MAUREEN

It can't be hygienic, living in a place without rooms. Even people who live in bedsits usually have access to a proper bathroom, with doors and walls and a window. This place, the place where the party was being held, didn't even have that. It was like a railway station toilet, except there wasn't even a separate gents'. There was just a little wall separating the bath and toilet from the rest of it, so even though I needed to go, I couldn't; anyone might have walked around the wall and seen what I was doing. And I don't need to spell out how unhealthy it all was. Mother used to say that a bad smell is just a germ gas; well, whoever owned this flat must have had germs everywhere. Not that anyone could use the toilet anyway. When I went to find it, someone was kneeling on the floor and sniffing the lid. I have no idea why anyone would want to smell the lid of a toilet (while someone else watched! Can you imagine!). But I suppose people are perverted in all sorts of different ways. It was sort of what I expected when I walked into that party and heard the noise and saw what kind of people they were; if someone had asked me what I thought people like that would do in a toilet, I might have said that they'd sniff the lid.

When I came back, Jess was standing there in tears, and the rest of the party had cleared a little space around us. Some boy had told her that Chas had been and gone, and he'd gone with somebody he met at the party, some girl. Jess wanted us all to go round to this girl's house, and JJ was trying to persuade her that it wasn't a good idea.

'It's OK,' Jess said. 'I know her. There's probably been some sort of misunderstanding. She probably just didn't know about me and Chas.'

'What if she did know?' said JJ.

'Well,' said Jess. 'In that case I couldn't let it go, could I?'

'What does that mean?'

'I wouldn't kill her. I'm not that mad. But I would have to hurt her. Maybe cut her a little.'

When Frank broke off our engagement I didn't think I'd ever get over it. I felt almost as sorry for him as I did for myself, because I didn't make it easy for him. We were in the Ambler Arms, except it's not called that any more, over in the............