I turned around and we did our usual handshake-hug thing.

‘Where’s Kaiss?’ I asked.

‘He had to go to trombone rehearsal,’ Fredrik said.

‘Trombone?’

‘Yep, he’s started playing the trombone.’

I tried to picture it. Kaiss. Trombone. Instead of a party. ‘You’re joking?’

‘Nope, he’s having a blow or seventeen.’ Fredrik pretended to do the sliding back and forth thing with his arm.

‘Well, that’s as close as he’ll ever get to a blowjob,’ I said.

We all laughed. I noticed Ida sending me looks that were a bit too long. I took another sip of the nails-and-poison smoothie. The other boys had almost finished theirs already.

Someone in the next room called for Ida. She rushed out.

‘Don’t go anywhere,’ she said before she left, giving me a stern look.

I held up my hands. Oskar and Fredrik did the same. Then we lowered them, one by one.

‘I need some air,’ I said.

We went out onto the steps at the front of the house. I looked around and then emptied three-quarters of the smoothie onto the flower bed.

‘Thank you and goodnight,’ Fredrik said to the flowers, while putting some snus under his lip.

‘Need any help?’ Oskar asked.

I wasn’t sure what he was getting at.

‘To keep Ida away?’ he continued.

I snorted and made a face that said, Oskar, you idiot. ‘She’s just drunk,’ I said.

We went back inside. While the others continued to pour Ida’s fruit-nail gloop down their throats, I stuck to Coke. After about an hour, I had to go to the loo. Leaving the upstairs bathroom I found Ida outside the door. I hadn’t seen her in a while. I had assumed she was lying asleep somewhere, half drowned in her own vomit, but her eyes were surprisingly clear and focused. It felt like they were sucking me in as she moved slowly towards me like a panther closing in on its prey.

‘Hey,’ she said. Her voice was soft and sensual. Seductive. ‘Mari was lucky,’ she said. ‘But then again, she usually got what she wanted.’ Another step closer. She was right in front of me now. ‘Question is: did you get what you wanted?’

She put a hand on my chest. Let it rest there for a while before sliding it down over my stomach muscles. Looking me in the eyes the whole time.

I blinked.

Swallowed.

She kissed me, tentatively. ‘I bet she didn’t do this to you.’

Her voice was almost a whisper. Her hand started to fiddle with my belt. She opened the door to the bathroom behind me with the other. Then she pushed me inside.

‘Ida…’

‘Shhhh.’

My belt was undone. She pushed me gently to begin with, then with more and more force.

‘It’s not dangerous,’ she said.

Dangerous, no. But…