Look around

Picking up your drinks you walk down the long pub, looking to see if anyone you know is in tonight.

On a table off to your right you see a crowd from your course that had said they might be around tonight. There are five of them, sitting around a large table scattered with empty bottles and glasses, a good sign that they have been here a while.

You know Jane, Emma and Daniel, who all wave as they see you, and recognise one of the other two faces but can’t put a name to it. As Lucy is on the same course, she knows the same three, and as you walk in their direction Lucy tells you that the face you recognise is Mark, who use to be on your course until he transferred to something else.

Joining them, you squeeze onto the bench in between Emma and Mark, while Lucy finds her own space opposite you. The conversation turns to today’s exam briefly, everyone from your course expressing their opinion that “all that matters is that it’s the last bloody one”, and that you hope is the last talk of exams or your course that you are going to hear tonight.

As always, the group of you carry on a number of different conversations at once, and soon you are spoilt for choice.