She moved back down his body, expertly unzipped his jeans and lowered herself slowly on to him. Being inside her felt to Eram like biting into of one of those lava cakes with the molten chocolate centres.

In that moment, lying naked on a public beach, unprotected against wind and water and venereal infections, Eram understood what all the fuss over sex was about. His last thought before he fell into a dead sleep was that they hadn’t kissed at all. Not even once.

7

‘He hasn’t kissed me,’ Gehna said. ‘Not even once. Why hasn’t he kissed me even once?’

‘Maybe he plays for the other team.’ The Yam was sprawled on the bed in Gehna’s room, swiping at her phone. ‘Because, I mean, obviously if a boy doesn’t kiss an adorable thing like you, then he’s definitely gay.’

‘I know, right?’

‘No, idiot. That was irony. Or sarcasm, I can never tell them apart.’

‘Oh. Well, it’s not cool to mock the pregnant girl.’ Gehna suddenly bounced off the bed and went to the full-length mirror in the corner. She lifted her tank top to study her stomach in side profile. ‘Maybe it’s because I’m fat.’

The Yam eyed the other girl’s perfectly flat midriff. ‘You’re basically a stick and all the time you’re like Hello-I’m-big-as-a-whale person. This is why you don’t have any friends, G.’

‘Who doesn’t have friends? I have friends. You’re my friend.’

‘For now, yeah, but the matter is under constant review.’ The Yam went back to her phone and snorted at the screen. ‘Yo, check out what Tania Joshi posted. Coffee-and-Croissant-in-Paris, my ass. You know what she does, right? She went to Europe once, about a hundred years ago, and took a bunch of pics. Now she posts one every week so people think she basically lives on Rue de Whatever. Of all the lame, pathetic—’

‘Fine, not now,’ Gehna said. ‘I’m not fat now. But I will be, right? It’s guaranteed that pregnant people turn into orcas.’

‘Do you even like him? I mean, this could be one of those things where you’re insecure about how you look, so you want someone to feel you up a little as reassurance that you’re still amazing.’

‘No, Sigmund, this is not one of those things. There’s definitely a vibe. I can feel it. I’m almost sure he can feel it. We talk a lot, we laugh. Sometimes, when my hand brushes against his, everything goes real quiet and I get this, like, feeling in my throat.’

The Yam stuck her fingers into her mouth and fake-gagged. ‘I’ve got a feeling in my throat too.’

Gehna took a running dive at the bed and smothered the Yam with a pillow. ‘Stop. Making. Fun. Of. The Pregnant Girl,’ she huffed. With some trouble, the Yam managed to push her off.

‘Okay, OKAY. Jesus, you’re strong for a stick.’ They lay next to each other catching their breath. ‘You should just ask him,’ the Yam said.