Chloe picked up her bag and kissed Zadie on the cheek, an affectation she had copied originally but now seemed unable to avoid. She brushed her lips against Max’s cheek, too, still cold from outside. ‘It’s not that,’ she said as she left the room. ‘It’s just that I had this disciplinary thing earlier. If I don’t get my act together, then they’re going to chuck me out.’

She paused in the hall, straining to hear what, if anything, Zadie was saying.

‘Stop pouting,’ Max said. ‘We’ve had what, ten, fifteen parties since the start of the year? You can handle one quiet night. What’s so wrong with spending a bit of time with me?’

She didn’t catch what Zadie said in response.

‘Either you can spend an evening here without getting slaughtered and putting £20 notes up your nose, or you can go back to that nice room in halls that your parents are paying for.’

Someone said something, but Chloe couldn’t work out which of them it was, and then a glass – several glasses – smashed on the ground. Chloe slipped out of the front door and gently pressed it closed, desperate to stay and find out what had happened but even more desperate not to get caught listening.

20

Now

A buzzing noise from the other room caught Chloe’s attention. She padded through and picked her phone up. Lissy was calling her. Why? She hovered her finger over the button to accept the call, but before she could decide what to do it stopped ringing. The display showed three missed calls. She tried to remember how long it had been since they had spoken. A couple of weeks? Maybe more?

Chloe’s chest tightened. Why had Lissy rung her so many times? Something must be wrong. Fumbling, she called her back. ‘Lissy? Are you okay?’

‘Fine,’ said Lissy, talking at a volume which suggested she was driving and the phone was on hands-free. ‘Just wondering whether you needed a lift, but you didn’t pick up so I had to leave. Are you getting a cab or taking the train?’

Chloe searched her mind, trying to work out what Lissy was talking about. ‘Sorry,’ she said, pulling everything out of her handbag to try to find her diary. ‘You’re breaking up. Can you say that again?’