You mean this is your girlfriend? Well, well, well! Then it’s doubly nice to meet you.’ Anna winked at me conspiratorially. ‘Just between you and me, I thought he was never going to get a girlfriend. Well, there was that one chick he wouldn’t shut up about, but that was a good few months ago now. God, I thought he was never going to get over her …’
‘Sal! Over here.’ I’d spotted her trying to elbow her way through the growing crowd, doing her best not to spill a drop of beer.
Anna started to say something, but Nat talked right over her to ask her whether she’d done the set reading for the summer. He was sort of a geek, but by the sound of her answer, Anna was too. He took one of the pints from Sal and thanked her, before turning away from us to continue his highly fascinating conversation with Anna. I appreciated not being bored to death with medical terms I didn’t understand. And it gave me the chance to give Sal the lowdown on the situation, along with my thoughts on Anna. After a couple of minutes I noticed Anna looking over Nat’s shoulder, scoping out me and Sal. I guessed their topic of conversation must have taken a turn towards more interesting things – like me.
Sal turned my attention towards the stage, where the first band was just about to start. A lot of people migrated towards the front, but we agreed to stay put. When they started playing, Sal and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. They were beyond terrible, but pretty entertaining to watch, if only because the lead singer was a shirtless boy with a very nice body.
A little while later, Anna and Nat drifted back towards us.
‘Hi, you must be Sal.’ Anna smiled broadly, and stuck out her hand for Sal to take.
Sal looked confused, but shook the proffered hand anyway. ‘Yeah, er … hi.’
‘Nat was just telling me about you. You’re Grace’s best friend?’
Sal nodded.
Anna sighed wistfully. ‘I’ve never had a best friend – someone to share everything with. You two are so lucky.’ Man, this girl is a proper weirdo.
Nat pushed his wrist in front of Anna’s face and tapped his watch. ‘Hadn’t you better be getting back to work?’
I was surprised at his rudeness, but glad that he wanted to get rid of her just as much as I did.
Anna stuck her tongue out at him, then looked back at me and Sal. ‘Well, it was lovely to meet both of you ladies. I can see Nat’s got his hands full with you two! Laters!’ She lavished us with one final impish grin before disappearing into the crowd.
Sal shoved her drink into my hands, saying she was desperate for the toilet. I was bursting too, but before I could ask Nat to hold our drinks, Sal had bolted. I followed a couple of minutes later, after quizzing Nat about his weird friend. He’d merely shrugged and said, ‘That’s just Anna,’ as if that explained everything.
Sal was washing her hands when I found her, staring vacantly into the mirror. ‘Feeling better?’ She flinched as if I’d crept up on her.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Just that you were desperate for the loo, remember?’
‘Oh yeah. Much better.’
‘Wait for me, will you?’
My chosen cubicle was disgusting, but the graffiti did a good job of distracting me. I was surprised people could be so creative in such adverse conditions. When I came out, I asked Sal what she thought of Anna, while I washed my hands with extra thoroughness.
‘She’s pretty.’
‘Pretty weird, you mean?’ I paused. ‘Do you think she fancies Nat?’
Sal shrugged. ‘How would I know?’
‘I dunno. I bet she does though – I saw the way she looked at him.’
‘Why do you even care? You’re the one he’s going out with.’
‘I know, I know. It’s just … she’s all cool and pierced and … older than us.’
Sal looked at me like I was crazy. ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’
‘I don’t know! She just makes me feel like a stupid little schoolgirl. Like there’s some big joke I’m not quite in on … you know?’
Sal shook her head. ‘I think you’re reading too much into it. Don’t worry about it. Now let’s get your paranoid head back out there. I don’t know about you, but I fancy getting some shots in.’
I smiled. ‘Now that is the best idea I’ve heard in ages.’
We linked arms and headed back into