‘He can be such a bore,’ Tara laughs, pulling the can open and gulping half of it down without taking a break. I don’t reply to Tara’s comment because I don’t agree with her. Andriu isn’t a bore, he’s just older than us. More mature. He finds Tara’s excessive excitement a bit immature. He told me so but I wouldn’t tell Tara that because she might get upset. Tara needs people to like her.

We’ve been lying in the sun all afternoon drinking cider and listening to John practising his DJ stunts. The sun has dipped in the sky and my head is a bit woozy from the drink. It’s a nice, relaxed, warm feeling.

Already there are about twenty people in the garden and I don’t know how many are inside the house but there’s a great buzz.

Tara has her eye on one of the guys from third year. She’s swooning like a little baby and laughing at every word he says. Her face is burnt red, almost glowing but the guy she’s chatting up doesn’t seem to mind. He’s opening a beer for her. Making his move. I hope he doesn’t get too attached because knowing Tara, she’ll be into someone else by tomorrow.

I look around at the gathering crowd and realise I haven’t seen Andriu in a while. He must be still in his room. He left earlier, probably to put his head down for an hour but that was ages ago.

I roll off the lilo, throwing it to the side of the garden then head into the house. When I get to the stairs Emily is coming down with that dopy glaze covering her eyes. I asked Tara to speak to her and ask her not to do drugs in our bathroom but here she is once more, out of her head. I give her a look, suggesting I know what she’s at. But she replies with a look suggesting she doesn’t give a fuck what I think. If she wasn’t Tara’s cousin I’d bar her from the house but Tara says she’s a bit of a lost soul and doesn’t have any other friends.

‘Andriu,’ I say, opening the door of the bedroom. The room is dark, the light blocked by the blackout curtains.

‘Are you awake?’ I say, moving closer to the beautiful shape lying in boxer shorts on top of the bed. How he could possibly be asleep with all the noise I do not know but he yawns, then sits up in the bed. ‘Not anymore.’

I sit down beside him and lean in to kiss him. Andriu wraps his bare arms around me and pulls me closer. Then he kisses my head and slides off the bed.