In most of the pictures he was pretending to be asleep. He’d only had to remove his shirt, and his bottom half was covered by a blanket, but the suggestion from the way Melissa had composed the photographs was that he was completely naked. The story they told was of a young, innocent boy tenderly being immortalised by his lover. Slowly, he appeared to be waking up – before smiling, and then reaching for the person behind the camera, urging them to join him on the bed. It had been easy enough pretending when it was Melissa he’d been looking up at – Ben recalled how his body had betrayed his genuine excitement, which he’d awkwardly had to conceal from her – but now Ben saw the photos as they were intended to be viewed, he felt physically sick. Partly it was imagining Father Steiner gazing down at him, in line with the story he and the others had set out to construct. Mainly, though, his revulsion was with himself.

In his defence, he’d never expected things to go this far. It was a fantasy, he’d thought. A game, just as Callum had referred to it himself. And for a time it had been fun, imagining that the fate of the entire school lay in their hands. Although, really, for Ben, the bigger draw had been the sense of belonging. The invitation the others had offered him to be part of their world. But that had been a fantasy, too, it turned out – as much of a sham as the story they’d set out to construct.

It was Melissa’s kiss that had sealed it in Ben’s mind. The fact that she’d kissed him in the first place, for one thing. And then the feel of her lips against his skin when she had.

What do you care how he feels? If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were actually starting to like him.

Lance had spelled it out in the darkroom, and Ben had been in denial of the truth ever since. Melissa had only ever been pretending. She was better at it than Lance was. Almost as good as Callum. But all three of them had been lying to him from the start. That was why he always had such trouble finding them when they didn’t want to see him. The idea of the four of them not being seen together too often was just an excuse. Although Ben wasn’t completely stupid. He knew it was Callum and the others protecting themselves as well. If anything went wrong – if they got found out – they could wash their hands of him. Pretend that they’d never really been friends in the first place. Which, of course, they hadn’t.