Bella laughs again. She leans over and kisses me on the forehead. “You’re still such a child,” she whispers, as if she were a hundred years older.

And for a second, as her smile dies again, she looks like she is, ancient and sad, and as she pauses, I wonder if she wants me to say something, to do something. But the moment passes and her shoulders droop as she puts the photo away.

“Tess, what are you doing here?” Greg asks.

I don’t really have an answer. I never come here at night.

“I wanted…it’s the wedding soon and Bella said Jack and Sean were away for the weekend and I thought…I thought you might be lonely.” I wince at my own words. It sounds ridiculous—a sixteen-year-old girl asking a forty-year-old if he’s lonely. He doesn’t laugh though. He smiles and opens the door wider.

“I’m fine, but come on in. Do you want a drink?”

I follow him into the kitchen and watch as he pours two glasses of whisky, adding water and ice to mine. I take a sip and try not to pull a face.

“You haven’t had any more nonsense from the boys, have you?”

My face warms as I shake my head. Sean can’t have told him it was me who cut his face. I haven’t been back to look for the lost clippers. “I haven’t seen them since…”

He sighs. “I had a word with them. I’m sorry. They’re so bitter, but it’s not fair for them to take it out on you.”

I don’t tell him I’ve pretty much been hiding from them. I’m mortified by what I did to Sean’s face, but it’s his own bloody fault—him and Jack. I hate them both, I do, I do. I’ve barely spoken to Bella in the last two days, since her two-in-the-morning visit to my room with that photo. The bitter sting of her words about Max is still raw, and my fear that the faceless boy in her photo could be him…the house has never been so full and so silent.

“How are the wedding preparations going?”

“Awful,” I say. “Even Bella’s got all caught up in it, going shopping with Julia and everything. Max and Lena’s parents came back this weekend and it was all anyone talked about and…” My voice trails off before I can confess that it’s me who feels lonely. Left out and alone. I was hoping to spend time with Max but he trails round after Bella and Lena the whole time. And Jack and Sean…even Bella is spending more time with them than me. I can’t even hang out with Dad anymore, like I used to when Bella was off with her mates, because he has Julia now.