“Charlie!” shouts a voice over the music, not Nick’s, and I look up and there’s Aled, gazing down awkwardly in his burgundy jumper. He squats down next to me. “Are you all right?”

I swallow, so close to saying no. No, I’m ridiculous, I’m hilariously un-all-right. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”

“You don’t look all right.” Aled frowns. “Did you… is this because of Elle and Tao?”

Maybe I’m just hallucinating conversations now, maybe my brain is just stringing random words together. “What? What d’you mean?”

“I just thought… you know… what I said about Elle and Tao yesterday… like… it was stupid, I feel really bad…”

I shake my head, wanting to laugh. “What the fuck are you talking about, Aled?”

“You know… Elle and Tao breaking up.”

I spring forwards from the wall. “What?”

Aled’s eyes widen. “Oh, oh, God, I just assumed you would know by now. They just decided that they’re breaking up at the end of summer, I just heard…”

I stare at him.

“What?”

Aled looks down. “Yeah… Tao was just like, yeah, we’re gonna keep on going out until Elle leaves but we think long distance will be too hard and Elle wants a fresh start at uni.”

“But, Tao didn’t tell me… I was talking to him earlier… I don’t…”

Aled says nothing.

I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. Why would anyone just end a relationship because it’s got to go long distance for a bit? Elle and Tao clearly like each other a lot. They’re practically the same person, for God’s sake.

Why would anyone do that?

Nick and I aren’t going to do that. Nick doesn’t want a ‘fresh start’. He thinks long distance will be fine. He doesn’t want to break up with me.

Doesn’t he?

Does he?

Does he want to break up with me?

“Oh God, Charlie, what’s…” Aled’s started speaking because I’ve started crying. Great.

“Sorry…” I say, but my voice definitely isn’t audible above the deafening music and I’m not sure who I’m apologising to anyway. “Sorry… I’m so sorry…”

NICK

Since I haven’t seen Charlie for half an hour, I think now might be a good time to go looking for him again, even if he is in a mood with me. What is his deal though? He’s actually starting to piss me off a bit now. I’ve done nothing for him to be in a mood with me about.