Leah stood at the doorway of Keira’s room, looking at the blank spaces left by the absence of her belongings. The wall on which her collage of photographs had hung seemed strangely big with the images now gone, the wallpaper there brighter than the rest: an odd square of inappropriate optimism. Keira’s desk and shelves looked soulless, their character now lost with all the possessions that had been taken.

What might Keira’s parents do with her things? Leah wondered. They couldn’t cling on to them all – that would be weird. Creepy, even.

Her eyes were drawn to the chest of drawers that now stood empty, all the make-up and perfume that had once been lined up on it in rows now gone. There was something left there, though. She picked it up and turned it over. It was a small gold pendant in the shape of two stars, one overlapping the other. She hadn’t seen it before. Leaving it where she’d found it, she crossed the room and went to the window.

Had Keira really been pushed from that ledge? They’d sat there countless times over the past nine months and none of them had ever found it dangerous. If it had been, Keira wouldn’t have gone out there. She had been a play-by-the-rules sort of girl, never taking risks or doing anything reckless. Once they’d found what they’d later come to call their balcony, Keira had requested that room. She had liked to sit up there at night and watch the world go by below her. No one objected, because she was just so nice. The rest of them could argue over anything – who’d left the milk out, who’d dragged mud up the stair carpet, which of the boys had used the bathroom on the girls’ floor – but no one ever had cross words with Keira. She had been Leah’s friend, or so Leah had assumed.

But obviously they hadn’t been quite as close as she’d thought.

Why hadn’t Keira told her she was pregnant?

It seemed so unlikely, but there was now no denying it as fact. If it was going to happen to anyone, most people would probably have assumed it would be Leah who would get herself knocked up while still at university. Even Leah would have believed that likely. No one would ever have suspected that Little Miss Sensible would go and do it. Leah hadn’t even known Keira was sleeping with anyone.

She wondered why Keira hadn’t taken the morning-after pill. Had she been on the pill and hadn’t worried about the possibility it might not work? It wouldn’t be the first time it had failed to do its job. Leah realised that trying to second-guess was useless now; she had thought she’d known Keira, but she had obviously known nothing.

She heard the sound of footsteps on the ground-floor stairs and went out onto the landing. A moment later, Tom appeared below. He stopped at his bedroom door, looked up and noticed her.

‘They’ve been?’ he asked.

Leah nodded and headed down the stairs. Tom looked even more tired than usual, with dark circles hanging beneath his eyes. His unruly hair was matted against his forehead, as though he’d been running. He looked as though he needed a shower, a decent meal and a week’s sleep.

‘Were you here when they came?’

‘No.’

He pushed open the door to his bedroom and looked inside without entering. ‘So you don’t know if they’ve been in here?’

‘Her parents or the police?’

Tom looked back at her with a sarcastic sneer. ‘The police, obviously.’

Leah shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Did you move everything?’

‘Obviously.’

He went into the bedroom and kicked off his trainers. Leah followed, uninvited. She stood near the doorway, taking in the unusual tidiness of his room.

‘Where did you go last night?’

He turned to her sharply, his eyes narrowed. ‘What the fuck’s it to you?’

She held his gaze for a moment, wondering why he was so angry with everyone all the time. She didn’t think someone like Tom was capable of feeling guilt, but perhaps it had snuck up on him gradually, taking him by surprise. She’d thought she’d known him pretty well; she had thought she’d known his boundaries. Now she realised she might not know anything. The thought sent a shiver through her body, chilling her.

The knowledge that Keira – her supposed best friend – had been pregnant yet hadn’t thought to confide in Leah about it was gnawing at her. She wanted to know who the father was. She wanted to know if it was Tom. She couldn’t stand the thought that he might have been closer to Keira than she’d been. That wasn’t how things were supposed to work.

‘She was pregnant.’

‘Was she?’

Leah felt her heart pounding. ‘How can you be so casual about everything? Don’t you care about anyone but yourself?’

Tom rolled his eyes. ‘I don’t need all this drama. I’m sorry about what’s happened, of course I am, but it was an accident, Leah. Just accept it.’

Leah felt anger boil within her. She lunged at him and slammed her fists into his chest. The unexpected assault sent him staggering backwards and he fell against the bed as he tried to maintain his balance. ‘If you fucking hurt her …’

She didn’t get to finish the sentence. Tom grabbed her by the wrists and flung her backwards, sending her flailing across the room. He followed, reaching for her shoulders this time before pinning her against the wall.

‘You’ll what, Leah?’ he spat. ‘If I hurt her, you’ll what?’ He smirked as he waited for a reply they both knew wouldn’t come. She felt his fingertips digging into her skin, bruising her. ‘That’s right … you’ll nothing. And we both know why, don’t we?’ He pushed her back against the wall before letting her go. ‘I didn’t touch her.’

Leah tried to catch her breath as her earlier anger was replaced by fear. How well did she know Tom, really?

How well did any of them know one another?