‘I’ll sleep on the fucking couch,’ Heidi said, and they heard her throwing things around the bedroom. She was getting a pillow or something but taking the opportunity to throw around some of their clothes. ‘Such a fucking shambles,’ she shouted. Then she was in the lounge again. ‘You’re such a pig,’ Heidi said. Greta and Peggy knew that Heidi and Dell were both responsible for the way the room looked.

‘Well.’ Dell was winding up again.

‘I’m going to fucking sleep,’ Heidi said, and they could hear her settling herself on the couch. ‘So I can go to our fucking terrible job tomorrow.’

‘Quit,’ Dell said.

‘You quit,’ Heidi said.

‘I was here first,’ Dell said. This fight was not at all related to the fight they’d been having minutes before. This was a fake fight, and completely for the benefit of Peggy and Greta.

‘I was,’ Heidi said.

‘Fuck you,’ Dell said, and slammed the bedroom door and it was quiet, except for Heidi shifting on the couch.

‘I need a wee,’ Peggy whispered, as quietly as she could.

‘You’ll have to wait,’ Greta said.

‘I know.’ Peggy squeezed her legs together and started to jiggle.

‘How long?’ Peggy asked.

‘What?’

They were whispering – barely audible.

‘Do I have to wait?’ Peggy asked.

At first Greta shrugged and then she said, ‘Half an hour?’

Peggy scrunched her face up. Greta was probably right. Half an hour at the least. Unless they started shouting at each other again. Then she could go out sooner. Make like the shouting had woken her up. Rub her eyes as she walked to the toilet like she was fast asleep and hadn’t really heard anything, instead of wide awake and hanging on every word and sound. Peggy started to hope they would start shouting again.

Really, Greta and Peggy made it worse. They were a reminder. Heidi and Dell would have been happy if it had never happened, but it had and now it was like this. Peggy and Greta wouldn’t tell a soul, not even each other – especially not each other – but they were happy it had happened. Nothing they’d done in their lives as one person had come to anything good. Everything they tried fucked up. They were baffled, but like this, close in the dark, close in the light, it worked. It wasn’t a silver bullet, but it was helping. It wasn’t like everything happened for a reason. Fuck that. It was like Diane said, they were where they should be because that’s where they were. There wasn’t another option, but this one was working out okay for them. They tried to feel sorry for Heidi and Dell, but they were tired of the shouting and the challenge. Greta yawned.

‘Don’t go to sleep,’ Peggy said. It had only been ten minutes.