Matty crouched down in front of her. ‘Clo? Do you need me to call the doctor? Is it your eye? The headaches?’

She shook her head, feeling so . . . stupid! What had she done?

‘Clo, you’ve got to say something. You’re worrying us,’ Johnny said, sitting on the end of Matty’s bed.

She stared at them both for what felt like an eternity. Johnny was right. She knew she had to tell them. She had to explain why they couldn’t stay here now.

‘What’s that rash?’ Matty frowned, brushing the back of her hand against Clover’s jaw. She realized in the next instant. ‘Wait—’

‘I slept with him.’

A thunderclap of silence rang through the room.

Johnny gave a laugh. ‘What do you mean you . . . you . . .?’ The laughter faded with the initial shock. ‘. . . Who?’

She blinked. They all knew perfectly well there was only one ‘him’. There was only one person with the power to blast her world apart like this. ‘Kit.’

Matty’s hands went to her mouth as she rocked back on her heels.

‘There’s a punchline . . . right?’ Johnny asked, staring at her in abject disbelief.

Clover shook her head, absorbing their stunned expressions. They were right to be horrified. There was no other response to this. It was shocking. Unimaginable. How could it have happened? She still didn’t know.

There was a long, long pause. Clover was aware her friends were thinking hard and fast, trying to process the bombshell. She’d had an hour and a half to think on it and it still made no sense.

Matty’s hand found hers on her lap; she was looking at Clover with an expression Clover had never seen before. ‘You need to be honest with us . . . What . . . what happened? I mean, did he . . .?’

‘No! He didn’t force me, if that’s what you mean,’ Clover said quickly. ‘It wasn’t like that! I wanted it to happen. In the moment, I . . . I wanted him.’ Her face fell. The words were incredible to her. How could she even be saying them?

Matty looked even more horrified.

Clover got up from the bed, unable to bear their stares. Her hands kept going to her head as if, if she just squeezed hard enough, sense would come to her. ‘I don’t know what happened! I just went to go for a swim.’

They looked back at her, waiting, and she realized she had begun.

Her shoulders slumped. ‘I went to go for a swim and I found him lying face-down in the water.’

‘What?’ Matty yelped.

‘I know! That was what I thought! I thought he’d drowned – slipped and knocked his head or something. It looked so awful.’ She swallowed. ‘So I jumped in. Obviously.’

‘Obviously,’ Johnny nodded.