I returned home from the club with Emma and Laura and we were back in bed before our parents even noticed that we were missing. In the morning I walked to school with them as usual, trying to put the incidents of the previous night out of my mind.

 ‘You look pale,’ said Emma.

‘I think I’m just feeling a bit tired,’ I said.

‘Lightweight, ‘said Sarah. ‘You won’t want to be coming out with us tonight then!’

‘Yes I will,’ I protested.

We had reached the school gate and the assembly bell rang as we walked through the doors. We threw our bags into the common room and rushed into the hall. I strained to stay awake through the Bible readings and prayers. I did not see Emma and Laura again until after school. They usually waited for me and we went to the shop to buy fags, but today they weren’t there. I decided to go into the shop and see if they were there but they were nowhere to be found. I started to walk home alone and eventually spotted them at the traffic lights.

‘Wait up!’ I shouted.

At first they acted like they hadn’t seen me but I knew that they had.

‘What’s wrong?’ I said catching them up.

‘Nothing.’

‘What’s the plan for tonight then?’

‘There isn’t one.’

‘But you said…’

‘Emma’s got to Babysit and I have got an English essay to write.’

We walked home together in silence and when we got to my house they mumbled ‘see you’ and scurried off clearly scheming. I went to my room and started doing my homework but I couldn’t concentrate. Things weren’t the same since Friday night. Why did they have to avoid me? I had made an error of judgement, yes, but things had tuned out alright.

In the morning they didn’t even bother to call for me, so when it got to dinner break I hunted them down and decided to have it out. They were smoking behind the art block and when they saw me they looked pissed off.