Page 83 of The Mismatch

‘What are you on about?’

‘The lads put a bet on whether Magnus could, um …’ he trailed off, belatedly realising this news would not be welcome.

‘Could what?’

He slapped her shoulder in what he clearly thought was a friendly gesture. She noticed his red eyes. He reminded her of Mr Blobby in that moment. An absolute mess.

‘It was a little challenge. Nothing derogatory, honestly. You must know Magnus is a top shagger and all that? Everyone knows. We just thought it was funny that he was struggling to do it with you.’ In trying to reassure her, he continued metaphorically jabbing her in the stomach.

Her jaw was tight from suppressing the urge to reply to this, and her forefinger busy working at a flake of skin on her thumb while her mind was reeling.

A girl approached them. Holding a can of beer, she crouched before them, a smile on her face.

‘Tommy, are you scaring Soraya off?’

‘No!’ he said, at the same time as she said, ‘Yeah, he is.’

‘I’m Rosie by the way.’ She had mermaid-like hair and her jeans were low-rise, exposing her navel. ‘I’ve heard all about you.’

Soraya felt she was on display, like a monkey at a zoo.

‘Right,’ she said. ‘Do you know about the bet too?’

Rosie’s face coloured and she looked confused. Tommy was silent.

‘Magnus bet the “lads” that he could sleep with me, it seems. So you didn’t hear anything about that?’ Soraya said to her.

Rosie looked from Soraya to Tommy, her pink lips set in a frozen smile.

‘No. I mean, Magnus told me you’re …you know… but I don’t think he was involved in a bet.’

She gave Soraya a sympathetic smile that irritated her. She disliked it when girls like Rosie acted as if they were looking out for other females; it always rang fake.

A thin blonde girl ran into the room then, naked apart from pink cut-off shorts, and began running around, giggling drunkenly. Following her was a completely naked man, who was cupping his genitals with his hands. Everyone began cheering, Rosie included. Everyone but Soraya, it seemed.

‘Go on, Lucy!’ they called.Magnus’s Lucy?The girl who was in love with him?

‘What the fuck is going on?’ Soraya muttered to herself.

When they left to streak in another room, it looked like Rosie was about to get up, so Soraya asked, ‘What did Magnus tell you then?’

‘Well, that you’re avirgin.’ She said the last word quietly, like she had just said Soraya was part of ISIS. If Rosie really had been looking out for a fellow woman, she wouldn’t have said that in front of Tommy.

He let out a howl of triumph. ‘Iknewhe was fucking lying! Imagine, Magnus Evans, who’s slept with fifty girls, is now going out with a virgin,’ he laughed.

Fifty girls.

‘I’m not a virgin,’ said Soraya. It sounded feeble after what she’d just heard.Fifty …

Rosie put a hand on Soraya’s wrist. She wanted to yank it away. ‘It’s OK, it’s not a bad thing.’

‘Don’t you ever just want to fuck though?’ Tommy asked.

Rosie rolled her eyes, and they began discussing whether it was wrong that Soraya was a virgin. But she couldn’t hear them properly anymore.

She scrambled to her feet, adrenaline going into overtime.

Magnus sat on a wooden chair in the kitchen, talking to two other boys. Her jacket and bag were slung over the chairback. Without saying anything, she yanked her jacket away, causing him to jump slightly.