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shaking. He was nervous, I realised – jittery – like when I’m swimming a medley relay and I’m on the starting blocks waiting my turn. I stood back, sweeping his dark hair out of his eyes with my hand.
    ‘Hey, you.’
    ‘Hey.’ He smiled, but he wasn’t looking at me. His finger and thumb pinched my chin as though he was trying to memorise the shape of my mouth.
    ‘Look at me.’ When he did, I tilted my head. ‘Are you OK?’
    ‘I just needed to see you.’
    ‘I saw you yesterday.’
    He pinched my chin. ‘You know I love you, right?’
    ‘Of course.’ I moved my hand and let his hair fall back over his eyes.
    ‘Don’t say of course.’ He frowned and took my face in his hands, the pads of his fingers pressing into my cheeks. ‘Say you know, Adamma, because I wouldn’t be doing all of this, all of this sneaking around and lying, if I wasn’t in love with you.’
    ‘I know.’
    He kissed me again, then pressed his cheek to mine. When I’d caught my breath, I put my hand in his hair again and started playing with it.
    ‘This Scarlett thing hasn’t got you spooked, has it?’
    ‘Of course not. I just hate this.’ He took a step back and looked at me. ‘I saw you with Molly. I hate that I can’t just be with you , that you can’t even sneak out of the dining hall without someone seeing you.’
    ‘I know.’ I closed the gap between us, pressing my palms to his chest. ‘But it’s May, this year is almost over and then we have one more before we can move to Cambridge and be together.’ He shook his head, but I reached for his lapels and tugged. ‘My parents will be pissed as hell, but I’ll be eighteen.’
    ‘A year.’
    ‘I know.’ Panic plucked at me as he took another step back and rubbed his forehead with his hand. ‘But it’ll fly by. The last five months have felt like nothing.’
    He reached for me again, one hand on my cheek. ‘Not nothing.’
    I immediately felt better, pressing my cheek into the curve of his palm with a smile. ‘So stop fretting.’ But when he didn’t smile back, I knew it was more than that and I tugged on his lapel again. ‘What? Talk to me.’
    He sighed and stepped back. ‘Why did you go to her party?’
    ‘I told you—’
    ‘You pissed her off,’ he interrupted, hands on his hips.
    ‘How do you know?’
    Before he could tell me, my cellphone rang. I took it out of the pocket of my blazer to reject the call, but when I saw that it was Mrs Delaney, I muttered, ‘Damn.’
    ‘Hello, Mrs Delaney.’
    He sighed and shook his head again and when he walked over to the painted crocodile he’d just jumped out from behind, I knew what he was thinking, that there was always an interruption, always something .
    ‘Where are you, Miss Okomma?’
    If it was anyone else, I would have lied and said I was in the dining hall, but it was Mrs Delaney. ‘By the canal. I wasn’t feeling well so I thought I’d get some fresh air.’
    ‘Well, that’s hardly surprising. It is Tex Mex Day in the dining hall,’ she said with the sort of contempt usually reserved for paedophiles. ‘But you must remember to sign out, Miss Okomma.’
    ‘Sorry, Mrs Delaney.’
    ‘I need you to go to the car park,’ she said, pausing to tell someone to do up his tie. ‘It seems that someone tried to break into your car last night.’
    ‘ My car? Are you sure?’
    ‘Quite sure, Miss Okomma. Security have arranged for it to be towed—’
    ‘Towed?’ I interrupted with a gasp.
    ‘I don’t know the extent, but there seems to be some damage. Security need you to sign the relevant paperwork.’
    ‘Yes, Mrs Delaney,’ I muttered with a sullen sigh.
    When I ended the call, he asked me what was wrong and, even though he was sympathetic enough, I knew he was still pissed about Scarlett’s party.
    ‘I’m sorry. I’ll call you later,’ I promised, pressing a quick kiss to his mouth, before hurrying out of the prop room.
    I was about to cross the Green when Olivia started walking