"Thanks, JJ," I mumble, taking the cup of mango juice from him. He insisted that I have one, not quite sure why.

We're all in Freddie's house, for support. His sister, Karen, is on the show Search for a Sexxbomb and she's made it to the final. Not sure how Freddie feels about the whole thing, he doesn't seem to be loving it.

He's on the couch opposite me, a frown planted on his face. Naomi is on one side of him, Thomas and Pandora squashed together on the other side. They're all lovey dovey. It's sick, really, but sweet. I'm happy for her.

Effy's standing by the window, her back turned to everyone, and Cook's sitting on the ground beside the armchair I'm sat in. There's something off with Effy, I'm not quite sure what.

There's an uncomfortable silence as everyone stares at each other, not quite sure on what to say.

Cook breaks the silence by standing up, using the arm of my chair for balance. "Shed?" He directs his question toward Freddie, drumming his fingers off his thighs.

Freddie snaps out of his daze. "What?"

"Will we go to your shed?" Cook repeats. "This is shit."

"Yeah, suppose," Freddie mutters absentmindedly. He gets up, motioning for everyone to do the same.

I place my cup of juice on the mantlepiece as I stand up. Cook smiles at me, motioning with his hand at the door.

"Ladies first," he grins.

I give him a small smile as I duck out the door. I hear him in the background talking to Effy.

"You coming, Eff?"

She mumbles something incoherent in response, to which Cook replies with "what's gotten into you, babes?"

I shrug it off, following everyone else into the kitchen as we pile out the back door into Freddie's garden.

His garden is pretty, it's very homely. There's plants and flowers everywhere, a little bench off to the side. Right at the end of the garden, in all it's glory, is Freddie's infamous shed.

I've never actually been in it. Seems to be strictly the lads only, unless invited. That sort of thing.

I look around as I enter the shed. Kind of what I expected. There's shit everywhere, not literally. But it's a nice hangout spot, it's cozy.

"It's nice," I say to Freddie as he sits himself down on a low sofa.

He smiles at me. "Thanks."

I decide to sit beside him, as the spaces were quickly filling up with everyone scrambling to find a comfy spot. Definitely not enough room for around nine people, but it works.

JJ is on the other side of Freddie. He's jiggling his leg up and down.

Freddie rests his hand on JJ's knee. "Stop that, J," he mumbles.

"Sorry," JJ blinks, his leg abruptly stopping. "You enjoy that party, Eve?"

I wince, glancing at Pandora. I can't imagine how shit she must have felt after her house got completely trashed. I left after talking to Cook in the bouncy castle. I'd had enough for one night.

"Let's not talk about that, JJ, yeah?" I whisper, nodding my head discreetly at Pandora.

JJ looks at me for a minute, confused, then realisation kicks in. "Right. Touchy subject. Sorry."

Everyone looks up as the door is opened and Cook walks in, followed by Effy shortly after. She looks tense, but Cook seems unbothered, as usual.

"Right," he announces, throwing his arm around Effy's shoulders. She keeps her arms crossed, not responding to his actions. "Who's got the beverages?"

"I've got mango juice, if that's what you mean," JJ chirps, to which he receives a small eruption of giggles from everyone. He looks around, clueless.

"Not that type of beverage, kid," Cook laughs. "Alcoholic ones. Might as well knock a few back, what with your sister's show and that, Freds."

Freddie nods. "There's some shit in the house."

"I've brought some," Naomi chimes in, opening her bag and pulling out a large bottle of wine.

"You're a legend, Naoms," Cook says, patting the back of her head.

"Me and Ems brought some, too," Katie announces, looking at Emily. Emily smiles and pulls out two six-packs of cans.

"Brilliant, girls!" Cook beams. "Really wasn't feeling going to that off-licence tonight."

"So will I get more?" Freddie asks. "Or do we have enough already."

"Just start off with what the girls brought," I respond, nodding at the drinks that are now set on the ground. "If we want more then we can get some."

"Alright," Freddie nods. "Ems, pass me a can?"

Emily tears off the packaging and tosses a can in Freddie's direction. She passes another to me.

"Thanks, Emily," I smile, cracking open the lid and taking a sip, scrunching my nose at the bitter taste. Not a fan of lager.

"Right, will I do the honours?" Cook reaches for the bottle of wine and unscrews the cap. We all nod and he takes a long slug, spilling a little, before wiping his mouth his his sleeve.

"Pinot Grigio," he chuckles, examining the label on the bottle. "Lovely stuff, Naomikins."

"Could I have some, Cookie?" Pandora asks, reaching for the bottle.

"Go ahead, Pands," Cook smiles at her. There's something about that smile he's giving her.

I glance at Effy. Her face is blank. She locks eyes with me, before coming over and squishing herself in beside Freddie.

I can feel him tense up beside me. Everyone knows how Freddie feels about Effy. It's just common knowledge at this point.

"Want some, Tommo?" I hear Pandora say to Thomas. He smiles at her and takes the bottle, taking a long sip before handing it back to her.

I lean forward to look at Effy. "Want some?" I offer, holding my can up to her.

She shakes her head. "Brought my own."

"Ef," Cook says to her. He pats his lap.

She stares at him for a moment, then looks at me. I can tell she's reluctant to get up.

My heart skips a beat. Are they done?

Something must have happened. Either Effy is tired of Cook already or he's done something to fuck up. Whatever it is, Cook seems blissfully unaware, or he just couldn't give a fuck. Most likely the latter.

She finally stands up, making her way slowly over to him before awkwardly sitting on his lap. If she sat any further she'd fall off. She's perched on his knee, an unreadable expression on her face, as per usual.

Cook snakes his arm around her waist and pulls her closer to him. He whispers something in her ear, but she doesn't appear to be even listening. She's staring right at Freddie.

There's something really off between everyone tonight. I lean closer to Freddie.

"Did something happen at Pandora's?" I murmur.

Freddie tears his gaze away from Cook and Effy to look at me. "Dunno," he shrugs. "I was only there for a couple of minutes, went to collect JJ and left. Effy was a bit of a wreck, but when isn't she, to be fair."

I smile absentmindedly. "She was drugged up."

Freddie scoffs. "When isn't she."

I pause to stare at him. "Thought you liked her, no?"

He looks away. "I do," he mumbles. He looks over at Cook and Effy again. She seems to have warmed to him, whatever was wrong with her earlier. She's properly on top of him now, kissing him.

Freddie snorts scornfully. "Hurts, doesn't it?"

I lean back on the sofa. "I don't know what you mean."

"Course you do," he nudges me. "Unless you're over him?"

I stare at my feet. I can't lie to him. I can't lie to myself either. "I'm not," I admit, sighing. "Nothing we can do though, is there?"

"Sure there is," Freddie looks at me for a moment, scooting a little closer to me, before grabbing my chin and pulling me in.

I widen my eyes in surprise as our lips meet, but as the kiss deepens, I relax.

We kiss for a moment before I pull out, now extremely uncomfortable at the feeling of everyone's eyes on us, and also with the knowledge of Freddie only kissing me to make Effy jealous.

JJ looks astonished beside me. I smile at him, embarrassed, before ducking my head and taking a sip from my can.

I glance up to see Cook's reaction. There's a look exchanged between him and Freddie. Not to mention Effy, she's staring daggers at the both of us.

I can feel anger bubbling inside of me. Why does she care?

I get up from my seat, my heart hammering in my chest. "I'm going for a walk," I announce. "I might come back later."

I don't look at Cook and Effy as I pick my way past everyone to get to the door. I turn around as I hear Pandora calling my name.

"Eve, wait!" She gets up from her seat beside Thomas and makes her way over to me hurriedly. "I'll come with you."

I smile at her. "Alright."

I open the door, not looking back, although I'm sure everyone is staring. There's an awkward silence, the only sound being the music playing in the background.

I sigh as I shut the door behind us, breathing in the fresh air. "I couldn't bear being in there any longer."

Pandora nods. "Me neither."

I look at her as we start to walk toward the side of Freddie's house to leave. "Why did you want to leave?"

Pandora goes quiet, I can tell she's struggling on what to say next. "Just wanted to."

"You can tell me, you know that, right?" I reassure her. "It's not like I have anyone to tell. I'm not close enough with anybody."

Pandora looks at the ground as we make it out onto the street. "Right, well, I've a big, fat stupid mouth, so I'll tell you."

I chuckle uneasily, nudging her. "So tell me."

She sighs, trailing her fingertips along the wall beside us. "I made a mistake. A big one."

I nod at her. "Go on."

"At my party, I was really upset, yeah, 'cos there was all these strangers in my house and I didn't know where mum was and Thomas was gone and I just wanted to be alone."

I squeeze her hand in pity. "Sorry I didn't stay."

"It's fine," she smiles. "It's okay, honestly. So I hid in the bathroom till the party was over, I was crying my eyes out 'cos mum was gone all loopy and Thomas was just deported, and I just wanted to play twister.

I went down when everything was quiet and my house was so fucked up, Eve. It was horrible."

"How did it even get to that point? Why was there so many people?" I ask her.

She shrugs in response, then continues her story. "I go into my living room and Cook's just standing there, he's rolling a spliff. As usual. And he says hi to me, and he's being so nice, and I tell him how I wanted to play twister but never got to, and how you guys were gonna tell me how to do sex but you never did. So he asks me how to do it and I thought he meant sex, so I thought he was being a bit silly, 'cos he's Cook and obviously he's done-"

"Panda," I gently interrupt her. "You're rambling."

"Right, sorry," she mumbles. "I'm totally useless at saying stories."

"You're not useless."

"Thanks, Eve," she smiles sadly at me. "Anyways, so he meant twister so I show him how to play, then he asks me if I wanted him to show me how and I acted all confused, and he was like 'you know what I mean' and..."

She trails off, and stops walking, scuffing her feet on the ground. I can tell what's coming next.

"So we did it. You know? We surfed and turfed. It was amazing, really, we did it on the twister mat and everything. He's so good at it, he knew what to do obviously because he's surfed so many girls and he was so nice the whole time, but I feel horrible, Eve."

I stare at her, unsure of what to say. I'm surprised, to say the least. But then again, this is Cook we're dealing with.

"I feel horrible, because Effy saw me walking him out of my house the next morning, and she was really upset because Cook is hers, even though she doesn't even want him properly. So now I bogged it up between us and..." she sniffles, wiping away a stray tear.

"And... then Thomas comes running up to me because he got to come home, and he was so happy and I should've been happy too, because I missed him so much, but I just had lost my virginity to someone else and now," she's full on snivelling.

"Now I've bogged it up between us too but he doesn't even know about it," she wails. "He's being so kind and I don't know how to tell him because, oh, Eve, I love him so much."

I nod, rubbing her arm to try and comfort her. I genuinely am lost for words at this point.

"It was just once off with Cook, right?" I ask her.

She hesitates, sniffling. "Right."

"Because it'd be really stupid of you to keep seeing him while you're with Thomas."

She stares at me. "No offence, but you're not helping me."

I shrug, defeated. "I don't know what to say, Panda. This is all just so much."

Pandora nods slowly. "I know."

I pat her shoulder. "I won't tell anyone. But you need to sort this shit out on your own."

"But how?" She squeaks.

"Start by making it right with Effy. She's your best friend."

Pandora nods, rubbing her eyes with her fists. "I will."

"Good," I smile at her.

Why doesn't he want me the way he wants everyone else?

"Thanks Eve," Pandora sniffs, straightening up and smiling.

I nod at her. "Anytime."