Lena swiped at her eyes although Will couldn’t see any tears. She fiddled with her phone, started to hand it over before folding it back into her palm. ‘My screen’s all cracked. I’ll forward you the rest of the photos.’

‘It’s cracked? Bad?’

Lena nodded, kept thumbing the screen. He felt the vibrations in his pocket as the photos arrived.

Back in Aunty Nic’s bedroom Will held his screen in front of her face, swiped through the photos. Lena was in the doorway, like a roo stock-still in a field, ready to bound off the second you make a move towards it.

‘No. No. I didn’t leave it that way. Not at all.’ Nic waved the phone away. ‘Don’t you see? She trashed the place and now she’s trying to put the blame on me. God. What did I do to deserve this? Lena! You were my—’ She let out a wrenching moan. ‘She’s been my best friend,’ she choked out at last, talking directly to him. ‘I thought she was, anyway. I can’t believe she’d do this to me.’

‘Aunty Nic, I think if you maybe have a bit of a rest and then—’

‘Get out of my sight.’ She said it calmly.

He stood there, trying to think of the right thing to do. From the corner of his eye he saw Lena disappear.

‘Are you deaf? I told you to go.’

In the hallway Will tried not to cry like a fucking child. There was this story about Aunty Nic that he and Lena loved as little kids. They’d first heard it from their mum as a warning against getting into fights. Your aunty was the youngest kid in the history of our high school to ever be suspended—for getting into a fight. When they went to Nic for confirmation she laughed, said, How the hell would she know if I was the youngest or not? And they, wetting themselves with excitement at this seeming confirmation that the story was true, begged for details.

Maybe I was the youngest ever, but I doubt it. It was a rough school back then; it’s better now. Be better still by the time you two get there. I can tell you for sure that I was the first in my year group to get suspended, since we were only a couple of weeks into our first term when it happened.