Saturday night: Sacha knocked on Rona's front door.

"Hang on! Hang on, I'm coming!" Rona pulled the door open, licking something off her fingers as she did so.

"Oh, shit, was I meant to dress up?" asked Sacha.

Rona looked down at herself. She was wearing a black tank-top with sequins sewn into it and a yellow and red diagonally striped skirt, and she was wearing some make-up as well. "Oh, no!" she laughed. "It's just a little thing I like to do. Sort of like going to a premiere, you know?"

"Well, I can't say that I've ever been to one."

"Me neither - can't stop us from pretending though, eh?"

"Yeah . . ."

Rona shivered. "Shit, it's freezing outside. Come in, come in! You haven't been here before, have you?"

"No" said Sacha as she stepped into the house and looked around.

"Cool. Well . . . This is my place. My housemates are all out, but they said to say hi. Don't mind the cat" she said as a cat darted around the corner away from them.

"Right . . ." Sacha followed Rona down the corridor through the kitchen to the sitting room. Unexpectedly, Alain was there. It was the first time they'd seen each other since Alain had telephoned Sacha the other night.

"Oh, hi Alain."

"Hi, Sacha."

Rona hurried busily between them. "Play nice, you two."

Sacha looked around the room. Mal waved at her from a corner; she nodded back slightly.
"Hannah should be here later" said Rona. "She'll probably turn up late. Always gotta be the centre of attention, that girl."

"I'll tell her you said that!" joked Alain.

"Yeah, I noticed that" said Sacha absent-mindedly in response to Rona's comment. Rona looked back at her mischievously. "You tell me all about that, later." She grabbed Sacha by the arm and pulled her to the other side of the room. "And this" she said, placing Sacha in front of tallish, blondish young man, "is Brent. We were at uni together."

"Hi Sacha, nice to meet you at last."

"Hi, yeah you too I guess." She was a little disconcerted: Brent had obviously heard plenty about her; this was the first time she'd ever heard of him. But at least he provided an excuse to avoid Alain.