Hannah curtly sent Janine to the bar to get them each a drink. She scanned the room furtively, and noticed Rona and the others in the corner, with Rona waving frantically and beckoning her over. Hannah smiled uneasily, paused, and then walked over there. Rona thought she looked a little reluctant to join them, but this made no sense in her mind so she quickly dismissed it. Hannah was pleased to see her friends, all right, but she wasn't relishing explaining who Janine was. She hadn't meant to take her to this gig at all, but she hadn't been able to shake her; and she knew that if she didn't show up Rona would never give her peace about it. Besides, there was just a slight chance Janine might see somebody in the bar who she liked more than Hannah - preferably somebody male. "Oh my god!" squealed Rona. "Why didn't you tell me you'd met someone?"

Hannah grimaced. "Met like a car meets a brick wall" she said. She glanced around the table: Alain was grinning at her in a sly and knowing manner; Sacha was inscrutable, as ever; Phuong was just her usual quiet, friendly self; Brent nodded to her discreetly, a warm smile on his face; Catherine was so absorbed in Brent that she barely even acknowledged Hannah's presence. Rona pushed one of the bottles of wine towards Hannah. "Honey" said Hannah, "I'm gonna need something stronger." Fortunately in that regard Janine shortly came over with a couple of shots clutched in her hands. Hannah introduced her to everyone uneasily - Janine didn't recognise Alain from the night at the bar when Hannah had kissed her, but Alain remembered her clearly. Now that they were all here (except, to Rona's secret frustration, the young man from the record store), the drinking began in earnest. Rona and Phuong had each started earlier than the others - though Phuong had slowed down pretty quickly in the interests of staying sober. The others, for the most part, were happily draining the two bottles in front of them and making plans to get more; although Sacha - capable though she was of drinking and holding a sizeable quantity of alcohol - held back a little. She was concerned about Hannah: she watched her, confident that the others were too busy drinking to pay any attention, and wished that she felt bold enough in her friendship with Hannah to suggest that she slow down, that she try not getting drunk for once. But she just didn't feel like she knew Hannah well enough. Janine was also watching Hannah, watching her with rapt devotion: it felt to her like something entirely new, being here with this strange girl who was so bold, so out-going. And because Hannah drank, Janine drank too - matching her girlfriend (my girlfriend! she thought to herself, and it was suddenly like being seventeen again) drink for drink. And the inebriation she quickly felt washing warmly over her inured her to the comments that slipped ever more carelessly from Hannah's mouth as she too succumbed to the alcohol. When Hannah slapped a hand on Janine's shoulder and said, loudly, to Rona: "She's not so bright, but she's not bad to look at" and laughed mirthlessly, Janine assumed that she was merely teasing. Rona didn't notice anything in Hannah's tone either: she was getting pretty drunk herself, and was trying to concentrate on the music anyway. The others all seemed to be ignoring Hannah (though Alain was secretly listening). It suddenly seemed to Sacha that she was the only one there who saw what was going on.

It all became too much for her. She excused herself and walked across the bar past a stack of speakers where the sound of the bass drum kicked out into her chest and made her heart rattle at her ribcage, and she entered the bathroom. It was empty: she walked into a cubicle, shut the door behind her (while the band played, muffled, through the walls) and clutched the cistern until her knuckles went white. She breathed hard. She could feel, unexpectedly, the alcohol starting to swirl in her stomach. She shut her eyes and exhaled, trying not to think of being sick.

She heard the bathroom door swing open: the sound of the music was momentarily louder, and somebody's clacking footsteps entered the room. "Sacha?"

Sacha opened her eyes. She hadn't been expecting this. She coughed. "Yeah?"

"You all right, hon?" Hannah sounded genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just had a bit too much a bit too quick."

There was a pause which hung heavily in the air. Sacha could hear herself breathing. "Listen" said Hannah. She sounded much more emotional than she had out in the bar, but Sacha didn't know how much of that was due to drunkenness. "Janine . . . I mean, me and Janine . . . I . . . It's not her, you know?"

Sacha felt like she could almost hear Hannah trying to compose her words, trying to organise her thoughts. Suddenly she realised that she didn't want to talk to her, not like this: one of them drunk, and the other in a toilet cubicle. "Hannah, not now, okay? Just . . . Not now."

There was another pause. "Okay" said Hannah softly, and Sacha heard her walking back out of the bathroom.