The three of us sit, Ling and I spooning mouthful after mouthful of cereal into our gobs, as Nico delicately sips her juice. She’s like something out of the pages of a fairytale. Will she be rescued by a kind and handsome prince? I think of Mark and her in the same bed and feel sick. No doubt, Ling and I’d be thrown in cages and gobbled up. No one says a word, the tension thick, until I can bear it no longer and I belch, a really loud one. A party trick of mine. Ling giggles, but Nico pushes back her chair, and says ‘Excuse me,’ in a tight voice, before leaving the room. Ling is falling around the place, she’s laughing so loudly. There’s a manic light in her eyes fed by years of adrenaline.

Another girl walks in. Her skin is so black it’s almost blue, her hair thick and springy and her face wide and sensual. I can’t stop staring. For a girl from white middle-class suburbia, this place sure is multicultural.

‘Morning!’ I say. She scowls at me, at the air, at life in general. ‘I’m Sammy.’

She pretends she doesn’t hear me and goes towards the cereal boxes, studying them closely, then pours and eats fistfuls, dry. Then another girl comes in. They look so alike they must be sisters, but they don’t even register each other. Just munch, munch, silently. Ling throws her eyes up to heaven and giggles. The girls don’t react.

I try again, with the second girl. ‘Hi, I’m Sammy,’ and put my hand out, but she looks as if she might bite it off, so I quickly drop it. Ling’s giggles are mounting in intensity and I can feel the tickle in the back of my throat.

‘Are you here long?’ I ask.

The girls don’t answer, just continue to focus on eating. Their eyes are blank. They’re pretty far gone, probably been fed too many of those pills. The expression on their faces sort of worms its way inside me, and I feel like I might topple into the abyss with them. Fuck this, I’m outta here. ‘See you later so,’ I say, trying to breathe some warmth into them, some life, with my forced cheeriness. They don’t look up. I reckon they don’t understand a word of what is being said. For a moment I’m inside their heads and it’s terrifying: an upside-down, inside-out world where nothing makes any sense. Maybe people being nice to them signals some kind of a threat. They can’t even find comfort in each other.