The sun was starting to set later and later. A four o’clock lecture would let out into light rather than dark. One day, Chloe wandered slowly along the tree-lined avenue where the English department was based and decided that she could permit herself a visit to Archer Crescent. Zadie had asked that morning whether she would come and spend the day with her. Chloe had dug deep and found the willpower to say no, to tell Zadie she had work to do but would come over later. There hadn’t been any answer, but that wasn’t surprising. Zadie was always sporadic in her communication.

When she arrived, the front door was open, swinging in the wind. The door slammed against the frame and the force threatened to smash every tiny pane of coloured glass. ‘Zadie?’ Chloe called. The skin at the back of her neck prickled. Something wasn’t right. She took the stairs two at a time, and when she reached the bedroom she found Zadie lying in the bed, wearing one of her silk nightdresses, her face and hair pressed into a pile of vomit. Chloe panicked. She pulled Zadie into a sitting position, praying that she would be breathing. Zadie’s eyes moved under her heavy lids. ‘Zadie? Zadie? What did you do? Should I call an ambulance? Should I call your parents?’

Zadie shook her head. ‘Max,’ she murmured. Chloe dialled Max’s number, but the phone rang out. ‘He isn’t answering. Zadie, what happened? What did you do? I think I have to call an ambulance.’ Zadie shook her head again. ‘Max,’ she repeated.

‘You want me to call Max?’

Zadie nodded, her head slopping forward as if it were too heavy for her neck.

Chloe dialled Max again, and again he didn’t answer.

‘Zadie, I’m going to call Rav, okay? He plays rugby with Max. He’ll be able to get hold of him.’

Zadie shook her head, a little more alert. ‘No.’

‘It’s okay,’ Chloe said, calling up the number. ‘I promise he won’t tell anybody.’

As she waited for Rav to pick up, the inconvenient realization that this would be the first time they’d spoken since sleeping together intruded on her thoughts. She batted it away.

‘Rav,’ she gabbled, ‘are you at rugby? I need Max to come home, right now. It’s Zadie, I don’t know if she’s okay and she doesn’t want me to call an ambulance.’

‘Fuck, okay. We’re on our way.’

Chloe held Zadie upright, trying not to gag at the smell of vomit as Zadie’s damp, sick-sodden hair trailed over her. She held a glass of water from Max’s side of the bed up to Zadie’s lips, trying to get her to drink, but it was too difficult to balance her body and the glass. Zadie slipped and the water tipped down her front, staining the pale pink nightdress a darker pink.