As we walked together to work, Zoe talked about Tabitha and how she was a little clingier than was comfortable. I was listening intently, chipping in advice from my limited pool when I could. I wouldn’t have noticed that Lee and Tyler Bennett were crossing the road just in front of us if Zoe hadn’t abruptly changed topic.

‘Ay-up,’ she said sotto voce now. ‘Aggressive twat sighting at two o’clock.’

A strange embarrassment hit me as my head jerked up to see them. I was so sure it had been Bennett who was harassing me. I cringed at the memory of going to the police station. I was sure, now, that it was Copeland, Michael Copeland, all along. I almost felt a weird sort of nostalgia for the time before Anya’s revelation.

Michael Copeland.

Murdered Michael Copeland.

‘Elliott.’ Zoe’s elbow was sharp in my ribcage. ‘Stop being weird … you’re glaring at him.’

‘What …?’

Bennett was looking at me now, warily, and Tyler was staring at me too, his cheeks flushed. Flustered, I turned my head. ‘I wasn’t meaning to,’ I said. ‘I was just miles away for a minute.’

We were inside the gates now. Zoe gave my arm a quick squeeze as we parted ways.

‘Don’t give that wanker any more fuel, okay?’ she murmured before hurrying off down the corridor. Feeling even more ashamed of myself, I slunk off to my class.

The day passed uneventfully, and I forced myself to engage properly despite the tiredness dragging at me, and the worries about everything. I saw Jackie at break and knew I wasn’t imagining the way her eyes swept lightly over my less than smart attire. I gave her a weak grin, which she didn’t return. It felt like something had shifted at school and I didn’t really know how to get it back.

But skiving off and then turning up in last night’s clothes wasn’t, I knew very well, the way to go about it.

Shame was proving to be the theme of the day, it seemed.

As the morning went on, I began to regret my decision to stay out the night before. Anya was probably going through hell. She had laid out what was perhaps one of the worst experiences of her life in front of me, and what had I done? I’d been unable to hack it and had run away to lick my wounds about being ‘left out’, like the giant man baby I am.

I couldn’t wait for the end of the day, so I could take her in my arms and reassure her it was all going to be okay.

IRENE

‘Are you quite sure you are up to doing this?’ said Frank, yet again. Irene swallowed back an unexpectedly sharp feeling of irritation and forced herself to give him a thin smile.