“Before someone comes looking for the mugs and finds us naked in the common room.”
“Would certainly make the school newsletter more interesting.”
She laughs at that and gently nudges my shoulder.
“Come on.”
Reluctantly, I push myself up and help her sit up as well, both of us moving a little slower than usual, the sort of comfortable exhaustion settling into our bones that makes everything feel slightly unreal. Clothes are gathered from the floor in a mildly chaotic pile. Freya pulls her jumper back on, shaking her hair out as she does, while I tug my shirt over my head and attempt to restore some level of normality to the situation. It does not feel particularly normal.
Freya catches me watching her and raises an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re staring.”
“I’m allowed. I’ve just slept with you.”
She rolls her eyes but I can see the smile she’s trying to hide.
We tidy the sofa slightly, straightening the cushions like two teenagers trying to cover their tracks, then pause for a second near the door. Neither of us quite knows what the correct behaviour is now. Freya breaks the silence first.
“So… that happened.”
“Yeah.”
“No take backs.”
I shake my head and laugh. “No take backs.”
She studies my face carefully, like she’s checking something. Then she nods once. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Outside, the air is colder than before, the walk back down the path lit only by moonlight filtering through the trees. The campsite is quiet now, tents dark and still beneath the branches. We walk side by side down the hill. Not touching, but close enough that our shoulders brush every now and then. There’sa strange, peaceful sort of quiet between us now, the kind that settles after something big has happened and both people are still figuring out what it means.
When we reach the tents, Freya stops beside hers.
“Well,” she says softly.
“Well.”
For a second it feels like we might say something important. Instead she smiles faintly.
“Goodnight, Rory.”
“Night, Frey.”
She ducks inside her tent, leaving me standing there under the trees with the lingering warmth of the fire still on my skin, my lips still puffy and swollen from kissing hers and the quiet, undeniable certainty that nothing between us will ever be quite the same again.
Chapter forty-five
freya
Morning arrives at the campsite on our last day of the residential. I lie very still inside my sleeping bag and stare up at the pale canvas roof of the tent while my brain slowly catches up with reality. First thought: we’re packing up and going home today. Second thought: I slept with Rory last night. Not kissed. Not an “almost” kiss. Not the sort of thing you can pretend didn’t quite happen if you just avoid eye contact for long enough. Actually slept with him. On a sofa, in the common room, during a school residential. Which, when you phrase it like that, does sound very much like the beginning of a disciplinary hearing.
I drag the sleeping bag briefly over my face. Really strong decision making from me this week.
Outside the tent Theo is already talking at full volume like he has been awake for hours and is personally responsible for alerting everyone else that it’s time to get up.
