He's a med student. That's what Aveline tells me - older than us, but not by much. He has that carefully scruffy look that always makes other guys look awkward and overdressed at parties and screams "DO NOT TOUCH" to me in big, bold letters.

It never works. There's something about stubble and long hair that just… undoes me. And he's tall. So very tall.

I'm not sure how I've ended up here, leaning against the soggy bar talking to him. Parts of the evening are a blur. I know Isabela wanted me to come, I know I intellectually like the band that's playing (although I'm still firmly of the opinion that live music is killing music - truly that's what studios are for - to make it sound better) and I know I'm very fond of beer. Beer is good. Beer gives me a warm feeling in my tummy and stops me from making a complete fool of myself when tall, blonde med students strike up conversations with me at bars.

He is very tall.

"I'm Andy," he says smoothly.

"I know," I blurt out. And immediately regret thinking that beer was a good idea. Why is beer a good idea? It's made of hops. And yeast. It should be bread, not beer.

I'm drinking vegemite.

He's looking at me.

"You know?"

"I'm a friend of Aveline's," I say by way of explanation, because even I know that it's not a good idea to say "I'm a friend of Isabela's" to someone you've just met, given all the different layers and connotations "friend of Isabela's" has around campus, some of them only legal in Canberra.

He frowns a bit. I'd forgotten that Aveline didn't like him, and had only given me his name because she was sick of my girlish squee-ing whenever I saw him in the line at the co-op, or that one time he'd been at the gym and… and…

I probably shouldn't be thinking about this when he's right next to me.

"Oh, she's not so bad once you get to know her," I say breezily. "We were at highschool."

He laughs, an easy, relaxed sound that is incredibly sexy.

"Let me guess, school captain?"

"Sports Captain, actually," I say, grinning. I don't mention who was school captain because that would just be like… I don't know, boasting or something, and high school was so long ago now for me.

Three whole years. I am twenty-one and queen of the bar.

There's a congenial shout from a nearby table and Andy's head turns. "Well, nice meeting you," he says, even though he hasn't asked my name and I haven't had time to do any of the things I wanted to and I certainly don't have the courage to go with him back to the table that's waving him over with his round of drinks. I sigh as I watch him walk off and walk the walk of shame back to Izzy and Aveline and Merrill.

"Hawke, you're pathetic," Isabela says, knocking back what I think is her sixth shot of the night.

"Thanks Iz."

"I mean, he approached you - you should have your tongue halfway down his throat by now."

"Just because you would doesn't mean she has to, Iz," Aveline says mildly, sipping at her lemonade. She lives out in the 'burbs and there's no way she'd ever risk driving under the influence. My pal Aveline - the bestest pal ever, simply because she was nearly always the only sober one.

"You'd do him. Don't lie."

"I'm not a cheater."

"I bet Donnic would even watch…"

"Shut up."

"He is quite handsome, isn't he?" Merrill says, nudging me as Aveline and Izzy descend into their usual snippy banter.

"He's trouble," I say, looking over at the table. "Someone that good looking always is."

"Oh, I don't know. I think you're pretty good looking and you're not trouble. You hardly ever got into any, anyway. Not like Isabela."

"She's prettier than I am," I say, thinking that's lovely, Merrill, but you're kind of proving my point.

In fact, the person at our table who causes the most trouble is probably Merrill, even though she's blissfully unaware of it. Just walking into a room was enough to set most of the male and some of the female population on a knife edge of infatuation.

Not lust, not like Iz. Merrill just exuded cute and a desire to protect that was almost as dangerous as stubble and long hair in my books. And Christ, was that the glint of gold in his ear? I hadn't noticed the earring before. My mother would not approve.

I was in so much trouble.

"You could always go back over there, you know," Iz says later while Aveline and Merrill are on one of those incomprehensible toilet breaks. Why did women always have to go to the toilet in pairs? I was a woman and I didn't know. I mean, I knew some people did it because they were taking drugs, but Aveline and Merrill wouldn't know which end of a cigarette to smoke, let alone how to snort cocaine.

Not that I was a drug addict. You had to have money and contacts for that shit, and of all of the people I hung out with only Seb had those and he and I…

…well we weren't speaking any more.

"What, walk over there, introduce myself and sit at his table?"

"Yeah."

"Isabela, it's all guys and I'm…"

"Surprisingly guy like, most of the time," she is giving me the look. The one that I hate. The one that says Sorcha you're an idiot.

I am an idiot.

"No," I say, staring into my beer. "I'd rather stay here with you."

She snorts.