Ember takes another vodka gulp. ‘Oh she did, just now, right before we were about to kiss.’
‘Oh my God, you guys nearly kissed?’ I squeak. ‘Sorry, not important right now.’
‘I’m so tired,’ Ember says, flopping onto one of the seats and rubbing her forehead with her free hand, the vodka bottle dangling perilously from the other. ‘And confused.’
‘Me too,’ I agree, and then get an idea. ‘Hey, do you want to sleep in a proper bed tonight? You can bunk in with me; I’m in a cabin on my own. I would have asked you sooner but kept missing the opportunity.’
‘And I’m “The Enemy”.’
‘You were never the enemy, Ember, never.’ I sit beside her and extract the bottle from her fingers, taking a sip before setting it down on the floor.
Ember looks so sad right now, so alone. She sits in silence for a while, but her lips keep opening like she’s forming some string of words to let out into the world. Eventually, they’re released. ‘You were my friends, too,’ she says, her voice barely louder than a whisper. ‘I know you knew Bryn first, but when she and I split up I lost all of you. I didn’t have any other friends in the city, nobody to talk to. And it was a sucky break-up that wasn’t because of cheating or hating, it was just about wanting different things. I didn’t do anything to make you all drop me like that.’
I stare at Ember. What do I say? Oh my God, she’s right.
‘We hung out every day for, like, a year. And then nothing,’ she continues.
My palms sweat and pulse along with the beat of my heart. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘You don’t need to apologise, it was a long time ago, I don’t even know why I’m bringing it up again now.’
‘I think I do need to apologise. I want to. And I want to explain. Bryn was broken after the two of you split. I know it was mutual, I know you wanted different things, but she thought the two of you were going to be forever.’
‘We both did.’
‘I know.’ I nod. ‘I guess we stepped back from you as a way to protect her, and just didn’t think. And we knew you were planning to start a new life by the beach. And then just as Bryn was beginning to heal, everything went to shit, and within a fortnight we’d all stopped contact with each other.’
Ember doesn’t say anything, just stares down at the ground, but I watch her eyelashes twitch as she thinks over what I’ve said.
‘I’m not trying to make excuses,’ I add. ‘We shouldn’t have deserted you.’
‘No, I get it,’ Ember interjects. ‘But I have to ask one thing – did you know I lost my parents, both of them, a couple of months after the break-up?’
My hand jumps to my heart. ‘You lost your parents? Ember . . . I can’t, I wish, I’m so sorry.’
To my surprise, she looks up at me with a mist of a smile on her mouth. ‘Thank you. That actually makes me feel an iota better, if you can believe it.’
‘In what way?’
‘After it happened, I contacted Bryn to let her know. The six of you shared everything with each other, so the fact that she was the only one to check in on me afterwards hurt. I knew we all weren’t friends any more, but I thought we were still something to each other. Now I know it was after she’d moved away, after you’d all stopped talking.’
‘I wish she’d told me though,’ I murmur.
‘But you never knew my parents. It probably didn’t cross her mind to tell you all my business at that point. I don’t think she did anything wrong.’
We drop to silence, heavy shoulders, aching brains, and after a while I ask, ‘Want a sleepover at mine, then, friend? Or should I say frenemy? Just kidding. Too soon?’
Twenty minutes later, Ember’s lying in the bottom bunk, me in the top bunk, and we’re chatting quietly.
‘How are you feeling about tomorrow?’ I ask her.
‘I feel . . . like I’m going to have a headache in the morning. And like it’s going to be really humiliating if I show up to see Bryn and Alex is already there with her sister.’
I make an agreeable noise and stare up at the ceiling. ‘Wouldn’t it be totally weird if you and Alex got married and her sister was married to your ex? Would that make you . . . sister wives?’
‘No.’ Ember laughs. ‘It would make us exes-in-law, I think?’
‘Oh. I’d watch that TV show. If you promised to bring the drama.’
