‘Not much,’ Jake said, trying for nonchalance.

‘You all right?’

‘Bit bored. You?’

‘God, yeah. This heat is savage, isn’t it?’

‘I kind of like it.’ He brushed a hand through his fair hair. ‘What do you reckon, then?’

‘About what?’

‘This place.’

‘Pretty amazing,’ she said. ‘The pool’s great.’

‘Yeah.’

Ethan had to agree: all in all this wasn’t a bad place. Not bad at all. Much better than the crap rentals they usually had to put up with on summer holidays.

Lucy fanned herself with the straw hat, one hand brushing her long blonde hair back away from her face, before setting it on her head with the brim tilted back.

She gave Jake a big smile. ‘It’s just so hot out here and there’s no shade at all, is there?’

‘Fancy a drink?’

‘What’ve you got?’

Jake produced a half-sized bottle of vodka from the pocket of his black cargo shorts, unscrewing the cap and handing to her. She took a swig and grimaced as she swallowed, coughing as she handed it back to him.

‘Prefer it with a bit of coke,’ she gasped.

‘I’ll get some from the house, if you want.’

‘No, no.’ She laughed and held a hand up. ‘It’s fine.’

Jake took a swig from the bottle and set it down in between him and Lucy.

Ethan thought about asking for a go on the vodka but didn’t want to give his brother the opportunity to say no, to embarrass him in front of her. He watched them chatting, his muggy older brother and this hot girl with her chest stretching her vest top. The beautiful people. Laughing together, having fun together, and she wasn’t even pretending this time like she sometimes did. The three of them went to the same comprehensive and knew each other as schoolmates – even though they were in different years – as much as they did family friends. Jake trying to be all cool and casual, Ethan thought, spitting another pip into the dry earth. It was obvious that his older brother didn’t want him to be here. Well, tough shit. I’m not going anywhere.

‘So,’ Jake said, turning his back on Ethan to block his view. ‘You OK?’

Lucy nodded. ‘Yeah. Just want to get GCSE results day out of the way.’

‘Me too. Bet you’ll get all nines though.’

She snorted. ‘Don’t know about that.’

‘Everything else . . . all right?’

‘Yeah.’ She took another swig of vodka. ‘Peachy.’

Ethan’s ears pricked up at her tone. There was a silence between the two older teenagers for a moment, as if something was passing wordlessly between them. Ethan leaned around to look at them but he was too late. The moment had gone.

‘Right,’ Lucy looked further down the hill, ‘who’s coming down to the woods, then?’

She set off without waiting. Both brothers scrambled to their feet, one on either side of her.