‘I need to pee,’ Corinne announced, so they headed into the park where a small queue had formed outside the toilets.

‘I’ll wait outside,’ Beth told her, as the door closed behind Corinne.

A warm wind was blowing. Beth licked at her cone and looked about. Everywhere there were people stretched out on picnic blankets strewn across the grass, kids swarming around the fountain, the spray careening madly in the breeze.

Distantly, she became aware of someone calling her name. She looked around, a hand shielding her eyes from the sun, and there was Nicole Nash, smiling and waving and coming towards her. Confusion washed over Beth at this display of friendliness, uneasiness rising like a tide as Nicole approached, saying:

‘Hey, Beth! We thought it was you! What’re you doing here?’

‘Nothing.’

‘A few of us are hanging out by the bandstand,’ Nicole said, jerking her head in that direction. ‘Come on over and join us!’

Beth’s eyes flicked to the centre of the park where teenage boys in low-slung jeans were skateboarding along a run they’d set up, doing jumps off a sheet of plywood propped on stacked bricks. Music was thrumming from a speaker, hip-hop with a heavy beat, and leaning over the railings of the nearby bandstand were the girls, about seven or eight of them – Beth’s classmates and their French exchange students – flicking ash from their cigarettes or swiping through their iPhones. There among them was Sasha, leaning over the railing to share a joke with one of the boys, Lisa beside her smiling shyly. Catching sight of Beth, Sasha straightened up and raised her hand, waggling her fingers in a little wave, but Lisa kept her hands on the rail, her face a blank oval.

‘So, are you coming?’ Nicole asked, cheerful but impatient.

‘I can’t. I’m waiting for Corinne.’

‘Who?’

‘You know – my exchange—’

‘Oh yeah. Pink,’ Nicole sniggered. ‘Come on. We’ll wave to her when she comes out of the loo. It’s not like she’ll be hard to spot.’

Reluctantly, Beth allowed herself to be led away, stuffing the rest of the cone into her mouth as she walked.

‘Sasha was the one who saw you,’ Nicole explained. ‘It was her idea that we bring you over.’

‘It was?’

‘She feels really bad, you know,’ Nicole went on. ‘About what happened at her party. I mean, it’s been like over a year now and still there’s all this animosity between us. And over what? Just a stupid misunderstanding, right?’

‘Sasha said that?’

‘Of course. We all agree that this has gone on too long.’ This close to her, Beth could see the braces clenching Nicole’s teeth, the tight line of dry skin that had formed on her lower lip.

‘Here she is!’ Nicole called as they reached the steps, and she ran on ahead.