, but far enough away that we’re not in any danger of touching. She strokes the wall beside her with a fingertip.

‘I wrote this,’ she said. ‘My first-ever vandalism.’

I can’t see what she wrote, but I pretend I can and smile.

‘It’s about my dad,’ she adds. ‘I hate my dad. I wrote this so he’d know, even though he’s hundreds of miles away. I thought he might feel it, through the atmosphere. I think I came here with him once or twice when I was little.’

‘I hope he did feel it,’ I say. Whatever he’s done, if she hates him then I’m happy to hate him too.

‘Why are you here?’ she says.

I sigh. ‘I’m going on a school trip to France tonight. I’m nervous. Staying with a French family? Weird shit. I came here to pull myself together, I guess.’

She smiles at that. ‘France, though? Cool.’

‘Yeah. I’m sure. I’m just a bit …’ I don’t know what to say. I used to know that kind of thing.

‘My mum died almost exactly a year ago,’ she says, surprising me. ‘I came here today to talk to her. I don’t like it at the Garden of Remembrance because of other people’s funerals. I ran out of places where I felt like I could just talk to Mum in peace. So I came back here.’

‘Oh shit,’ I say. ‘Sorry. I’ll leave you.’ I start to stand up. She waves me back down. She almost, but not quite, touches me. We look at each other. I shouldn’t be thinking about how fit she is when she’s talking about her dead mother.

‘No,’ she says. ‘Don’t worry. It’s nice to meet someone new. I mean, I know I’m not really going to have a conversation with my mum because she is actually dead. I just wanted to get away from everything. I’m happy to get away from it with you.’

That makes my stomach loop. She wants to be here with me. ‘I’m really sorry,’ I say. ‘My mum went away to do a yoga course. She always wanted to live in India. She’s been gone for ages and I don’t think she’s coming back. I miss her. But that’s, like, a million times better. I’m not comparing.’

Shut up, Joe. I really don’t need to make this girl’s tragedy about me.

She looks up. Her eyes are big and very dark brown. Again, we hold some kind of weird eye contact for a really long time. Something in me wakes up a bit.