“It’s fine.”

“I’ve still got no bloody clue why you’re doing this.” Scott tightened his grip even more on the ball, holding it in his burned hand.

“Believe it or not, you grumpy dickhead, I actually quite like you. I’ll text you the husband’s Facebook page.”

“No, just tell me. Don’t text me anything.”

Lauren looked at him for a moment. “She searches your phone.”

“Yeah, all the time. She wants to make sure I’m not recording her. She checks my texts, my messages, everything.”

“Jesus, Scott.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “Honestly. It’s not that bad.”

I promise, Mum, it’s all right. The crashing and the mayhem next door, and Mum pretending not to cry.

Lauren grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled Markus’s name and a description of his profile photo on Facebook. She slid it across the table, and Scott quickly pocketed it.

“Sir.”

Scott looked up to find Beth Vaughn standing at the door. Her face was coated in make-up, so much that the corners of her eyes flaked and white dust danced in the sunlight as she approached. Her lips were curled into a smile, a Casey-like smile. She looked the same whenever she made a joke that had the whole class laughing, mostly at another kid’s expense.

“Beth.” Scott made himself smile in a friendly way. “Everything all right?”

She paused at the desk. “Not really, sir. I’m sorry, sir.”

“Sorry?”

Her smile twitched. “I think you should ask Miss Quintrell to leave. You won’t want her hearing this.”

Lauren raised an eyebrow. Scott nodded. With a shrug, Lauren rose and left. Beth quickly slipped into the chair.

“The thing is, sir, I just wanted you to know I can reveal the truth any time I want. I can tell the whole world what you did to me.”

“What I did to you?”

Monster freak abuser animal beast you deserve it. You deserve it all.

She was beaming. Narrowing her eyes, she looked at him as though he’d asked an obvious question. “You raped me.”

26

SCOTT

“This is a serious allegation, Beth.”

“I know that, sir. But I can’t keep lying. I can’t keep this a secret anymore.”

Scott had never clenched his teeth so hard. Natalie would often make fun of him for how he’d grit them, telling him he was going to shatter them one day. She’d once even started a ‘gritted teeth jar’, where Scott had to put in a quid each time he did it. It was an old habit, a way to turn the anger inwards.

But you can’t be an angry little kid forever, Natalie had said, laughing.

“If you want to go ahead with this,” Scott said, in the steadiest voice he could. He couldn’t go on like this. “People will take it seriously. We’ll go to court. You’ll have to go to the witness stand and describe what I apparently did. Are you ready for that?”

Beth’s smile faltered. “I’m not saying I’m going to report you, sir. I just wanted you to know. I could report you.”