‘It was horrible,’ Ellen whispered, into the silence. ‘At the time,’ she added. ‘Not to mention really embarrassing.’ Her eyes were downcast. She was fiddling with a loose thread on her jogging bottoms. ‘I have to say, it is very weird that you’ve ended up …’ She found herself searching for the right word. ‘With him.’

Alexa felt her stomach plunge. After a second, she spoke. ‘We’re not … we’re not, like, going out.’ Her voice sounded thicker than usual.

Ellen gave her a ‘yeah, right’ look.

Alexa wasn’t really sure what to say in response to that, so she said nothing. They both sat very, very still. Alexa imagined she was making her body as small as possible. When she tired of shrinking herself to nothing, she tried speaking again.

‘Obviously, if it was him –’ she started and then abruptly stopped. No, she still wasn’t sure where she was going.

She knew Ellen wouldn’t let that one drop: she was staring at her, hard.

Alexa tried again. ‘Obviously, if it was him, then –’

‘Then what?’ Ellen snapped. ‘You’re still going to see him, anyway, aren’t you?’

Alexa felt a little roar of indignation. ‘Well, yes,’ she shot back. ‘I really like him. But I really care about you and –’

Ellen groaned. ‘Don’t be so condescending.’

‘I’m not being condescending –’

‘You are, you’re over here pretending to check I’m OK but you’re really just checking it’s still OK for you to go out with him.’

That stung.

‘That’s not fair, that’s not what I’m doing.’

Ellen snorted.

Alexa felt her temper bubble.

‘That is definitely what you’re doing –’ Ellen started, accusingly.

‘You didn’t even go out with him!’ Alexa said, incredulously. She was sure the boys could hear them now. ‘You never even met! And it was, like, ten years ago!’

‘Oh, what, so “get over it”?’

‘I mean, just an idea!’

Ellen shook her head, squared her shoulders and stood up as best she could under the steeply sloping ceiling. For the second time, she attempted to flounce out of a very restricted space. She appeared to be making her way to the skylight.

Alexa turned back round and fixed the wall with a murderous glare.

17. Jack

After they watched Ellen rocket off to the window and hang out of it, there was a silence. Ben gave Jack a dark look, and Jack wondered if Ben was about to try and speak to him about all this and hoped he wouldn’t. Sadly, he was out of luck. He was often out of luck.

‘It just doesn’t add up –’ Ben started, in a low voice.

Jack considered that perhaps he was speaking to himself, until Ben found his eyes with an urgent stare.