‘Rav?’

‘Yes.’

‘He’s a sound bloke. Why?’

‘Oh, nothing. We had a bit of a thing. But Zadie seemed to think he wasn’t a good guy. She didn’t think we should see each other.’

Max caught her elbow. ‘Well, if my opinion matters, you could do a lot worse than him. Don’t listen to Zadie too much. The thing you need to remember about her is that she really doesn’t like sharing her toys.’

Zadie

‘Is it bad,’ asked Max as he threw his clothes into the laundry basket and celebrated making the shot, ‘that I really enjoyed this evening?’

Every muscle in Zadie’s body felt tight. She ran her fingernails along her forearm, telling herself to be careful, to be gentle, not to scratch because, once she started scratching, it was hard to stop. ‘You did?’

‘I really did. The whole telly and food and not doing anything thing. It’s nice to do that when you’re not nursing a screaming hangover.’

Zadie curled underneath Max’s arm and rested her head on his chest. ‘I know what you mean. Kind of boring, but in a nice way.’

‘A really nice way. I think Chloe liked it, too. I worry about her sometimes.’

‘Oh?’

‘You know, that we might be corrupting her. She was such a cute little thing when you first started hanging out, and now she’s got that look that all your schoolfriends had, like she’s probably packing a gram and would know where to buy a gun.’

Zadie laughed. ‘She’s still cute. She likes the parties, too.’

‘We all like the parties. But there’s a difference between throwing a party every now and again and drinking three bottles of champagne and smoking ten thousand fags on a school night. We need to slow down.’

‘Totally.’ Zadie raised the glass of water from her bedside table. ‘Here’s to a new era of clean living.’

Max always fell asleep perfectly, within moments of his head hitting the pillow. Maybe it was all the running around he did during the day. But Zadie waited anyway, watching his chest falling in the half-light, waiting until he was completely, totally still. Then she put her feet on the cold floor and moved downstairs silently, without putting on any of the lights.