I shrug and hand over the pills, then take a swig from the champagne and leave her to it.

Jason is sitting on the pool steps, drinking from a bottle of beer and chatting to a girl I recognise from my maths class.

I slide onto the step, dangerously close to him. “Hi,” I say.

He looks a little taken aback. “Um, hi.”

“Having fun?”

“Yeah.”

The girl on the other side of him – I think her name is Cheryl – glares at me, then pushes off the step and into the water to join the volleyball game.

“So, you and Tracey, huh?”

“No, we’re just friends.”

“Really? That’s not what Eloise says.”

“Oh yeah?”

“She says you’ve been together for a while in secret. That you’ve tried it on with her too.”

“Right.” Why am I surprised? I think about Mandy, the girls we broke with our careless gossiping and childish taunts. “You shouldn’t believe everything you hear. I can prove it to you if you like.” I’m not sure why I do it, but I lean forward and start to kiss him, throwing everything I’ve got at him, pressing my body against his. I can feel him recoil at first, then respond, and soon he is pushing back, his hands on my back and his leg pushing between mine. I clamp down the thought that it doesn’t feel as nice as I thought it would.

We break apart and he looks like all of his Christmases have come at once. “So you’re not a lesbian then. Are you bi? I don’t mind or anything.” He looks excited by the idea.

I hit him playfully on the arm, then lean in to kiss him again. I open my eyes and see Tracey watching us. She walks away, back to where she was sitting before, but the girl with the hoop earrings gets up and moves away as Tracey approaches.

Guilt turns my stomach, but I pull out of the kiss and make a play of cuddling into Jason’s shoulder instead. I am acutely aware of his hand high on my waist, his fingers very close to the underside of my bikini top, and I want to push him away, but Eloise is watching me closely. Brian goes up to her and she says something to him I can’t hear. She looks over at Tracey, her face a mask of hatred.

Then Jason is leaning in again, blocking my view. When I pull back again, Eloise has disappeared.

She reappears a few minutes later and walks over to Tracey, a cup in her hand. Cold washes over me as I think she is going to throw the drink at Tracey, but instead she hands her the cup with a smile. I can’t hear what they are saying, but Tracey looks nervous, then visibly relaxes and accepts the drink. El holds her cup up and they toast each other.