Rona walked down the corridor to put her suitcase in her room. On the way she passed Will's room; the door was open wide, and the room was bare and the sunlight came in through the window the way sunlight only comes into an empty room: flat and careless. Rona looked at Miranda.

"Yeah" Miranda said, attempting to make her voice sound light; it was like a heavy bird trying to take flight.

Rona continued to her room and put her suitcase down just inside the door, and said:

"We'll need to find someone new, then."

"Yeah" Miranda said again.

Rona knew what Miranda was thinking: she was thinking that right now she didn't really care what they had to do; Will was gone and she didn't care about anything else. But Rona was thinking: We're back to square one.

"Always plenty of people looking for a room in January" Miranda reasoned. "All the new students."

"Do we really want to live with a student?" Rona asked.

"Beggars can't be choosers" Miranda pointed out. "Are we really gonna have this debate again?"

"Sorry" Rona said, and she was struck suddenly by her insensitivity and she felt ashamed. "Are you okay?"

"Okay enough" Miranda said. "I knew it was coming."

"Yeah."

"Softens the blow a bit."

"Does it?"

Miranda held up her thumb and forefinger, a centimetre apart.

"It all helps, I guess" Rona said, thinking of herself coming back out of her shell, day by day; wondering if it hadn't been so much a shell as a chrysalis.

"Don't Dr. Phil me, Rona" Miranda said, laughing in a way that sounded like pleading.

"You're right" Rona said. "Let's have a drink instead."

"I don't wanna get drunk, it'll just make me maudlin."

"Not drunk, just buzzy. That happy buzz."

"Self-medicating?" Miranda said. "I don't know if that's such a good idea."

"Come on, Miranda. If you've got a legal drug you may as well use it. It's not the first step on a downward spiral."

"I'll have a glass" Miranda said. "Just one glass."

"Good" Rona said. "But you know if we open a bottle of wine and don't finish it off the rest'll go bad. And that's a waste."