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the side and he bumps me back. It feels nice. “What about Ruby?”
    I look over to where Ruby is sitting, trying (failing) to hide how much she wants to leave.
    It would feel wrong to talk about it to anyone else. But this is Tom. “Not brilliantly. Not well enough.”
    He knows what I mean, and I can feel him looking at me as I look at Ruby. She’s been my best friend since I started at Flickers in Year 7 – even if she’s there to resit, she won’t be in any of my classes, she won’t be sitting in the common room in the sixth-form block, wearing her own clothes, but back in the school, forced into a uniform that she couldn’t wait to get out of.
    Or there’s the other option that neither of us have talked about – that Ruby won’t be at Flickers at all.
    I can be Kaz without Tom if I have to. I don’t know whether I can be Kaz without Ruby.
RUBY
    I message Lee.
    Oh my God, I’m so bored
.
    His reply:
Ungrateful much? I buy you a ticket, sort out your ride, buy your booze…
    I’m paying you back for all those things. Anyway, that was supposed to be a HINT FOR YOU TO RING ME. I need an excuse here
.
    Turning the volume up, I put my phone down and wait.
    The girl next to Roly titters and twirls a strand of her hair round like a little helicopter – I’m sure she thinks she looks cute. She looks like an idiot. Not that Roly seems to mind.
    I’m still waiting…
    Naj shakes a fresh bag of crisps at me – an act that irritates one of the other girls next to him, who I think must fancy him, judging by the death glares she’s been giving me.
    Waiting…
    I don’t want to commit to more crisps and that girl is welcome to—
    Finally my phone blares out Lee’s signature
Game of Thrones
theme tune and I stand up to answer it.
    “THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME,” Lee bellows into my ear. “Get your ass back here, Ruby Slipper.” And then he hangs up.
    “OK.” I smile, pretending he’s still there. “Will do.” Then I look up at my audience. “That was my brother. I’ve got to go.”
    Kaz hasn’t even noticed I’ve stood up, and when I call out her name, she looks dazed and confused, as if she’s surprised to find I’m here at all.
    “You coming?” I ask, watching the panic of indecision in her eyes: piss me off or deny herself some bonus Tom time?
    “Five minutes?” Kaz looks hopeful, but when she says minutes she means hours, and there’s no way I can manage that long with only Tom’s friends and the girls who want to pull them for company. I don’t want to leave Kaz here either, but if I make a fuss, I’ll be acting all ogre-ish, which is apparently something I do and I am
not
prepared to be the bad guy here.
    “Lee wants me for something” – which is the lamest of all the lies – “so I’ll head off now. See you when you’re done?”
KAZ
    Ruby waves goodbye with one hand, but I see her curl the index finger of the other into a hook against her thigh. It’s a signal I’m more used to giving than receiving –
you have half an hour before I try to find you
. Back when we went to The Cellar, before Ruby declared it a no-fly zone after she broke up with Stu, I’d find him and Ruby half an hour before the last bus home to Mum’s and give the sign before I rejoined everyone else on the dancefloor. It feels strange for Ruby to be using it on me and Tom.
    Tom is sitting so close that his elbow brushes my side as he reaches to catch a bag of crisps. When he leans back to open them, I catch a faint hint of the Tom-smell I’ve been yearning for all summer. Suddenly half an hour doesn’t seem very long at all, but Ruby’s too far away now for me to call her back.

5 • DOG
RUBY
    There’s supposed to be some kind of rivalry between Clifton’s nearest private schools (Flickers and Dukes) and the massive comprehensive (Canterbury), only it’s not something you ever see off the hockey/football/rugby pitch. We’re all too busy trying to get off with each other. Clifton is a small town