They had all taken their shirts off and changed into a variety of what passed for pajamas, which included boxers bearing the logos of English soccer teams, and a ratty pair of sweats printed all over with one of the Teletubbies. The room smelled pleasantly of men, aftershave, and beer.

Something was weird, though. They'd obviously been engaged in some fierce three-way battle of BZG, but when I entered the room all focus shifted to me. They were looking at me, and for some reason, they were looking behind me, like they were looking for someone else. Then I realized, all in a rush, that they knew why Teddy had come to my room. I had the unpleasant feeling that I had been spied upon, even though nothing had happened, and no one had seen anything.

Gethin took a quick look at the clock on the wall, and I could see him thinking, and I could see Matty's face opening up like a sunflower. But of course it was Ronan who spoke.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Tink, you turned him down!" he chortled. He turned to Gethin. "Geth! She said no, man! It's barely been an hour since he went in there, and there's no way he'd leave her so quick. This is epic! This is, like, history in the making. Tink, what—"

"Ronan!" I'd never heard Gethin speak so harshly, to anyone. "Ronan," he repeated, more calmly this time. "It's none of our business, mate. You're acting like a teenager! And have a thought for Tink. Look at her face." He rose and came to me, put an arm around me, and led me to the sofa. We sat down together, with Matty on the other side. Ronan came and sat on the floor in front of me.

"Relax, guys, it's not like I just got a cancer diagnosis," I said with a smile. "No need to look so grim.

"I didn't expect all of you guys to know about it, though," I admitted. "I just thought it would be private." And of course all three of them smiled.

"Look, we all told him not to do it," Gethin said. "All of us. We told him it could mess up the tour, screw up our group dynamics or whatever, you know, just fuck things up generally," he finished.

"It's just never a good idea to shit where you sleep," Ronan threw in. At our looks, he added, "Or screw around where you sleep." Which made a little more sense.

"I just didn't want him to," said Matty. "On general principles."

"And Tink," Geth continued with a look at Ronan. "Please excuse us, all of us. We're just a bunch of wankers who haven't spent enough time in civilized company. We've forgotten our manners."

"Yes, well, nothing happened, so no harm done," I finished. "So maybe now we can stop talking about it, okay? How about we order up some sushi and open some wine or something?"

"Oh, sushi sounds great!" Gethin was enthusiastic, and sounded relieved at the change of subject. "I'll stick to beer, though." The other two agreed, so we called room service, and half an hour later, we were all settled in, eating, drinking, watching Toy Story 3. I was snuggled in between Gethin and Matty, with Ronan sitting on the floor, arm wrapped around my legs, leaning against me. We laughed, we cried, we shared memories, we ended up in a little lump of emotional humanity under blankets pulled from Gethin's bed like a unisex slumber party, and I was in a state of physical hyperdrive from the half naked bodies pressed up against me on all sides. Gethin was by far the best built, it was obvious he was the most athletic, but Matty and Ronan were both very attractive boys, with ropy muscles and well defined six packs and biceps. I don't think even a normal girl, with normal experiences in her past, could have handled this situation with sangfroid; as for me, their physical closeness wrecked my wits in one fell swoop, the smell of them, the feel of them, the presence of them, all around me, put me in such a state that I might need another shower before I could go to bed. This was strange for me, the feelings awakened by them, but then this entire situation was strange for me; I mean, when had I ever in my life been surrounded by half naked men? Who thought I was "pretty"?

As the movie ended, I wiped my eyes and sniffed, reaching across Matty for a tissue. "Aww, you guys, Tink's crying," he declared. "That's darling, sweetheart, so cute." He took the tissue from me and held it to my nose. "Here, blow." I blew, and he threw the tissue away.

From the floor, Ronan sniffed copiously, and declared, "Hey, Matty, I'm crying too, you want to help me blow my nose?" Which got him a swift kick to the head from Matty.

We stayed that way on the sofa, enjoying the closeness and the warmth of each other, with me sniffing from time to time, as the credits rolled.

Geth leaned in close to me and whispered, "You really okay about earlier? I know there's some stuff between you and Theo. No, you don't have to talk about it, but if you'd rather not sleep alone tonight, you're welcome to come sleep with me."

I looked at him, and saw concern in his eyes. "Obviously I don't mean that how it sounds, you know that, right, poppet?" He smiled at me sleepily.

I nodded at him.

"Not that I don't find you monstrously attractive, of course. You know that, too, right?" he looked at my bottom lip as he touched it with his thumb.

Before I could respond to this rather amazing statement, the door connecting Gethin's room to Teddy's opened and there he was, standing a bit unsteadily, gently exuding fumes of a very good whiskey in our direction. He smiled at us.

"The prodigal son returns," he announced. Then he noticed me, surrounded by the three boys, with signs of recent tears, and his entire demeanor changed.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "Thought you were going to fill out papers and go to bed?"

"I told you when you left, I was feeling like company, so I wandered over here," I explained. "We ordered some sushi and watched a movie."

"Oh I see. Needed a little 'tea and sympathy', too, perhaps?" he asked. As he walked into the room, I realized that he was more intoxicated than I'd first thought. Not falling down drunk, but not far from it.

I stood up, tossing the blanket back onto Gethin's bed. I had no desire to get into an argument with a drunken Teddy, especially in front of the other boys. "Well, it's really late. Thanks for the movie, guys. Good night." I headed for the door to my room.

He crossed the room to block my path, pretty quickly for someone so impaired, saying, "Hold on, hold on, I'd like to know what went on in here while I was gone. It looks as if you've been crying, Miss Foster. Why on earth could that be? Hmm?"

Ronan put an arm around Teddy's shoulder. "You're pissed, Theo, you can hardly walk. Come on, let's get you to bed, eh?"

Teddy shrugged off Ronan's arm, turning to face the others as he did so. "Let me guess." He raised his voice to address the entire room. "Something about a poor, repressed virgin, being put upon by the womanizing Lothario, the young girl, pure as the driven snow, protecting her virtue from the vulgar pillager of morality?" He paused dramatically.

I just stared at him, feeling like I couldn't move. The boys, too, were motionless.

"That's right, lads, you see standing before you probably the oldest living virgin in the known world." He turned and smiled at me. "Sweet, isn't it? She says she's been busy. You know, becoming the best she can be at absolutely everything else there is to be the best at. Admirable, don't you think? And this is the result. Yes, the complete package, the smartest, the most talented, the most beautiful, sexy as the devil, but oh, no, don't touch, boys, that body is just for show—"

Then he turned to look at me. "Oh, I'm sorry, was that supposed to be a secret?" He covered his mouth with a hand like a shocked maiden aunt.

I somehow found my voice, and made it sound even and strong. "No, not necessarily a secret. Private, maybe, but not a secret."

"No wonder everything's private with you, Foster, you're a coward, you've lived your whole life—"

And Gethin came up off the sofa with a roar of rage. If Ronan hadn't anticipated it and grabbed him and held him, he probably would have put Teddy through the wall. As it was, Ronan was left holding Gethin by the elbows, yelling for him to calm down, as Gethin shouted profanities at Teddy, much of it in Welsh, which I didn't even know he spoke. I ran over to try to calm him down, putting one hand on each side of his face, making him look at me, saying his name over and over, saying that I was okay, it was okay, saying anything to make those green eyes lose their fury.

Even Teddy seemed to understand that he'd gone too far. He stood blinking and staring at Gethin, who was slowly getting himself under control.

And no one was paying any attention to Matty. I had my back to the room, and by the time Ronan noticed him and yelled a warning, it was too late. I turned around and saw that Matty had his fist cocked all the way back to his ear, and he hit Teddy in the face as hard as I'd seen anyone hit anyone, ever, in my life.

As Matty spun around, shaking his hand, Teddy started to go down, legs wobbling, and I went to him, my only thought to prevent any more hitting. Teddy seemed to regain his footing, and Matty gave a moan of agony as he flexed his hand. I turned to him to check on his hand when I heard Ronan's desperate call.

"Tink!" As I turned toward the sound of his voice, I lost my footing, and my world went dark.