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‘I can make them leave if you want?’ Zoe said. She was hanging on to his arm now and I needed her to stop.

‘Nah, it’s fine. I reckon that would make things worse. And I’ll have to head soon anyway.’

‘You’re so right. Clever too. Amazing. Let me get you a drink.’

Then she disappeared. So I took my chance.

‘Hey, I’m really sorry about that,’ I said, moving close enough that I didn’t have to shout over the music.

‘It’s not your fault. And don’t worry. I can handle it. Want to sit?’ He glanced at the seat behind him.

‘No,’ I replied instantly.

‘No?’ He looked confused but was trying not to laugh.

‘I mean, it’s a bit loud in here. Crowded. Do you fancy going out the back for a bit? There must be a football out there.’ I hoped there was a football.

‘Sure.’

He stood up and suddenly, I was nervous.

‘I think it’s out here.’ I walked towards the only door that could have opened to the back garden. We walked through it and into darkness. Another room. I couldn’t find the light. The sweet floral smell of fabric softener made me think it was a utility room.

I banged into something hard. ‘Shit.’

‘Are you OK?’

I felt him touch my waist. Electricity.

‘Yeah, I’m OK,’ I whispered.

Then he was beside me, so close I could feel the heat of his body.

‘I feel terrible,’ I said quietly.

‘Why?’ He sounded genuinely curious.

‘Because of Niall. You shouldn’t have come, I should have known it was going to be like this,’ I said, shaking my head.

He tilted my chin up so I was looking at him, even though I couldn’t see him clearly in the dark.

‘Lexie, I came because I wanted to see you. That shit’s just noise.’

Then his mouth was on mine, warm, sweet, slow.

I relaxed into him, letting everything go.

All the stuff Niall said, swallowed by a cloud of euphoria that exploded when Shane touched me.

His body was hot against mine and he found the space between my top and jeans, like he’d done at the pavilion.

He grazed my skin gently and I found myself gripping on to his shoulders, like I never wanted to let him go.

Whatever way we moved, Shane banged into something else. He pulled away and laughed. ‘Ah, here’s the garden.’

I moved round him and pushed the handle, and a blast of cold air made me gasp as I walked outside.

‘You coming?’ I turned towards Shane, who was standing so close to me that the hairs on my neck stood up all over again.

Part of me wanted to turn back into him, feel his hands on me and touch the hard muscle of his stomach again, but I’d already committed to the garden.

‘Lead the way,’ he said.

We walked into the January night. I was definitely not wearing enough clothes for this. But, like I said, I’d committed.

‘Jesus, it’s huge,’ Shane said, scanning the property.

It was big and I was embarrassed that I’d barely even noticed. It was separated into different sections by little paths, and evergreen trees everywhere.

‘Yeah, it is. Let’s find a ball. There’s bound to be one somewhere.

’ I held out my hand to him without thinking.

A second of cringe before he took it, lacing his fingers through mine, his smile half covered by the track top that was zipped right up to his chin.

We walked down the first path we came to that twisted and turned, lit up by tiny little flower-shaped lights.

We walked in silence until we reached a clearing that had a fountain in the middle.

Shane stopped and pulled me back into him, looking down at me in the moonlight. ‘This is nice,’ he said.

‘I don’t do this all the time, you know,’ I said, embarrassed. ‘In fact, I never do it.’

‘Don’t do what? Take walks in posh gardens at night in January?’ He unzipped a few centimetres of his top so I could see his mouth. My stomach flipped as I remembered how those lips had felt on mine.

‘Kiss boys I don’t know,’ I admitted.

‘I don’t kiss boys I don’t know either.’ He shrugged and I laughed.

OK, there was this one time when Niall was driving so I decided to see what the big deal with vodka was and I did kiss some guy at one of Hunter’s house parties. But both of us were drunk, and all I remember is that there was way too much saliva.

He kissed me again. Slowly, not hungry and desperate like at the pavilion, but gentle and deliberate.

I kissed him back, slipping my hand round his waist and standing on my toes.

He had his hand in my hair, then both hands on my face, cupping my cheeks that were flushed with heat.

And then the panic set in. I inhaled and looked back towards the house, looking through the trees to see if anyone else had come out.

That was the last thing I wanted. To be seen.

For Niall and Hunter to find out and cause even more drama.

But it was more than that. Being with Shane would be the ultimate betrayal for Niall, and even though he’d hurt me more than I thought he ever would, I didn’t want to do the same to him.

‘You OK?’ Shane looked down at me and I turned to him, letting my eyes settle into his gaze.

‘Yeah, just freaking out in case someone sees us.’ I gave a small laugh. ‘Stupid.’

‘Your feelings aren’t stupid,’ he replied, and it made my heart swell. I was shocked at how easily he said it, with no hint of embarrassment. Like I couldn’t imagine Hunter ever saying something like that.

‘Yeah, it’s just complicated with Niall, you know?’

He reached down and pushed hair behind my ear, like he’d done at the pavilion.

I closed my eyes and the voltage surged through my veins.

‘Complicated families? Yeah, I get it. But you know what? I don’t usually do this either. So maybe it means something?’ he mused.

I smiled. ‘Can we not tell anyone about us? I just can’t be bothered with dealing with all the drama.’ I tried to keep it light.

‘Sure, of course.’

I looked straight up through the trees to the sky full of stars. ‘Have you heard of binary stars?’ I asked him. I’d read up about them when we did this random module on astronomy in physics, and I’d wanted to impress Mrs Lee.

He shook his head.

‘Stars that are gravitationally bound to each other, they orbit round the same centre of mass, and if they get too close, they can gravitationally distort each other’s atmospheres.’ I looked away, embarrassed.

‘You’ve definitely gravitationally distorted my atmosphere,’ Shane said with one of those smiles that wasn’t full but wanted to be.

And it was something that would have sounded ridiculous if it had come from anyone else.

‘Whatever that means. You must be really clever.’ He stepped back and turned away before coming back to me with a football at his feet.

‘Hey, where’d you find that?’ I asked. I’d been scanning the grass when we’d started walking. ‘And I’m not. I just work really hard.’ I kicked myself for not just leaving it out there that he thought I was super clever.

‘Can’t you be both? It was under that wee bench over there.’ He held the ball on his toe and started doing keepy-ups.

‘How many can you do?’ I asked.

‘Never counted,’ he said. But judging by how easily he bounced the ball up and down on both feet, I guessed about a million. My efforts capped at seven.

He passed the ball to me, and I moved back to the other side of the fountain so I could control it. I concentrated, trying to impress him.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘If you have the ball, you have to answer questions. ‘What school do you go to?’

‘Blackport.’

I passed the ball back just shy of his left foot.

He grinned. ‘Terrible pass. We’ll work on that in the morning. Blackport? Of course.’ He cocked an eyebrow and laughed.

I put my hands on my hips. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Posh school. Posh girl?’ He shrugged and waved his hand around the garden as if to make his point.

‘Not necessarily … Do you not like posh girls?’ Because right then, I’d be anything he wanted me to be.

‘You’re the first one I’ve met, and I like you …’ He looked up from the ball and gave me a slow half-smile. I was glad he couldn’t see me blush. We were getting closer to each other again, and closer to the fountain, the stream of water drowning out the thud of my heart.

‘What school do you go to?’ I asked, ignoring the ball that was at my feet again.

‘St Anne’s,’ he replied.

‘Why’d you move to Westing FC?’

‘Better club,’ he said.

‘Yeah, but why now and not when you were, like, six?’ I asked, genuinely curious, because usually if you’re really into football, you start young, and if you’re as good as he was, you go to the good clubs.

‘I really liked it at Ferndale,’ he said, closer again.

And then we were sitting on the fountain, legs touching, freezing water splashing the exposed skin on my back.

‘I watched you train the first night I got there.’ His breath twisted into smoke beside me.

‘Oh God.’ I thought about the faces I pulled when I was concentrating, the sweat, the things I said when someone tackled me.

‘You look so hot when you play,’ he said.

I relaxed, unable to hide the smile that came so pathetically easily with him. ‘Oh yeah? Why is that?’ I asked, fishing. I let my hand rest on his leg.

‘I liked your wee shorts,’ he replied.

I laughed. ‘My shorts?’

‘And I liked how angry you got when your coach gave the other side a corner. Passion. I like that.’ He smiled, closer to me again.

‘It wasn’t a corner.’ I tried to sound serious, but I was still smiling.

‘It was.’ Even closer.

‘What else did you like?’ I whispered into the disappearing space between us.

But I didn’t hear his answer because we were kissing again, and my body was aching for him, in a way I’d never felt before, in a way I’d only read about in books or seen in movies. And it was everything.

But we were interrupted by a buzzing phone.

He pulled away, then stood up and slid it out from his pocket, walking a few metres down the path to have his conversation somewhere I couldn’t hear.

Except I could.

‘Hello …? I’m just at practice, coach kept me late … Won’t be long.’ He put the phone back in his pocket.

‘Everything OK?’ I asked, thinking he might explain the lie.

And I half expected him to assure me it was nothing.

But he didn’t.

‘I have to go,’ he said.

‘Oh, OK.’ I didn’t know what else to say.

‘Can I have your number?’

‘Sure.’ I took out my phone to see messages from Megan. I swiped them away and handed it to him, and he typed in his number, then I phoned him.

I stood up from the fountain, really feeling the cold now for the first time that night.

‘See you at the club tomorrow morning?’

‘How could I forget!’ I said, the disappointment of him leaving diluted.

‘Here, you look freezing.’ He took off his top and handed it to me. I slid it over my shoulders and breathed in the smell of him. Fabric conditioner, heat. I hugged myself.

‘Won’t you be cold?’

‘I’ll be grand,’ he said.

I didn’t believe him, but he’d already turned away, like he was in a hurry, so I sat back down on the fountain, football at my feet, wrapped his top round me tightly and smiled into the darkness. My heart exploding.