LOUISE: I know how this looks! I’ve run away and joined the circus! I’m in it and I still don’t understand. I’m not an emotional woman. I’ve never been stupid like that. So how can I explain why…? I can’t. Except somehow Arthur grabbed me by the heart and squeezed and I haven’t been myself since.

She stares at the camera, distraught.

If I dropped dead tomorrow… I don’t know. My mum would need a taxi to get to water aerobics on Saturday mornings. (She’s got a bad hip.) It’s not that my life doesn’t have any meaning. It just doesn’t mean anything to anyone… except Arthur. I’m his whole world. He needs me. And yes, okay, I want to be needed. I like being important to someone. It’s not so terrible, is it? Being needed, needing.

PRODUCER: What do you need from Arthur?

Long pause.

LOUISE: I’ve always been more the pumpkin than Cinderella. Love hasn’t been… Well, it’s an odd thing, isn’t it? Love. Where to find it and what to do with it if you do. And then a fat kid opens a door I didn’t know was there and… I’m not entirely sure I want to walk through, but… don’t I deserve a chance at happy ever after too?

23 DAYS

DOCUMENTARY VOICE-OVER: With three weeks to go before his surgery date, Arthur has made a shocking discovery.

ARTY: It’s not true, is it?

JOJO can’t speak.

They told me and I said, ‘No way, that’s Mum you’re talking about, and she wouldn’t. She loves me.’

Beat.

Mum? Tell me it’s not true.

JOJO: You don’t know how much it hurts when… when everything breaks and that’s my job, love, to stop you from getting broken. That’s always been my job! Can’t you see they’re tryna turn you against me ’cause… ’cause—

ARTY: ’Cause you’ve been putting glucose in my Slim Fast.

Pause.

JOJO: Who loves her Art-Art best? Them or me? Who knows what’s best for you? Who’s kept you safe all these years? Them or me?

ARTY: You know how much I want this, my chance, how it’s everything… and the whole time you’ve been taking it away.

JOJO: I just want you happy, love—

ARTY: I’ve been working so hard, for my chance to be happy, and you’ve been taking it away.

JOJO: I don’t want this bloody butcher job for you! Them fiddling your gut, cutting this, stapling that. I don’t want—

ARTY: I’m gonna die, Mum. And there’s been days more than I’d like to say that I haven’t minded too much. Until I started believing in this chance, my chance. And you’ve been taking it away.