“I’m fine,” he manages to say.
“Do you still have your passport?”
He nods. “It’s just my credit cards and the dollars I took out from the bank, and—”
“Are you in the loo?” his dad asks with a frown.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
Because,Hugo thinks, I was in bed with a girl I only just met, and who I’m starting to suspect I might like, even though I only just broke up with another girl who happens to have the exact same name, and who was supposed to be here with me instead, which makes this all more than a little bit confusing.
But he doesn’t say any of that. Instead, his groggy brain works to catch up with the lies he’s already told them, and he says, “Because I couldn’t find the light switch in the room.”
Behind them, Hugo can see Alfie walk into the kitchen, still wearing pajamas. He grabs an apple from the bowl on the counter and squeezes his face between theirs. “Hugo,” he says, leaning forward. “Heard you lost your wallet on the first day.”
“Second,” Hugo says grimly.
“Well done, mate. Were you drunk?”
“Alfie,” says their mum.
Hugo shakes his head. “No.”
“Stoned?”
“Alfred,”their dad says with a look of shock.
“No,” Hugo says quickly.
“Just being yourself, then?” Alfie says with a good-natured grin, and when Hugo doesn’t say anything, only glowers at the screen, he laughs. “Well done, you. We miss having that sort of top-notch attention to detail around here. Hurry back, all right?”
Hugo lifts a hand to wave weakly as his brother disappears again. “Where’s everyone else?” he asks his parents, suddenly feeling homesick, and they exchange a look.
“Oscar is upstairs,” his dad says. “Poppy’s gone down to Brighton for the day with that McWalter boy, heaven help us. And Isla and George are…well…”
They exchange a look.
“Over at the university,” his mum says.
Hugo frowns. “How come?”
“They wanted to have a look around,” she says, “since the housing assignments arrived yesterday.”
“They did?”
She twists her mouth up to one side. “Listen, darling…they put you together.”
“What?” Hugo’s brain feels slow and muddled. “Who?”
“All of you. Oscar and Alfie. Isla and Pop. You and George.”
“Me and George?” Hugo repeats numbly.
“It could be worse,” says his dad. “You could be with Alfie.”
“Hey,” comes a distant voice from somewhere behind them.
