The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,71

hall and has no idea why she came in, or why she follows Jonte and Linnéa into the living room.

Fuck, she thinks. Fuck, fuck, fucking fuck.

Linnéa stops suddenly and gives Jonte a strange look.

‘What?’ he asks.

‘Why do you smell of coconut?’

Jonte snorts with laughter and throws himself on to the sofa, which gives a loud crack. He’s wearing a washed-out black hoody and baggy jeans. He picks up a little bag of weed, pulls a packet of Rizla papers from his pocket and deftly rolls a joint. Linnéa sits next to him and leans her head on his shoulder.

Vanessa grimaces. Jonte isn’t bad-looking but he’s so … unsavoury. And almost as old as Vanessa’s mother.

Linnéa suddenly stares piercingly into the room. It’s as if she’s looking straight at Vanessa. But that’s impossible. Isn’t it?

Jonte lights the joint and takes a deep toke.

‘What are you so fucking uptight about?’ he says to Linnéa, as he hands her the joint.

Linnéa smokes it as she stands up and walks over to her laptop, which is open. She puts on a slow song. The female vocalist sounds sad and frustrated.

‘Come here,’ Jonte says, and Linnéa goes to him, lays the glowing joint on an ashtray and sits close to him. She kisses him and Vanessa winces. But she can’t take her eyes off them as Linnéa tugs off her T-shirt, and Jonte unfastens her black bra, then runs his hands over her back to her breasts.

Linnéa eases back on the sofa with a hand around Jonte’s neck. He glides down on top of her and reaches for the joint. They continue kissing each other, alternating with drags from the joint. Linnéa slips off her shorts in one slick movement. Her pants are bright pink with little black hearts. Jonte lets his hand slip inside them. Linnéa starts to smile. Suddenly she raises her head and looks at Vanessa. ‘Had enough yet?’ she says.

‘No way,’ Jonte mumbles, and kisses her neck.

Vanessa is so shocked that she stumbles out into the hall and accidentally knocks over one of the little lamps.

‘What the fuck was that?’ she hears Jonte say.

‘I’ll go and have a look – I need to go to the bathroom anyway,’ says Linnéa.

Vanessa is fumbling with the lock when she feels something soft hit the back of her head. She turns. Linnéa’s T-shirt is lying on the floor. She’s standing there with her arms crossed over her naked breasts. Her face is in shadow. ‘I know you’re there,’ she whispers, barely audibly.

Vanessa opens her mouth to say something but no sound comes out.

Linnéa marches towards her and Vanessa presses herself against the wall, trying to stop herself staring at Linnéa’s breasts as she unlocks the door.

‘Get out,’ Linnéa hisses, and Vanessa bolts.

Linnéa slams the door so hard that the sound carries throughout the building. Vanessa runs down the stairs and out through the front entrance.

The first thing she does is squat in some bushes to pee. Only then can she begin to think clearly. She’s behaved like a lunatic and it was her weekend of isolation that had done it.

She mulls it over as she walks briskly homewards. What should she say next time they meet? ‘Hi, I’m sorry I’m a sick pervert who likes to watch my friends having sex. Well, I mean we’re not even friends, really, you and me, but still, it was a lot of fun. How was it for you?’

What she’d really like to ask Linnéa, though, is why she’s with a loser like Jonte. And, while she’s at it, she’d like to ask herself why she cares. As long as Linnéa isn’t sleeping with Wille she should be happy.

There’s something about Linnéa that makes her behave unpredictably. Why did she follow Jonte into the apartment? She has no answer to that. The only reasonable explanation might be that she really is a sick pervert.

It’s almost eleven thirty when Vanessa sticks her key into the door. She hopes her mother has gone to bed. Nicke is away in Borlänge, doing a course, so she doesn’t have to worry about him.

But when she goes into the hall she hears voices in the kitchen. She takes off her shoes and coat as quietly as she can. Frasse saunters into the hall and licks her hand. Thank God he doesn’t bark. She’s so focused on being quiet as possible that she doesn’t notice Melvin’s toy car on the floor in front of her. She steps on it, sending it flying into the