‘You gotta do something,’ Becky said.

‘Oh Becky, come on, not this again.’ Cathy buried her head. ‘I told you last night, it’s not that bad.’

‘But you don’t need anyone else to back up what you say.’ Becky was on her front now too, her face closer to Cathy’s. ‘I’ve asked a policeman, my uncle, and he said that even just one person –’

‘Jesus! Becks.’ Cathy lifted her head so she could gesticulate with her hands. ‘You’re being dramatic. Can we just have a nice day?’

‘Fine, forget I said anything.’ Becky flopped down on her side, her back to Cathy. ‘I won’t bring it up again.’

‘Good.’

And Cathy knew they were okay again when Becky started humming along to ‘Take a Bow’, the last song on the CD. When it finished Becky sat up and said, ‘Do you want to listen to it on random this time?’

‘Sure.’

And then Becky slapped Cathy’s arm. ‘Hey, look.’

Cathy looked. On the edge of the pontoon Danny and Leonie were sitting close together, their hands overlapping, faces turned to each other.

‘Have they started something?’ Becky said. ‘Finally?’

‘Dunno,’ said Cathy, starting to smile.

Becky and Cathy watched them sitting together out on the pontoon. The graze on Danny’s shoulder did look like it should have really hurt, but he seemed to pay it no attention. Becky and Cathy watched as Danny and Leonie leaned their heads towards each other, and the sun sparkling off the water knitted them together with a thousand flecks of rainbow light as they kissed.

‘I’d say that’s a yes,’ said Cathy.

Later, Leonie remembered the way that the twinkling of the sunshine off the water had made it so clear, the way that Danny’s jawline was changing, firming – how strong his features were becoming. The drifting sandy hair of the boy who had been her main go-to on the footy field was turning thick and brown. His arms were still thin, but they were beginning to bulk up, and his body felt strong when he pressed it against hers. The skin of his cheek was rough against her face as he kissed her again, as he had been kissing her since the other night, on his fourteenth birthday, when he had stepped out of the shower at her house, blood still oozing from his shoulder, shocked tears still leaking from his eyes, and finally, after all these years their bodies began to speak to one another in a language independent of their childhood friendship.

Out there on the pontoon with his dripping arm draped around her, smiling in the sun as caramel-coloured water traced lines across their skin, she just felt joy that this boy who had for so long been her partner in crime, the boy who knew her and laughed at her and with her, the boy who brightened her whole life – that this boy was becoming a man. Her man.

Danny kissed Leonie and then he kissed her again – a good long one.