What had that been? Bait? A trick? I felt like I had fallen for something, somehow. I wondered what June was doing, if she was still hiding in the gym, if she’d gone home to Heath. Pretended like nothing had happened. I took a secret pleasure in her having to deal with the aftermath.

It was more fun, I decided, to want than it was to get.

The nights I’d spent thinking of that exact thing happening had been exhilarating. I’d go through the details over and over, how her face would look and feel and what she’d smell like and the things she’d say. But now it had happened. And for some reason it was all just uncomfortable and sad.

Things would be different now. They had to be. I was hesitant to find out how they would be, because I feared I wouldn’t like the answer.

But more than anything, I decided: there was something she wasn’t telling me.

The messages. There was clearly something wrong. I hadn’t gotten to ask. I was too flustered. I had her all to myself; I could have asked and she could have explained everything –

And I was thinking all this while Leo and I drove, fighting against the post-dance traffic. We’d left ten minutes ago but were still in line to leave the parking lot.

‘You ready to talk?’

‘Not particularly.’

‘Traffic is a perfect time to talk.’

‘Yeah, because we’re trapped.’

‘OK, well, if you don’t talk I’ll talk for you. Blink once for yes and twice for no. Firstly – you got another text. Obviously. Right?’

I did a long, exaggerated blink.

‘What did it say?’

‘That’s not a yes or no question.’

‘Then blink in Morse code,’ Leo said. ‘Or, hey, here’s an idea: just tell me. With your mouth. And that sound that emerges.’

‘They just – they just kept texting me the word “fuck”.’

‘What? That’s the creepiest shit, I – OK, wait, so, June? What happened?’

‘It’s complicated. It’s complicated because I know if I tell you what happened you’re gonna be like, “Oh, why’s that a bad thing?”, which I won’t be able to explain besides that … it just. Felt. Bad.’

‘OK.’

‘She – we danced, I guess. We danced. It was nice. Until it wasn’t.’

‘What, because of … what’s his name?’

‘Heath. Yeah, I guess. And … I don’t know. I don’t know. She’s so weird, dude. She’s so weird. I don’t – I just don’t know what she wants me to do. And this whole time there’s been the file, a literal fucking file containing probably everything about her in my dad’s desk, and I could just open it, I could just see …’