Her head shot up. She couldn’t let him think that. She’d let him touch her in places she’d never been touched. She hadn’t known her body could respond to someone like that, hadn’t known she could desire someone so much. She wanted him to be her first. If he dumped her now she wouldn’t be able to live, to breathe, without him. He occupied her every thought. It was like she was possessed.

She jutted out her chin defiantly. ‘I’m not too young.’

His eyes lit up. ‘So you’ll smoke it with me.’

She nodded. Of course she would.

Heather waited by the candyfloss stall, as they’d agreed. Jess said she’d stay with her until Flora arrived. Jess didn’t have a curfew and thought nothing of walking back through the fields to her cottage alone in the dark. Heather admired her friend’s guts, but couldn’t understand why she was allowed so much freedom – she herself would hate it. Sometimes she wondered if, deep down, Jess hated it, too. She seemed lonely at home, and was spending more and more time with them.

They’d had a fun evening and, before long, Jess had made Heather forget about Flora and Dylan. She brought Heather out of herself, made her remember she was just a fourteen-year-old girl and that she wasn’t responsible for everyone and everything.

That’s what Heather had first liked about Jess when they’d met in the art class. She’d been honoured that this popular, funny girl had wanted to be friends with her. She knew everyone else in their year thought her weird, with her Goth tendencies, but Jess didn’t. Jess made her feel normal. Jess made the darkness in her mind disappear, at least for a while. And they’d had fun tonight, gossiping and singing along to ‘Baby, I Love Your Way’ by Big Mountain while attempting to win a teddy at the shooting stall. Heather had won a prize, of course. She was an expert with a gun. It was a big fluffy chick and she’d given it to a delighted Jess. Her friend held it under her arm now and Heather felt a stab of fondness for her and her love of anything cuddly.

But then she started to feel anxious. Where was Flora? It was gone nine fifteen and if they weren’t home by half past Mum would go nuts.

And then she saw her and Dylan striding towards them. Well, Dylan was. Flora was stumbling more than striding, and she looked ill, as though she couldn’t put one foot in front of the other, but she was giggling, her head lolling on Dylan’s shoulder.

‘What’s wrong with her?’ Heather hissed, turning to Jess with concern.

Jess frowned. ‘I dunno.’