“Nothing happened, not for a few weeks. We just hung out and talked. Faisal—he’s Sunny’s best friend, the cook—he was there most of the time, and sometimes Ismail from the minicabs or Hassan from the Balti would drop by. We thought they were all our friends, like we’d found somewhere we belonged. We’d have a laugh and chill, get wasted and party.”

“Didn’t you think it was a bit strange, these older men spending their time with you?”

“I didn’t think about it that way at all. Not at first. It was just somewhere to go, someone we could talk to. Better than those fucking plonkers at school. I think Mimsy was the same. She was a bit nervous at first, but that changed as time went on. Look, I’m not stupid, really I’m not. I thought Faisal really liked me. He was nice. Sometimes we’d go up to Sunny’s flat and watch TV. They didn’t like to be seen too much with us out in the open. Sunny said it was because people wouldn’t understand with them being older and Pakis, like, even though they talk just like us. Sunny’s got one of those big flat-screen TVs with surround sound. It was fantastic. I never got to watch anything like that at home. I loved Strictly and he’d let me come down and watch it. X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. I love those programs. Movies, too. With popcorn. We’d have real drinks, too. Vodka and cider or something. That was when it happened.”

“When you were drunk?”

“I suppose so. I’d had a bit too much, and the next thing I knew Sunny and Mimsy disappeared in one of the bedrooms and Faisal was . . . we were . . . well, it was OK because it was Faisal and he seemed sweet. I know he was older and all that, but I suppose I thought of him as my boyfriend then. And he was a change from those spotty school kids who were always trying to grope me in the corridors. I mean, he really seemed to listen to me. And he made me laugh.”

“Were you attending school at this time?”

“Mostly. Yeah. I mean, I think Mimsy was excluded at the time, but even when she wasn’t we wagged it as often as not. But that’s where we found them.”

“Who?”