Rooney leapt to her feet. ‘Hang on, you literally don’t understand what was just happening.’

Pip’s stare hardened.

‘I think it’s pretty plainly obvious what was just happening,’ she said. ‘So don’t try and insult me by lying about it.’

‘I’m not, but –’

‘If this was a thing, you could have at least told me about it.’ She turned her stare to me, her face scarily blank of emotion. ‘You could have at least told me about it.’

And then she walked out of the room.

Rooney wasted no time in running after her, and I quickly followed. I needed to explain. Rooney needed to explain.

Everyone just needed to stop lying and acting and pretending all the time.

Rooney grabbed Pip’s shoulders just as she got to the end of the corridor and pulled her round to face her.

‘Pip, just listen –’

‘To WHAT?’ Pip shouted, then lowered her voice as a few passing students turned round curiously. ‘If you’re seeing each other fine, just go and fuck each other and enjoy yourselves, but you could have at least done me the courtesy of informing me so I could try and put a stop to my feelings and not be absolutely fucking crushed right now –’ Her voice broke and there were tears in her eyes.

I wanted to explain, but I couldn’t speak.

I had ruined my friendship with Jason and now I was destroying my friendship with Pip too.

‘I don’t – we don’t – we’re not together!’ Rooney gestured to me wildly. ‘I swear! It was my fucking idea because I’m an idiot! Georgia’s just been figuring shit out and I’ve just been making stuff worse, making her date Jason as an experiment when she never really wanted to do that, and now this –’

It felt like the walls shattered around us. Pip clenched her fists. ‘Wait …’ She turned to me. ‘You – Jason was just an experiment?’

‘I …’ I wanted to say no, he wasn’t, I thought I liked him, I genuinely wanted to fall for him, but … was that a lie?

Pip’s face crumpled. She took a step towards me, and now she was shouting. ‘How could you do that? How could you do that to him?’

I stepped back, feeling tears forming. Don’t cry. Do not cry.

‘Stop blaming her!’ Rooney shouted back. ‘She was figuring out her sexuality!’

‘Well, she shouldn’t have done that with our best friend who’d only just got out of a relationship that made him feel like an actual piece of SHIT!’

She was right. I’d fucked up. I’d fucked up so bad.

Rooney physically put an arm in between me and Pip. ‘Stop trying to make this about something else when we know what this is about!’

‘Oh yeah?’ Pip’s voice lowered. There were tear stains down her cheeks. ‘What’s this about, then?’

‘About the fact that you hate me. You think I’m taking Georgia away from you and because she’s one of your only two friends, you despise me because you think I’m replacing you in her life.’

There was a silence. Pip’s eyes widened.

‘You don’t know anything,’ she said hoarsely, and turned round. ‘I’m leaving.’

‘Wait!’ I said. The first fucking thing I’d said.

Pip turned back, struggling to say anything through her tears. ‘What? Got anything to say?’

I didn’t. I couldn’t form the words.

‘That’s what I thought,’ she said. ‘You never have anything to say.’

And then she was gone.

Rooney went right after her, but I stayed where I was in the corridor. The walls around me were made of paper flowers. Above me were twinkling fairy lights. Students passed, laughing, holding hands, wearing stylish suits and sparkly dresses. The song playing overhead was ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ by Candi Staton.

I hated all of it.