Tom didn’t know what to talk about. Most of his girl conversations had been with his sisters or with the girls in his class at school. Those chats were simple: ‘Isn’t Mr Lillis a complete tool?’ somebody would ask, or ‘Do you think Miss McBride is having it off with Mr Noonan?’ Luckily, as they passed around the first bottle, Tess did most of the talking. She nattered on about the snow and about school and about who was rumoured to be getting off with whom. Tom, Conor and Tess went to St Ursula’s in nearby Templemorris. Nina was at boarding school. She didn’t say much, but Tom could tell she didn’t like it. You had to queue for your meals, and when you got your food, it was cold or horrible or both. Some of the girls were right bitches, who teased Nina for sounding like a culchie. This was stupid because she had the nicest voice in Kilmitten – she could have read the news or anything. Tom was surprised to realise he’d said this out loud. Conor laughed, and Tess went, ‘Woooh’, but Nina smiled and her brown eyes crinkled, like she was genuinely grateful.

During their second bottle of beer, which tasted much better than the first, they talked about music and how sad it was that people bought records by Shakin’ Stevens and Bucks Fizz when there were lots of brilliant groups like The Human League and The Jam. They agreed that this was a great time for music and that the old bands, like The Beatles, sounded very basic now.

‘Primitive,’ said Tess, and they all nodded.

They skipped onto a discussion about the challenges of being a teenager.

‘Did you ever notice,’ said Tess, ‘that we’re always either too old or too young?’

‘Oh, yeah,’ agreed Nina. ‘Those are my dad’s favourite words. One minute I’m too young for stuff, like getting my ears pierced or wearing lip gloss. Then, five minutes later, he’s all, “Stop fighting with your brother. You’re too old for that now.” Honestly, it’s such a drag.’

To Tom’s relief, the girls seemed to have forgotten that he wouldn’t be thirteen until March. At one point, he worried Conor was about to say something. He sent his fiercest look in his friend’s direction. The last thing he wanted was Nina dismissing him as a kid.

He was telling them about the gossip he’d picked up at the party when the beer ran out.

‘It’s a shame we don’t have another bottle,’ said Nina.

‘There’s no chance you could get one more, is there?’ asked Tess.