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Back When I Lost You Save as PDF
Chapters (81)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Dedication
  4. Prologue
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-one
  26. Twenty-two
  27. Twenty-three
  28. Twenty-four
  29. Twenty-five
  30. Twenty-six
  31. Twenty-seven
  32. Twenty-eight
  33. Twenty-nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-one
  36. Thirty-two
  37. Thirty-three
  38. Thirty-four
  39. Thirty-five
  40. Thirty-six
  41. Thirty-seven
  42. Thirty-eight
  43. Thirty-nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-one
  46. Forty-two
  47. Forty-three
  48. Forty-four
  49. Forty-five
  50. Forty-six
  51. Forty-seven
  52. Forty-eight
  53. Forty-nine
  54. Fifty
  55. Fifty-one
  56. Fifty-two
  57. Fifty-three
  58. Fifty-four
  59. Fifty-five
  60. Fifty-six
  61. Fifty-seven
  62. Fifty-eight
  63. Fifty-nine
  64. Sixty
  65. Sixty-one
  66. Sixty-two
  67. Sixty-three
  68. Sixty-four
  69. Sixty-five
  70. Sixty-six
  71. Sixty-seven
  72. Epilogue
  73. Acknowledgments
  74. Read More
  75. Prologue
  76. One
  77. Two
  78. Three
  79. Four
  80. Follow Merilyn online
  81. Dedication

‘It’s going to be fine.’ She takes my hand and squeezes it. ‘I won’t let anything happen to you.’

I feel tears in the corners of my eyes and when I blink a few run down the edges of my cheeks. ‘Promise?’

‘Promise,’ she says and brushes them away.

School is awful and Aoife finds me at lunchtime hiding in the toilets.

‘Ah, what’s up?’ She’s leaning against the door and I’m so relieved to see her I almost cry. She looks at the sandwiches in my lap, their edges curling, and grimaces.

‘I wouldn’t even try eating them, you’ll probably choke.’ She grabs them off me and turns to put them in the bin just as the door slams open and three girls walk in.

They stand in a line, arms folded. ‘Another little reject,’ the tallest one in the middle says to Aoife. I cringe by the door, trying to think of a way round them, but they’re blocking our exit so I hover behind Aoife and try not to look as scared as I feel.

‘Don’t see why we’re lumbered with you just because your mums didn’t want you.’ She peers around Aoife. ‘What you hiding from? Are you scared?’ She says this in a leering tone and I freeze.

‘I had to throw away the pens you dropped,’ she continues. ‘Had to pick them up with my sweater.’ She turns to the other girls. ‘God knows what we would catch off them.’

They all laugh and I see Aoife roll both hands into fists, straightening her shoulders, lifting her chin a little higher. The girls see it too and stop laughing.

‘What you going to do? Fight us?’ The middle one grins at the others but I can tell they are unsure now. They shuffle either side of her; one takes a long piece of hair and twirls it round her index finger. I don’t take my eyes off her as Aoife speaks.

‘If I have to, yeah.’

The room stills, the only sounds from a leaking tap and a cistern refilling behind us. The middle girl steps forward. ‘Come on then.’

Aoife moves forward too, and it makes me think of two pawns opening a game of chess. Then before I can work out who hit who first, arms and legs come at me. My hair is pulled, my lip is split by the heel of a shoe, and as I grab my chest to stop the kicks all I can hear is the ear-splitting scream of Aoife as she fights them off me.

It’s over as quickly as it began. The girls leave, swearing they’ll get us properly the next time, and I lie curled in a ball on the floor.