Three days later, Louisa and I sat on the roundabout in a near empty playground, sharing some sugary strawberry laces we'd got from the corner shop for old time's sake. This was our way of informally celebrating the end of exams. For both of us, it had been our final day of exams. She had finished with her French written exam and I had completed my final geography paper.

I watched as a little boy in a red Spiderman cap ran around the playground while his mother kept a safe eye on him by the benches nearby. We'd come here by ourselves when we were in Year seven and Year eight. We'd stopped when we'd got older, mainly because it would have looked totally weird if we hung around a playground. Plus, we'd outgrown most of the rides and apparatus.

Louisa was now eating a giant strawberry. 'What's up with you and Jonny?'

I nibbled on a strawberry lace. 'Hm?'

'You used to mention him constantly.' Louisa looked thoughtful. 'And now it seems like you've forgotten all about him.'

I stared at her, surprised that she had bought him up so suddenly when previously we'd been nattering about the questions in our exam papers. It seemed to come out of the blue.

'Didn't you say you were bored of Jonny talk?' I said, happily munching on some M&Ms. 'I mean, I'm happy if you talk about your boyfriend. Whatshisname?'

She gave me a sideways glance. 'Me and Whathisname, otherwise known as Steve, are taking a permanent sabbatical actually. I broke up with him.'

'Oh. I'm sorry,' I said, offering her my bag of sweets, which she gratefully accepted. 'When was this?'

'Steve was annoying the shit out of me. He cared more about his ego than me. Funny thing is, that he actually wants me back, but I'm pretty much over him already. I can't believe I found him attractive. Looks are so deceiving,' she laughed a little. 'I want to date an older guy. I've got my eye on a guy I see at the place I work.'

'By older are we talking extremely older?' I asked. I didn't mind that she was taking most of my sweets; she said I always picked the good stuff. It made me happy to know I was making my best friend happy, especially when she seemed a bit glum.

Louisa gave me a light shove. 'No, I'm not talking OAP old. But I wouldn't mind having a sugar daddy. I think there are sites for that. I'm actually thinking of joining one. I got an email the other day.' Her golden-brown eyes gleamed with humour.

'Please tell me you're joking.' I dropped a few M&Ms onto the ground and watching them roll away.

'I don't know. It might be fun, but I'm not sure if I could handle the creeps...' She grinned. I shook my head and made the sign of the cross, much to her delight.

'I'd probably turn Mata Hari on them,' she said. 'Nothing kinky about it.'

'I can see that,' I agreed. We watched the Spiderboy swinging on the monkey bars and his mother taking pictures of him on her phone.

'He's cute. He told me he's in college. Studying dentistry.'

'Fancy.' I winked at her. 'Is he a regular customer?'

Louisa had previously worked in a card shop until it had closed down three weeks after hiring her.

Now she had got a weekend job in an American-style diner as a waitress. She absolutely hated it — one of the worse aspects was smelling like a walking, talking hamburger.

She considered the question. 'Does it count if he comes in every weekend when I have a shift?'

I laughed. 'Absolutely! Why else do you think he's a regular. The waitress— you— are probably the highlight of his week.'

Louisa flushed in pleasure. 'Stop it! But continue!' We shared a huge grin, and then burst in a fit of giggles when she used one of my jelly ring sweets to propose to me.

'Would you marry me, Candy?'

'Always.' I feigned the gasp of a delight and placed my hands to my mouth.

She slid it on my finger and I received a kiss for my answer. 'There's a reason why we're best friends. You always know what to say.'

'So what are you going to do about the cute student?' I said.

Louisa stood up to face me. 'I will stare at him for a little while. Then I'll go in for the kill.' Her tone was serious and determined. I'd lost track of how many boyfriends she'd had, but she was experienced. Enough to be indifferent to rejection.

'Well... you know what's best for you.'

Louisa tilted her head and gave me a knowing look as if to say 'Really? Is that all?'. She knew I was sometimes baffled by her treatment of past boyfriends. She treated them like shoes that she was bored of. However, I was of the opinion that it wasn't my place to judge her choices. We knew each other well and shared a deep connection. Regardless of our romantic entanglements, we knew we'd always be there for each other, come what may.

I allowed her to support me as I lifted myself off the carousel. She brushed a strand of hair that fell across my face, the wind stubbornly messing up my hairstyle. Louisa inhaled the fresh air, scented with a mild floral note from the rhododendron bushes nearby.

'What's the deal with Malone. Does he still pop in as much to the bakery? He has the biggest crush on you. Helping your dad out. Now trying to disrupt his and your revision time to snatch a moment with you. God, it seems after you rejected him at the hospital, he's become a tad obsessive over you. Imagine that! My best friend going out with one of the richest brats in the world...'

'Lou! It's nothing like that. We're just friends!' I protested, a little surprised that she'd come to the conclusion that about Zachary and I.

She ignored me and continued on. '—Obviously I've never met him, but I think all the signs point in one direction. Trust me, I've been in enough relationships to know when a guy has the hots for someone. It wouldn't surprise me if you guys slept together by now. But knowing you, I am certain it didn't enter that kind of territory,' she quickly added seeing my hurt expression, misunderstanding what I was actually thinking about. 'Jonny doesn't need to worry. You're too good for Malone's tricks. And he knows it.'

'I kissed him,' I said, looking down at my shoes. Then I looked up at her shocked face. 'Well, that's not true. He kissed me first and I told him I liked it and now I feel guilty—'

Telling her what happened that evening was enough to relieve some of the guilt I had felt for the last three days. I hadn't thought it was fair on Jonny to keep it hidden as Zachary had apathetically suggested, but what else could I have done? I was stuck. I'd never done something like this with someone I was seeing before. I didn't really have a frame of reference. Sure, I'd sometimes been naughty when I was a kid growing up. I'd said a couple of mean words and hidden a few objects as payback whenever someone had done me an injustice but that was little kid stuff. I was supposed to be almost eighteen. I didn't know what Dad would have said if he found out about Jonny and now Zachary. He would have been disappointed in me.

Louisa was still staring at me like I'd told her that I'd decided to quit baking and go on a diet, something which I'd told her I'd never do, not even if you paid me a million pounds.

'That's wow. You kissed? How was it like? I mean, you told him you liked it, so it must have been good.' I could see that Louisa was intrigued by my confession. There wasn't any signs of horror or disgust on her face, if anything there was only curiosity from my friend.

'You're not going to tell me off for being stupid enough to go for coffee at his place?'

Louisa shrugged. 'Candy, why would I do that? As you said, it's not like you willingly kissed him. He was presumptuous enough to kiss you, knowing full well you had a boyfriend. Having also met Jonny at that expensive restaurant. So, he's the stupid one for thinking he could persuade you to cheat on your boyfriend under the guise of a 'friendly' coffee date,' she finished off.

A part of me had to admire her logic.

'So, did you leave after his kiss?' Her eyes were completely focussed on me, eager for a resolution to my account.

'No,' I whispered, scratching my nape, embarrassed.

Louisa's eyes widened. 'You stayed in the devil's den! What the—'

'Not my proudest moment.' I raised my palms. A stone of misery seemed to tumble through the well of my stomach, causing ripples of guilt. I prided myself on doing the right thing and I felt that night that I had betrayed my principles.

'You didn't sleep with him—' Louisa said quickly.

I gave her a sharp look. 'Of course not! I'm not that callous!'

Louisa exhaled deeply and grinned at me. 'You had me worried there, Candy. I was thinking my girl has seriously done messed up. What did he make you do?'

I had to giggle a little despite my worry and the sleepless nights I'd had since the day when he'd kissed me.

'He... ' I threaded my arm through hers and we walked onto the path together, as we'd done many times throughout the years. 'Nothing much.'

My friend as astute as ever was grinning like the Cheshire cat. 'You are blushing!'

'No, I'm not!' I shook my head vigorously.

'Yes, you are!' she responded back in a sing-song voice. Then her expression turned serious as though she expected me to tell her what exactly happened, sparing no details.

Realising that I could no longer brush the whole Zachary situation under the carpet and forget about it, I gave in and quickly found that it was a relief to just tell her what had happened and the feelings left over from it.

'We watched some tv and ordered a pizza. Despite bitching about the show, he's good company. Sue me.' I shrugged.

Louisa gasped. 'Language, Candice, language!'

'I guess his bad influence is rubbing off on me...' I noted with a wry smile. 'Am I a bad person, do you think?'

'You?!' Louisa gazed at me skeptically. 'No. It seems like he enjoys your company. Does Jonny approve of your uh... friendship. Well, yeah, I suppose your verging on friendship street now, right? A weird one.'

'Yeah,' I agreed, 'Zach's something else.'

'What about Jonny?' Louisa continued to probe.

'I know for a fact Jonny would get upset. I don't really want to discuss it with him...'

My best friend fell a silent for a minute, taking in what I was saying. When she finally responded, she whistled in disbelief. 'All right. Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you should nip this in the bud, whatever this is. But he's effectively wormed his way into your life. Well, your dad's. The few times I've met Jonny, he's been really protective over you and...'

I swallowed, already guessing her answer. 'And what?'

'He'd be devastated if you and your new friend went behind his back...'

She was right. I was about to head back home with a lighter heart and confess, but Louisa hadn't finished... yet. What she said next, surprised me and made me reconsider.

'However, as I'm your friend and not Jonny's, I believe you should see a bit more of Malone. How often do you get to meet someone like him?'

'Not often?'

'Exactly — once in blue moon.'

Something inside me, call it a gut feeling knew that she was absolutely right. He was just so interesting. His strengths made up for his faults. Call it an addiction, but I wanted more, more and more. His personality was fascinating and mysterious. Just like a storybook character.

We left the park, sauntering through the gate, aware this would be the start of something new, exciting and fresh, much like the first flush of summer.