‘You cost four of these guys a week’s suspension from school. Remember that? Christ, Ollie, they damn near got expelled. In the run-up to exams. They had a bit of dope on them. Just a bit of dope. No one needed to know. But you grassed them up, Ollie. You could have ruined their lives. And you’re surprised they’re just a little miffed with you?’

I can’t look at him. I didn’t grass on them because they had drugs. He knows what happened. He knows exactly what they did to me.

He takes a deep breath and forces a smile. ‘No one is out to get you, Ollie.’

This conversation is over. I begin to reverse my chair. I have something very important to get back to. Something infinitely more important than him.

His voice softens. ‘No one is trying to hurt you, buddy. I promise you that.’ He shakes his head and looks at the door. ‘Get yourself back in there, get some revision nailed.’

I let him shake my hand. I baulk at the sickening wink he dares to give me. I turn my back on him.

The classroom is silent as I set foot inside. Hardly anyone even registers my return. My desk is vacant, my bag where I left it.

Lei Pang looks up and nods as I pass. He was the last in to see Mr Clark before me. ‘All right, Ollie,’ he says.

I glare straight into his eyes. He tries to smile at me, but he can’t quite do it.

I retake my seat, check the position of the rucksack marries up with the mental note I made before I left. It’s all good.

I slacken the zip on my holdall – the bag that’ll be leaving with me. Nestled inside, I see the reservation for Boater’s Inn. I close my eyes and think of tonight.

I’m so nearly there.

Together, Alone

Four weeks ago

I ignored the whistle first time around. People throw all sorts of noises in my direction – it’s easiest not to react. I was so desperate to see her, but she was the last person I expected to find there.

My piano lesson had been Miss Morgan’s last that Friday, and the rain had pulled the evening in early as I made my way home. I wouldn’t ordinarily have cut behind the old engineering works, but I’d seen a bunch of guys from school congregated on the pavement up ahead and I hadn’t the appetite for a confrontation.

The whistle came again, this time with more gusto. My instincts caught my brain off guard and I shot a look behind me.

‘Ollie!’ Sophia yelled from a gaping hole in the second-floor wall, where once a window would have been.