Rooney had managed to bagsy an entire table for us in John’s bar, which deserved a medal, because it was heaving. The bar was a tiny basement area in college, super old and very hot. I could practically feel people’s sweat in the air as we squeezed through the crowd to get to the table.

Rooney had dressed up for the night: jumpsuit, heels, hair curled into loose waves. She probably had other plans after hanging out with us at the very childish hour of 9 p.m. And while she had been waiting for us, she seemed to have befriended a large group of people sitting at the next table.

‘Darlings,’ said Rooney in a fake posh drawl as we all sat down, turning away from her new friends. ‘You all look so nice.’ She looked directly at Pip. ‘So stripes are your thing, Felipa?’

Pip narrowed her eyes at the use of her unshortened name. ‘Have you been Facebook-stalking me?’

‘Instagram, actually. I enjoyed the photo of you dressed up as a crayon for Halloween.’

This earned a smug smile from Pip. ‘You scrolled very far back then.’

We had to suffer several minutes of irritating banter between Pip and Rooney before Jason and I could even contribute to the conversation. In that time, I did some people-watching, looking around the room at our fellow students. There were people on a regular night out, some dressed up and others just in their college sweatshirts and jeans. There were people in fancy dress – a lot, actually, but it was still Freshers’ Week, so that made sense.

‘So how did you all become friends?’ asked Rooney.

‘School,’ I said. ‘And we all went to the same youth theatre group.’

‘Oh my God, that’s right! You’re all theatre kids! I forgot!’ Rooney’s face lit up. ‘This is amazing. We can all go to the welcome meeting together next week!’

‘It’s sad about your society getting shut down,’ Jason said.

‘Yeah! Shakespeare Soc. I was so set on joining it, but … it just doesn’t exist any more. Surely that’s some sort of crime against Britain.’

‘So you like Shakespeare?’ asked Pip. She sounded sceptical, almost.

Rooney nodded. ‘Yeah! Love it. Do you?’

Pip nodded back. ‘Yeah. I’ve been in a few at school.’

‘Same. I was in Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado, Comedy of Errors,and Hamlet at school.’

‘We did Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest.’

‘So I have more experience?’ Rooney said, and the curl of her lips was unmissable. It was like she was starting a fight.

Pip’s jaw twitched.

‘I guess,’ she said.

I caught eyes with Jason over the table, and the way his eyes widened told me that I wasn’t imagining this. Jason could tell what was going on too.

Here they were, Rooney and Pip, two very different sorts of chaotic energy colliding before my very eyes. I felt overwhelmed.

‘So, are you and Georgia, like, best friends now?’ asked Pip with a weak chuckle.

I was about to protest being dragged into whatever this was, when Rooney replied instead.

‘I’d say we’re pretty good friends already,’ said Rooney, smiling and looking at me. ‘Right?’

‘Right,’ I said, because there was really nothing else I could have said.

‘We do live together,’ Rooney continued, ‘so, yes. Why? Jealous?’

Pip went a little red. ‘I was just wondering whether we’d have to fight for the title of Georgia’s ultimate best friend.’

‘Am I not even a contender?’ Jason pointed out, but both the girls ignored him.

Rooney took a long sip of her beer, then leant closer to Pip. ‘You don’t strike me as much of a fighter.’

‘Is that a dig at my height?’

‘Just saying. I think you might be naturally at a disadvantage compared to most people.’

‘Ah, but I have the Short Person Anger advantage.’

Rooney smirked. ‘Can’t relate.’

‘Hey,’ I said loudly, and Pip and Rooney both looked at me. ‘We’re supposed to be having fun and getting to know each other.’

They blinked at me.

‘Isn’t that what we’re doing?’ said Rooney.

‘I need a drink,’ Jason said loudly, standing up. I stood up with him, giving him a supportive squeeze on the arm, and we left Rooney and Pip to their bizarre banter competition.

I knew that relying on alcohol to relieve anxiety was not great. On a physical level, I didn’t even enjoy the taste that much. Unfortunately, I had grown up in a place where almost everyone my age drank, and I’d accepted drinking as ‘normal’, like a lot of other things, even though often it wasn’t really what I wanted to do at all.

Jason ordered a cider and I ordered a double vodka and lemonade, and also two beers for Pip and Rooney.

‘I know she’s done the whole deflecting-feelings-by-being-angry thing before,’ said Jason grimly as we waited at the bar for our drinks. ‘But I haven’t seen her like this since Kelly Thornton in Year Ten.’

‘This is definitely worse,’ I said, thinking back to the time with Kelly – a lengthy feud over a stolen pencil – which had ended in Pip throwing a half-eaten apple at her head and getting two weeks of detention. ‘I just want everyone to be friends.’

Jason chuckled and nudged me with his shoulder. ‘Well, you’ve got me. We’re relatively drama-free.’

I looked up at Jason. His big brown eyes and soft smile were so familiar to me. We’d never had any drama. So far, anyway.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Relatively.’