‘Oh, bloody Nora,’ said Sanjit, standing up. ‘Bloody hell, Rosa.’ His cheeks were red. You could see his willie sticking up in his trousers like a joystick. He put a hand down to cover it and looked at Matty as he stood in the doorway. His eyes were thick with guilt and there was a shine on his forehead. He turned back to her. ‘This wasn’t why I came. Bloody hell.’

The front door shut, quietly.

Mamma was staring at the wall opposite the sofa, her arms over her chest. You could hear the bus stopping outside. ‘Go to your room,’ she said, and still didn’t look over.

Matty went back upstairs.

***

‘What’s with you?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Liar on fire,’ Nicks said. ‘You’re being a spazzface.’

Matty eyed a thumbnail and picked at the skin around it. Sanjit. She had been almost on top of him. If they hadn’t been interrupted yesterday, the two of them would have had sex, maybe even right there on the sofa, because you could do it anywhere. His trousers round his ankles, like one of the men in the woods. Mamma, who would complain about the curry smells coming from the restaurant at the main junction.

‘Fine. Be a spazzface.’

‘What are you doing tonight?’ Maybe they could come here later and swim again. Matty never wanted to go back to the flat.

‘Busy. Got to go home.’

Can I come, Matty wanted to ask. They would play board games and eat chocolate biscuits. Nicks’s dad would be kind, and have big shoulders. His mum would make cakes and not drink and neither of them would ever shout. They would love each other.

Nicks seemed to know that something was wrong. He went less jiggly and sat down with his forearms over his knees, watching. The bone of his ankle was touching the bone of Matty’s ankle.

Everything was always better with him. He was safe. ‘You’re mine now,’ he’d said. Streaks of mud on one cheek, then the other. Or his finger on Matty’s lips, to say quiet.

‘Do you want to share a cigarette?’ One left. Mamma hadn’t even noticed the missing pack.

‘Nah.’ He was still hunched, looking over. ‘All right,’ he said, in a different, simple voice.

Even though he didn’t want to, he would. Just because.

Matty leant over and kissed him.

It was very quick. Cold, sweet lips, like the feeling of a leaf, just for half a second.

They stared at each other. Time stretched out.

Slowly, Nicks’s eyes went cloudy, as if someone had poured pondwater into his ears. ‘Shouldn’t have done that,’ he said, quietly.

Matty didn’t dare say anything.

Nicks looked at the ground for a long time. His whole body seemed to change, a subtle loosening.

Then he got up, soundlessly, and walked away.

***