Still Shane said nothing. He simply stood there watching the game from the sidelines. Cat might as well have been a ghost.

‘I’m sorry about your dad,’ she said, hesitantly. ‘I know how it feels to lose–’

Shane whipped around, his eyes tight and red and his pale skin flushing in anger. ‘You don’t know how it feels. You’ve never lost anyone. You still have a dad.’

‘Yeah, but–’

‘But what? He’s alive, isn’t he? Just because he can’t stand to be around you doesn’t mean you know how I feel. You know nothing about me.’

With that, he stalked off and left Cat standing there with her mouth hanging open and a raw, searing pain in her belly. She felt as though she had been cut open.

That was the last time they had properly spoken. He was still there, still hanging around the fringes of her life, but they weren’t close, and they certainly weren’t friends. As far as Cat could tell, Shane was more than happy to remain a loner.

Still, every so often she felt a twinge of sadness when she saw him, walking ahead of her with his shoulders hunched, as though it took all his strength to keep going. To keep everyone else out.

When they reached the end of their estate, Shane turned down the garden path of number 14, as always. Cat hadn’t been inside it since before Mr Culligan died, but if it was anything like the outside, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to. Though all the rest of the neighbours made sure to keep their houses pristine and white, the Culligans’ house was mottled with green moss and the grass in the front garden was overrun with weeds. It never used to be that way. When Shane’s dad was alive, it was the prettiest garden on the whole estate. She supposed a lot of things had changed in the past two years.

The front door opened and a small girl came running out, her strawberry-blonde curls bouncing around in the wind. She collided with Shane and flung her arms around his waist. It was his little sister Jenny.

‘Hi Cat!’ said Jenny, her face still squished against Shane’s stomach. Cat smiled at her, but before she could say anything Shane peeled his sister off him and stalked inside, calling for her to follow.

‘Bye, Cat!’ she said and skipped after Shane.

Cat couldn’t understand it. Jenny was probably the only person in the world who liked Shane and he mostly seemed to ignore her. She would love to have a little sister like her – someone she could actually play with, unlike Mikey. You always had to take care of Mikey; you could never just have fun. It wasn’t fair.

The wind picked up and the biting cold made Cat’s whole body shiver. She hurried up the garden path, fumbling in her pocket to find the front-door key. She was so distracted she almost missed the small, dark lump blocking her way. It was a single magpie, perched on her doorstep as though it had been waiting for her.