MIR Editor

Friends is hard. Harder than writing or numbers. Sometimes, friends get angry, and when they shout, you can see their teeth.

Jake stretches his back, which makes his chair swivel, setting off a wave of nausea. He plants his feet on the floor, looks up, away from the floating colours of his screen to a cratered, grey ceiling tile; he breathes in slowly.

A pale winter light is seeping through the curtains. It turns the dust into grey snow on the fields of the wardrobe and dressing table, curving the corners of the gilt frames and softening the ridges of the picture rail.

At certain times of night, it is hard to know where you are in the hotel complex other than by the carpets. The bedrooms all have the same executive swipe of red, blue and yellow shards.

The first time he came inside her he wasn’t meant to, but she didn’t get mad. She realised, as he jumped up in a show of panic, that she quite liked it.

I am eighty-four. My mind doesn’t work. Ahsan says only one of those things is true. I shiver beneath a blanket by a dying fire before an altar, Ahsan holds my hand and says that we have known each other for a long time.

In her early fifties, Martha began keeping a signed photo of David Sedaris on her bedside locker. She made this confession to me while we were sitting around the campfire at Uncle Ron’s eightieth birthday party. I asked her if any of her boyfriends ever complained about this outsider in the bedroom.

Pick England and zoom in on an estuary. Follow it as it narrows. Ah, a city. Legend: BRISTOL. Zoom in further. A deep gorge, a suspension bridge, the legend CLIFTON. Now pan due east to ST WERBURGH’S. Close-packed row houses. Zoom in on one till the focus blurs.

The snow fell in late summer, settling on the roofs and the pavements and the grass. By the time Tom got to Rory’s house, the snow was halfway up his boots. Rory’s hat had big flaps that covered his ears. He looked like one of those droopy dogs.

He threw his arm around her, pulling her in for a kiss. His face cold against hers, his breathing quick. She could feel the heat as it rose from inside the collar of his hooded jumper, bringing with it the labouring smell of him: a thick mixture of beautiful grimness.