‘You’re up!’ Rob said, coming through the door with a Morrisons carrier bag in each hand. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Bit… rough,’ Piper said.

She’d shrieked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. As Matt had predicted, her make-up had been smeared black around her eyes, her hair flat on one side and standing straight up on the other. But she’d stood under a hot shower for a while, moaning gently, and felt much better for it. Well, not much. But better. Putting on the previous night’s clothes hadn’t felt great, but it wasn’t as if she had any alternative. And then she’d sat very still on the sofa in Rob’s open plan living room/diner and waited for him to come back.

‘You could’ve gone outside,’ Rob said, crossing the room behind her to the kitchen. ‘It’s a nice day.’

‘Out where?’ Piper asked.

Rob crossed the room and pulled back the hazy white curtains. They slid smoothly open to reveal a wall of windows, overlooking the river, the beach and the fort.

‘Bloody hell.’ Piper pushed herself up to standing with the arm of the sofa. ‘I had no idea.’

Rob grinned at her. ‘You saw it last night. The curtains were open when we came back. You kept saying how gorgeous it was. I slept on the sofa, by the way. In case you were worried.’

‘Ugh, god.’ She crossed the room and stood next to him at the window, squinting against the sun. ‘Sorry. Was I a total dick?’

‘No!’ He quickly squeezed her upper arm before letting go. Piper could still feel the heat of his hand. ‘You were lovely. Funny.’

He pulled a handle and slid one of the doors open. Fresh cold air rushed into the flat.

‘You can sit out there, if you want? While I make breakfast? Or you can stay inside? Up to you.’

‘Um,’ Piper said. ‘Outside, I think?’ The sea air was already making her head feel clearer.

‘I’ll bring you another tea out.’

Piper stepped out onto the balcony and over to the frosted glass panels, leaning her elbows on the top and resting her head in her hands, massaging her temples with the tips of her fingers. She watched seagulls swoop down on the beach and a small dog running and chasing a ball. The cranes over in the docks in Liverpool were still but the wind turbines were spinning slowly.

Why had she got so drunk? She knew why. Because she’d been nervous. Of seeing Rob. Of seeing her former friends. Mel. Dawn. Claire. All of them. Because she hated coming back. Didn’t want to be reminded of who she used to be. Hadn’t wanted to answer questions about her parents. She winced as she remembered wiping tears from her face, someone – Mel maybe? – saying, ‘She’s upset. Get her another drink, Rob.’ She’d cried. How embarrassing. They probably all thought she was an absolute wreck.

She rolled her shoulders back. It was fine. She didn’t have to see them again after this weekend. She was going back to London. To her flat and her job and her friends. To the life she’d fantasised about when she’d lived here. To the life she’d never really believed she’d get to have. That she was sure her friends didn’t believe she’d get to have. To the life she wouldn’t have if her parents hadn’t died.

‘You don’t have sugar, right?’ Rob said, bringing another tea through. ‘I don’t, so I didn’t even think until after I left earlier.’

‘No,’ Piper said, turning and smiling at him, as he put the mug of tea down on the table. ‘Just milk, no sugar.’

‘Didn’t think so. How’s the head?’

‘Getting better. I’ve just the shame to deal with now.’

‘Oh fuck that noise,’ Rob said. ‘Everyone gets pissed. And I told you, you were fine.’

‘Was I singing Elbow?’ She’d had ‘One Day Like This’ stuck in her head since she’d woken up.

He laughed. ‘We all were. It was great. I’d better get back to the breakfast.’

He went back inside. Piper could smell the bacon and her stomach gave a pitiful grumble, like it was willing to attempt food, but it wasn’t making any promises. She sat down on one of the comfy chairs and closed her eyes, turning her face up to the sun. Another memory appeared: she was bent double laughing on the dancefloor. She couldn’t think who she’d been dancing with – everything was a blur and flashing lights. And then… had she been talking to one of her teachers? Mr Rogers? He’d been one of her favourite teachers actually. Had he really been there? Or was that bit a dream?

Rob called out that breakfast was ready and Piper went inside, taking her tea with her.

‘Was Mr Rogers there last night?’ she asked. She spotted the food on the table. ‘This looks amazing, Rob, god.’

‘Sit down,’ Rob said. ‘You’re fine. And yeah, he was there. You were very excited to see him.’

‘Oh god. I didn’t try to kiss him or anything, did I?’ She sat down, thinking I didn’t try to kiss you?

Rob snorted. ‘Not that I saw, no. I think you were just telling him he was your favourite. I remember you talking about weeing on leather? And bread for plates? Something like that.’

Piper shook her head. ‘Literally all I remember from history. And he taught me that.’

‘I remember crop rotation,’ Rob said. ‘Feel like that’s all we learned for years. I don’t think any crops need that much rotation.’

Piper cut into one of the two sausages on her plate and tentatively raised it to her mouth. ‘Now if this makes me sick it’s because of my own choices and not a comment on your cooking, okay?’

Rob smiled. ‘Noted.’

As soon as Piper swallowed the first bite of sausage she felt better. ‘God, Rob. Thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it.’

‘No worries. You were pretty insistent that you couldn’t go back to your aunt’s last night.’

‘Shit!’ Piper said, dropping her fork – it clanged against the edge of her plate. ‘Did I phone her? She’ll be worried sick.’

She started shoving her chair back, but stopped when Rob held a hand up and said, ‘No, you’re fine. You definitely rang her. I heard you.’

‘Shit,’ Piper said. ‘Thank you. God, I can’t believe it took me this long to even think about her.’

‘Makes sense,’ Rob said, shrugging. ‘You don’t usually have to.’

‘I guess,’ Piper said. ‘Bloody hell.’

‘You said she’d kick off if you went back drunk.’

Piper smiled. ‘She wouldn’t kick off. But she’d make little comments about it for the rest of my life. I was drunk once at her house years ago. I was fifteen or something? I was probably with you actually! In Central Park?’

‘Oh god, yeah. Was it cider? Jess brought loads of…’

‘Strongbow,’ they both said at the same time.

‘My parents were away,’ Piper said. ‘So I was staying with Aunty Connie. But we all went to the park and then I went back to hers thinking there was no way she’d know. Course she knew right away.’

‘We got picked up by the police,’ Rob said.

‘Oh shit! I’d forgotten that!’

‘I was asleep. Literally woke up with a policeman leaning over me. I was grounded for weeks.’

Piper laughed. ‘I remember you messaging me about it. I wanted to come and sneak in your window like on Dawson’s Creek or something.’

Rob swallowed some bacon and said, ‘It always pissed me off that there wasn’t a tree outside my window. I was desperate to escape.’

‘Remember when you rescued me from that tree?’ Piper said.

She hadn’t actually meant to say it because it wasn’t one of her most impressive memories. A bunch of them had been hanging round in the park and daring each other to climb trees. Amanda had been really good at it – she’d clambered up the trunk and then appeared at the very top, head poking through the leaves, waving at the rest of them. She was fearless. Piper could comfortably climb one – with an enormous trunk and wide branches, split to practically make seats, but there was another that everyone clambered up, leaving Piper on the ground. Jess had been taking the piss out of her, she remembered, which was what had eventually convinced her to join the rest of them. She’d shuffled along the branch and it was only when she was quite far out that she realised she’d have to jump down. And she’d frozen. She hadn’t been able to move at all, not even shuffle back to the main part of the tree. She’d just sat there, gripping the branch with her nails digging in, mentally picturing herself falling off backwards and cracking her head on the ground. It hadn’t even been that high. She’d just panicked.

Carl had started bouncing on the end of the branch to scare her, but Rob had shouted at him to knock it off. Piper wasn’t sure if he’d spotted the tears pricking her eyes or if he was just being nice anyway, but she’d appreciated it. Rob had never been as much of a dick as the other boys. He could be loud and stupid and lairy, same as the rest of them, but he’d always been kind, had never deliberately hurt anyone. He’d jumped down and moved until he was standing just under Piper and had held his arms up.

‘I’ll catch you.’

Piper had shaken her head. She was the heaviest of all of them, she knew. She knew because once at Amanda’s she’d made everyone get weighed and there’d been no chance of Piper getting out of it. Going along with it had seemed easier than making everyone think she was self-conscious about it. But she knew that she weighed ten pounds more than Robbie.

‘You’ll get flattened,’ Piper had heard Carl say.

‘Fuck off, Carl,’ Rob had said without even turning his head, just looking straight up at Piper.

She’d lowered herself as far as she could without actually letting go or jumping. Her arms had trembled and she’d been genuinely afraid she might wet herself, but then Robbie said, ‘It’s okay. Nearly there.’ And she’d let go. And he hadn’t even had to catch her. She’d dropped to the ground heavily, stumbled, and his hands had immediately gone to her hips to steady her.

‘Okay?’ he’d said.

She hadn’t been able to speak – she’d just nodded.

‘Ignore them,’ he’d said. ‘They’re dickheads.’

Piper had looked at his mouth. At his soft lips. Had let herself imagine that he might like her. That maybe he’d kiss her. Not there and then in front of everyone. But one day. Maybe. Somewhere.

‘I like chubby girls better anyway,’ he’d said. And ruined it.