‘And here’s something – even if it is a fantasy, who cares?’ I keep speaking so as not to let her know she’s got to me, with such a childish remark too, and something has maybe actually ruptured. ‘He’s miserable. He’s miserable enough for the both of them. And I’m giving him, I don’t know, something to do, if nothing else, something that feels important.’

‘You’ve been here for a week. You don’t know anything about him.’

‘Maybe more than you. I’m not a bad person. I want to help him.’

‘Do you?’

Another knock. ‘Shut up!’ someone says.

‘Two fucking seconds!’ Peyton hisses to the wall, then lets a beat pass, eating the two of us up and then sighs. She looks ghostly in the dark. No, I don’t want to argue with her necessarily, but I can’t say I’m not at least partially enjoying the attention, the intensity. She’s down to barely a murmur. ‘I believe that. But I don’t believe you know what you’re doing.’

‘I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.’

‘Yeah,’ she says, rolling over to face the wall, ‘I guess we’ll have to do that. Great. Perfect.’

‘I don’t want to hurt him,’ I say, and I swear it’s not a lie. It’s the sort of half-truth that forgoes words like won’t or refuse. But it’s true on the surface. ‘I want to help.’ I picture Ellis bobbing in the dark water. Bodies in the water. No. I don’t want to hurt him. ‘You have to believe me.’ There’s a beat while I wrestle with something I still don’t quite understand. ‘Why are you so protective over him?’ I ask, finally.

‘Does it matter?’

‘I guess not.’

Peyton huffs and rolls back to look at me. ‘Dustin. My younger brother. He’s Ellis’s age. You’re going to say it’s stupid because it’s not the same thing.’

‘I’m not going to say it’s stupid.’

‘There was an accident in our house, when I was little. A fire. Super scary. Nobody died but my brother got burnt and he ended up with a scar on his face, a little down his neck. He got bullied for it mercilessly. And it’s not the same thing as Ellis, I’m not saying it is, but my brother turned out the exact opposite of him. Super angry, always starting some new fight, thinks everyone’s out to get him. And God, it’s not like I blame him – I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like for every new goddamn person’s first impression to be the worst thing that ever happened to you – I’m just worried one day Ellis is going to have enough and he’s going to snap.’