While Mark ran through the usual drill with Beth of being careful and staying safe, Abi’s eyes passed over Corinne. The girl was zipping up her hoodie covering the black T-shirt she was wearing. But Abi had caught sight of it already. It was the black Radiohead T-shirt from the concert where she had hooked up with Mark all those years ago. It troubled her, that he had given it to her, but she didn’t question him about it. Like so many other things they didn’t talk about, she was afraid of what the answers might reveal.

12

‘Are you nervous?’ Alicia asked.

They were walking to the party on Victoria Road. Word had gone round that Craig and Irene Ferguson were flying to Malta for a long weekend, and soon afterwards Callum had WhatsApped the invitation.

‘A little,’ Eva admitted.

‘Do you think it will happen tonight?’ Alicia probed, ‘it’ meaning sex with Callum.

‘I don’t know. Maybe.’

But Eva wasn’t sure that nerves accurately described how she was feeling. ‘Unsettled’ was closer to the truth. An image crept into her head: the look on Corinne’s face that evening. The breathy quality to her voice: ‘You’re beautiful,’ she’d said. Eva supposed she ought to be flattered but there was something about Corinne’s expression that bothered her. The unabashed adoration. Something slightly batty about it, as if she was mesmerized like one of those religious fanatics, eyes lit up with ecstasy.

‘Relax, Eves,’ Alicia said, squeezing her arm comfortingly. ‘He’s majorly into you – I know that for a fact.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I’ve got eyes, haven’t I? Trust me. You guys are perfect together. You make sense.’

The Fergusons’ house was already heaving, Jay-Z pounding through the speakers, and as they navigated a path through to the kitchen, Eva felt a hand grabbing her wrist and turned to see Callum grinning widely. Before she could say anything, he had his arms around her, and his mouth landed wetly on hers, a spark of excitement flaring within her. Leaning into him, she wrapped her arms around his narrow waist, the heat from his body coming through her dress as others whooped around them, someone shouting ‘Get a room!’

He pulled back from her, saying: ‘You came.’

‘Of course I came!’ she laughed, a warm relief flooding her entire body at his obvious happiness, all her insecurities instantly fading away.