If Laura thinks he’s fit then there’s no way they’re not shagging. She has sex with anyone and everyone she feels like without thinking twice. I worry about her. Not only for her health, but also that eventually she’s going to end up with the wrong guy. Someone who’ll beat her or rape her or even worse. One issue I don’t have to fret about is her potentially getting her heart broken – she seems much more up for the party and the sex than any relationship, but I do wish she’d be a bit more careful. A lot more careful. These things can end very badly.

Even though I’ve been at uni and she’s been at home, we’ve stayed close. She comes to see me often, partly to get away from Mum, I think, but also because she trusts me and confides in me. She doesn’t have any close friends that I know of, just people she gets pissed and goes out on the pull with. She doesn’t want people to know that she was Anna Roberts. I’m not sure if it’s that that prevents her making proper friendships, or if it’s simply her fucked-up childhood.

We chat on WhatsApp most days too and speak on the phone often. I know all the ins and outs of her life and I love that. I’m her big brother, and it’s my job to protect her.

She knows she can rely on me, that I’m always looking out for her. And that’s what she needs in her life – stability. Whatever she throws at me, tantrums, mental health episodes and more I am always there for her to pick up the pieces. No one else is.

Mum tries hard, but in spite of it all, they’ve never got close. I think Mum wanted it so much it made Laura shut down and push her away. And then came the fights, blame, breakdowns, and more blame. I feel sad for Mum that after getting what she had always wanted, Laura coming back, it hasn’t made her happy in the way I’m certain she thought it would. She’d use words like ‘miracle’ in the early days of her return, but I don’t think she feels that way about it now. The whole thing has clearly taken a huge toll on Laura, mental-health-wise. Me too, I think, though to a lesser degree. Thanks to many years of tedious therapy, I’ve now pretty much got the panic attacks under control, as well as the anger issues, at least most of the time.

Laura is still opening and closing random cupboard doors. ‘I’m starving,’ she grumbles. ‘Any danger of anything to eat around here?’

‘I haven’t got much in,’ I say. ‘Tell you what – I’ll take you out for dinner. Celebrate the end of exams for both of us.’