My feet are still stuck to the ground. He whispers into my ear, ‘We will kill your friend if you do anything stupid.’

I look outside and I can see that the other man has bundled Sammy into the waiting car. One of the guys takes his phone out of his pocket.

The taxi man notices and grabs hold of me as my legs buckle beneath me. ‘She’s just off her face,’ he says as he holds me up around my waist. ‘Have to bring her home. Under orders.’

Please, please see my thoughts hanging in the air. Please, please let me not have to say it. Let me not have to speak.

‘I don’t like this,’ the guy says.

‘She’s fine. She’s coming with me,’ the taxi driver says, a new note of panic in his voice.

My head is woozy and spots spin in front of my eyes.

‘I’m calling the Guards.’ Now the room is buzzing with voices, people are standing and everyone is staring.

‘No need. I’ll get her straight home.’ The taxi man hauls me to my feet. ‘Come on now, one foot in front of the other, be a good girl.’

But I can’t walk. I can’t be a good girl any more. I collapse against him and he lifts me with one arm and holds me on his hip, like I’m a sleeping child. My body is slack, a dead weight.

Phones are flashing. ‘No fucking photos,’ he says, and pushes against an outstretched arm, the phone crashing to the ground.

‘Where do you think you’re taking her?’ a voice shouts.

‘Mind your own fucking business,’ the taxi man says. He tries to run to the door, me hooked under the crook of his arm, but I fall out of his grip and slip to the floor.

The two guys move in closer. ‘Leave her, you prick,’ the man with the glasses says.

The taxi man raises his hand as if he’s about to hit the guy, but then he looks around the room at the other peering faces, people on their phones, and looks at me for a moment, unsure what to do, before he races towards the door.

I am lying on the ground, faces staring down at me. ‘Carefully,’ a voice says, as hands reach down and lift me onto a chair. A glass of water appears before my lips. I sip, on automatic, and hold the water in my mouth. I can’t swallow.