She had been there every day since meeting him. Ever since she saw that funny old man laying on the floor "listening to the pavement." She cooked him dinner, read a chapter of Dickens, they danced (without incident this time) and then she went home. Every single day for months, Cassie Ainsworth could be found at his flat at the same time. Until the day that she didn't show up.

She had been out with her friends, making some extra cash on the side by selling her pills and spliff, and she just forgot. After the party Cassie, Jal, Chris, and Sid all made their way back to the flat, through the streets of Bristol. The girls were barefoot and the guys were ahead kicking rocks and litter out of the path like true gentlemen. Eventually Sid ended up carrying Cassie when she stepped on a rock and sliced the sole of her foot open, and Chris carried Jal just because, but they made it to the flat and collapsed in their respective rooms and dozed off. And it wasn't until the next morning that Cassie remembered the funny old man who listened to pavements and liked to dance and read Dickens. Then Chris got sick, and he was in the hospital, and then she took care of him, and the tests for the A-Levels were coming up and life was catching up to Cassie Ainsworth. She stopped showing up, and the old man danced by himself, ate alone, and read Dickens until he fell asleep.

Then Chris died, and Cassie ran. But before running to the airport, she made a stop. She ran towards the familiar house where she spent most of her time for months. When she got there, the paramedics were wheeling out a body in a bag and, the Cassie, the world crashed down around her. Two friends, lost in one day.

"He was my friend..." she told no one, but the paramedic heard her.

"He was found this morning by the housekeeper."

"What did he die of?"

"We can't be certain, but probably old age."

Cassie just nodded, black spots edged their way into her vision and she started running again. She had money, money that she had made selling. Enough to get her away, far far away where the bad things couldn't hurt her and where she could pretend that Chris was alive. She could pretend that Chris was alive and Michelle was her best friend and Tony was fine, that Jal didn't have an abortion and that she and Sidney could be together forever. That's how Cassie Ainsworth found herself boarding the plane to America.