As we got closer to their house, I thought about the first time Mari had invited me over for dinner. As we’d sat down and started to eat – oven baked cod with peas, potatoes and bacon – they were all watching me carefully. It was only after the meal that I understood why.

‘You really shouldn’t hold your cutlery like that,’ Mari said, teasing me.

‘How do you mean? Like what?’

‘Like you are skiing and the knife and fork are your sticks.’

‘Oh, do I?’

Mari had laughed.

Apparently my parents had never bothered to teach me properly. I’d make sure I got it right the next time I shared a meal with my girlfriend. I hadn’t been invited back to their table, though, and every time I went there to pick Mari up or just visit, I could always feel a certain distance from her parents. Cecilie, in particular, never said much.

‘You’re different, you and Mari,’ I said to Ida, as I walked beside her, pushing my bike. Mari wasn’t at all interested in blogging or fashion; she was serious about her schoolwork and she already knew what she wanted to do with her life. Ida’s biggest worry, it seemed, was what she should be wearing, and whether it would make her look sexy enough.

‘How do you mean, different?’ she asked.

I tried to find the right words – ones that didn’t sound condescending or disrespectful.

Ida came to my rescue. ‘I guess we are,’ she said. ‘Or … I guess we were. But isn’t that a good thing? I mean, that you can be completely different and still like each other?’

I thought about my friends for a moment. I was the only one of us who played football. Fredrik was an only child, and a very spoilt one at that. Kaiss was a devout Muslim. Oskar was a cross-country skiier.

Yeah, it was a good thing.

‘So tell me,’ I said, ‘what were you guys doing at school recently?’

‘Why do you want to know?’

‘I guess I just want to know what Mari did those last few days…’

She thought about it for a moment. ‘We were studying Ghosts in Norwegian literature.’

‘Ibsen.’

‘Yes, I think that was the dude’s name.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Sooo boring.’

I smiled.

‘We were doing some grammar bullshit in English. And we were doing blood samples and stuff like that in biology. Did blood tests on each other. Yuck!’

I remembered doing that the previous year. I’d actually enjoyed it.

Soon we were at Mari’s house. I took a deep breath and tried to steel myself. Like Ida said, better to get it over and done with.

After we’d rung the bell, a woman I’d never seen before opened the door.

‘Hi,’ Ida said. ‘I was wondering if Mari’s mum and dad are in? I’m Ida – Mari’s best friend.’