Rose was many things but vulnerable wasn’t the first thing that came to mind. She was what my mum would have called a looker. Nineteen years old, curvaceous like the old-fashioned pin-ups, and sexy as hell. She would have made a good actress too. It didn’t take a psychologist to work out that she was severely messed up. Gloria had once mentioned Rose’s childhood was one of the most violent cases she’d ever read. But Gloria didn’t realise that some people just couldn’t be saved. It was too late. The damage was done.

Rose was one of them.

So was I.

Rose didn’t want to change. She liked living life on the edge. She liked using boyfriends for everything she could get out of them. Whatever she’d grown up with, it made her angry. She wasn’t smashing things, screaming at people, or anything like that. No, it was subtler than that, and I saw it in her the first time I met her. She was ambitious. She also liked to party. And when Rose mentioned the name Joshua Carmichael a plan began to form.

‘They were a bunch of arrogant tossers, anyway,’ Rose had announced scrolling through her phone. ‘Surrounded by security and they weren’t having any fun at all. Just standing around drinking posh water.’

Rose was obsessed with footballers. She’d kept scrolling through her photos and one of her friends had seen a picture and asked who the good-looking guy was.

‘Oh him – a guy called Joshua Carmichael,’ replied Rose, putting on an accent similar to the Queen. Her friend giggled. ‘So posh, but soooooo cute,’ Rose had said. ‘A real gent – and loaded too. Lives in Castlefield, don’t you know.’ Rose and her friend had laughed at her imitation.

What were the odds? Seriously, what were the fucking odds?

And what would a posh boy from Castlefield want to do with a girl like Rose? And then I looked at her slim figure, large breasts, and squeezable bum – the same thing every seventeen-year-old boy would want to do with her.

After that it wasn’t difficult. I trailed Rose every night. I went to the clubs she went to. She was always surrounded by guys – she was that type of girl – Joshua was sometimes there but usually only on a Friday or Saturday night. He was obsessed by her – that much was clear. He was usually with his posh friends. I was surprised to learn they did drugs – Joshua didn’t seem the type but maybe it was his friends or maybe it was Rose. I didn’t care – it just made it easier. I sold to him a few times. I sold to Rose too.