At the sound of the voice behind him, Ben froze. He was on his knees beside his bunk, and he could tell immediately that, however sick he was feeling already, he was about to feel a whole lot worse.

When he turned around, he saw that the photographs, as he’d expected, were in Callum’s hand. Lance was standing next to Callum, not quite meeting Ben’s eye.

‘Callum, I—’

‘Save it, Ben. If you’re not going to be honest with me, I don’t want to hear it.’

Rather than angry, Callum looked disappointed, just as he had that time in the library after Ben had been caught fighting in the science lab. Ben had told himself he was past caring what Callum thought of him, but he found himself experiencing that familiar mix of shame and self-loathing. He glanced at Lance, who still wouldn’t look at him.

‘What I don’t understand is why you didn’t just tell me,’ said Callum. ‘Why you felt you had to lie.’

Ben opened his mouth to mutter some excuse, but he knew there was no point.

Callum’s expression had been set firm, but all at once it softened. ‘If you changed your mind, you should have just said. We would have understood, Ben. We’re not monsters.’

At that, Lance turned away.

Ben concentrated on Callum.

‘You’re not mad?’ he said.

‘I am mad,’ said Callum. ‘But that doesn’t mean I don’t understand. I said to you before, I realise how much of the responsibility for what we’re doing has fallen on you.’ He took a quick glance around the dorm. The room was empty, all the other kids who were still at school most likely in the lunch hall, or else taking advantage of the extra space in the common room. ‘Look, let’s … let’s go for a walk or something. Talk things through. Anyone could come in here at any moment.’

Slowly Ben got to his feet, but inside he felt a flicker of uncertainty. Wasn’t this how it had worked last time? Was Callum just manipulating him again? What was there to talk about, after all? It was obvious Callum was going to try to convince him to go back to the original plan, and if there was one thing Ben was sure about, it was that he no longer wanted any part of it. Making the decision had been one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do in his life, but as soon as he had, he’d realised that, actually, it had been easy.

‘Where would we go?’ he asked.

‘Just … I don’t know. To the woods or something,’ said Callum. ‘Just so we can figure out what to do now. At the very least, you owe us an explanation. Don’t you think?’