‘Unfounded rumour, Evie. I’m shocked.’ They crossed the road. ‘Anyway, find me a lad I’m not related to in this town. If you go far enough back, we’re all bloody cousins. My mum’s pleased, though. She likes Tyler well enough, but she was starting to get this look on her face whenever I was late getting in, like she was worried I was going to get pregnant and fuck everything up. Which is a bit rich, if you ask me, but there you go.’ She took a breath, grinned. ‘So, what about you?’

‘Sorry?’

‘Are you seeing anyone? Dating?’ She managed to put inverted commas around the question.

‘Oh, God, no.’ Evie was actually blushing.

They turned the corner and the bridge came into view. In the distance the girls, Marnie and Sophie and the others were indulging in a round of goodbye hugs before going their separate ways. ‘There was someone, but I kind of got it wrong and things didn’t really work out.’

‘Yeah? Who?’

‘Someone at my last school.’

‘Right,’ said Kym. ‘That sort of boyfriend.’

Evie rolled her eyes. ‘So it’s definitely off, then?’ she said. ‘You and Tyler?’

‘Definitely,’ said Kym. Almost definitely.

The town was beginning to fill up, even though the schools weren’t out yet. You could always spot the tourists, they seemed to take up too much space, to walk too slowly. The milder weather had brought them out, clotting the streets.

‘What are you going to do,’ Kym asked as they crossed the bridge, ‘in the summer?’

‘Do?’

‘Yeah. A job? I’ve been let off a bit, because of revision, but once term ends . . .’

‘Oh,’ said Evie. ‘Yes.’ Except of course things were different for her, it was written all over her face. They’d go off somewhere on holiday, the Wilsons, somewhere warm, somewhere beautiful. Of course they would.

‘My gran keeps going on about a friend of hers who runs a cleaning business, you know, holiday lets and all that. She’s looking for someone. Five pounds an hour.’ Evie clearly couldn’t tell if this was a bad or a good thing. Kym didn’t bother to enlighten her.

In another life, they might have been friends, she thought. If Evie’s mum and dad hadn’t sent her off to her posh school, if Kym’s gran had been more . . . forgiving. It was odd that they had the yard in common, but knew so little about each other. The only thing she knew for certain about Evie was that she felt sorry for her. Her mum was a pain in the arse, and clearly now there was something going on between her and her mates. ‘Right then,’ she said. ‘I’ll see you, I suppose.’

‘Actually,’ said Evie, rummaging in her bag. ‘If I give you my number, then, if you hear of anything, any jobs, you could let me know?’

‘OK,’ said Kym, a little surprised. ‘Sure.’