I’d spent so much of the summer dreading the moment I’d have to leave, but suddenly it couldn’t come quickly enough. It was as if things had switched; one minute Joel and I were spending every waking minute together, and then the next, he was going out of his way to avoid me.

At first I thought I was imagining it, that with fewer staff we were all a little busier and that he didn’t have time to see me. But soon I realised he was deliberately leaving the room almost as soon as I entered it.

If Soph and Douglas noticed, they didn’t say anything, although I wasn’t exactly going to bring it up with them either, as I’d never confessed my feelings for Joel before and it would be pointless to do so when I knew he didn’t feel the same.

After a week of Joel’s weird behaviour, I’d had enough and decided I needed to break free of the misery and do something to help forget my troubles; I roped Soph into the mission, a night out just the two of us, and I wasn’t holding back on the pre-drinks.

Elizabeth was out, thankfully, so Soph had the music cranked up in her room and it filled the flat. She walked into my room with yet another drink whilst I was crouched on the floor applying my eye make-up. I stood up to take it from her and my head spun, and I staggered into the wall.

‘You’re such a lightweight,’ she said and we laughed like it was the funniest thing we’d ever heard. ‘We better get dressed or else we’re never going to make the pub.’

‘You’re right.’ I took the drink and placed it on the dresser before I flicked through the clothes in my wardrobe. I pulled out various tops and skirts and settled on a dress that left little to the imagination.

There was a pause between songs on the CD and I heard a creaking sound coming from the room above. I glared at the ceiling; Joel and his squeaky ab cradle. I’d just about managed to get him out of my mind as well. ‘Hollaback Girl’ came on and drowned it out.

‘Wow, that dress is hot,’ said Soph, dancing her way into my room. ‘Where have you been keeping that all summer?’

She looked down at her jeans and her halterneck top and shook her head. ‘I’m going to go change.’

She came back a few minutes later with another drink, dressed in the shortest skirt that I’d ever seen. It was almost as small as the wide belts that she wore.

‘A toast to us looking fabulous and hot. Tonight we’re going to be beating off men with sticks, looking like this. Who needs fucking Brian and Scott?’