A river cut through the forest, the path meandering along beside the flow of water. Corinne stared down at the ground as she walked, hardly even looking up once to take in the trees, the turning leaves, the craggy rocks that jutted out into the stream. Both girls were thoughtful and melancholy and Beth, believing the source of their sadness to be the same, said:

‘I can’t believe you’re really going. On Monday.’

When Corinne said nothing, she ventured: ‘I fucking hate my mum. She’s such an over-reactor. She prides herself on being so communicative, but does she listen? No. As if communication just equals talking. God forbid she’d actually listen to my side of things, actually take into account that there was a reason behind what happened.’

‘Is there?’

‘What?’

‘A reason.’

‘You know there is! All those things they said – Sasha and Nicole – about me. And about you. I’d just had enough.’

‘You could ignore it.’

‘I did ignore it – for years! It got too much.’

It troubled her, Corinne’s lethargy, the tired, distracted cast to her voice. Hadn’t it been Corinne’s idea, to take action against the girls that had made Beth’s life so miserable? Wasn’t it Corinne who had suggested the plan? Beth distinctly remembered the lilt in her voice when she’d alighted on the perfect idea: a pregnancy. The way Sasha prided herself on her looks, her figure, constantly alluding to her own sexual experiences, listing the guys falling over themselves to get intimate with her, that and her over-confidence. An unplanned pregnancy would be a fitting reward for her hubris, but a rumour would suffice. Corinne, far more proficient on social media channels, had shown Beth how to drop hints in the right places, and then how to warm up the rumour and fan the flames, sitting back to let it ignite. All she had wanted was to inflict a dose of the same pain she had endured, over and over again. She had not stopped to consider the consequences, to imagine how Sasha might feel.

‘I can’t believe I have to stand in front of the whole school and apologize,’ Beth said now. ‘You will be there, won’t you? I know your flight is at lunchtime, but you will come to school first for assembly?’

‘Sure.’

‘I don’t think I could bear it if you weren’t there. I don’t think I could do it—’

‘It’s just words,’ Corinne said sharply. She stumbled over a tree root and then righted her footing, casting a glance of irritation at the ground.

Beth, keenly attuned to Corinne’s changes of mood, asked: ‘What’s the matter?’

‘All you have talked about is your plan, your apology. It’s stupid. Boring.’

Stung, Beth fell silent, her mind swarming over their previous conversation, looking for some clue she had missed.