It had been almost a week since the probation worker went crazy and tried to kill them all, and Melody was still struggling to get more than a couple of hours sleep a night. It was irrational, she knew that but sometimes the wind would blow a little too roughly or a branch would knock against the window and her eyes would dart open, heart pounding like she's right back there in the community centre. She fucking hated feeling so helpless. She hated how there was no-one to talk to about it. The other ASBO fucks were bearable but they weren't exactly her best friends and unfortunately, they were the only other people in the world who knew about what happened. She thought about trying to talk to the quiet one, what's his name.. Simon. He seemed quite nice; the only drawback was that she wasn't entirely good at making conversation, and if someone glanced at him he looked like he was about to spontaneously combust. "Hey love! Fancy a nice heart to heart about the people we buried last week?" Not exactly the best conversation starter in the world.

"What, 'cause you're all special and I'm not? Yeah, well I doubt it. You can say what you like, but I have a superpower. I just need to find out what it is!"

They were wandering aimlessly around the estate, picking up the odd piece of litter every now and again. If anything, Nathan's ranting punctuated the listless, routine-filled days. Melody didn't quite understand why Nathan was so obsessed with finding out if he had one of these bullshit powers or not. Hers had been absolutely no use whatsoever so far, other than helping cement their decision that the best way to bury their dead probation worker was to shove him in a wheelchair. The experience wasn't pleasant and judging by Kelly's random outbursts of fury whenever a stranger walked past, she wasn't exactly enjoying her new found telepathy either. Maybe Nathan just felt a bit left out. She wished she was the one who was left out - as if she hasn't got enough flaws to contend with, now she's some sort of fucking Mystic Meg?

"Maybe you're just super retarded?" said Alisha, as bored as the rest of them of his increasingly nonsensical guesses.

"Maybe I can climb stuff, you know, do spider shit!"

"Right, go on then," Melody turned to him, gesturing with her litter picker. "Try and climb that wall. I could do with a laugh. And I promise I'll call you an ambulance when you fall and smash your head off the pavement,"

"That makes perfect sense. Why would you be able to climb stuff?" Out of the whole group, Curtis seemed the most unable to put up with Nathan. The rest of them have grinned and bared it, occasionally even laughing at his stupid jokes but Curtis, it's like he can't physically stand to be around him. It's strange, Melody thought. He would've been on the brink of world-wide fame if he hadn't screwed up his chances at the 2012 Olympics. Surely he'd met loads of fake cunts before; he couldn't put up with one harmless loud-mouth?

He shook their comments off with a uncaring smirk. "Oh, I don't know! How come you can turn back time, apparently? And Weird Kid can turn invisible? Oh yeah, don't forget how Curls over there can see the fucking future! It's not like this whole situation is backed up by a wank load of logic,"

They carried on walking and found their way to the car park next to the community centre. It's just as dingy as the rest of the estate. Melody talks to Nathan for a bit, she lends Kelly a cigarette and even attempts a little conversation with Simon, though gives up when he pierces her with those intense eyes as if it's all a big conspiracy. Bloody hell, she thought she was bad in social situations. Everything was going peachy, as normal as rafting through sickening amounts of damp cigarette packets and used condoms could be - and then Curtis called their attention to a man in the corner, lying on the floor in a foetal position in his birthday suit. A bare arse was not something Mel thought she was going to be face to face with today.

They crept over slowly, Melody keeping her litter picker safely in front of her; if you're a naked man in a car park, you might as well have mentalist tattooed over his forehead. She could already feel the giggles bubbling up inside her, and when Alisha prodded the guys back with her own stick, she couldn't help but let them burst out. Laughter reverberated from each wall as the gang joined her amusement - this fella had scrambled to his feet, rightly embarrassed, revealing one of the biggest cocks Mel had ever seen in her life. This day had turned from monotonous to hilarious in milliseconds, and then the oddest thing happened.

Nathan chased the man, a sort of shocked fury in his eyes. He shouted: "You!"

"Are all your friends flashers?" asked Melody, tilting her head to the side jokily. He didn't seem to hear, too focused on staring in the direction the nude guy ran.

"Are you going to tell us who that was?"

"It's my mums..." His eyes are wide. "It's the guy who lives with my mum."

Alisha laughed, and told him his step-dad had a massive cock. Nathan seemed outraged at the idea of this guy being his step-dad; Melody sort of felt for him there. Her own mum had a list of boyfriends longer than her arm, a constant conveyor belt of young men and old men, men who tried too hard to fit into the family, buying Mel little gifts every now and then to buy her love. Most of them didn't bother. The worst was this old guy Fran, with his wandering eyes that lingered in places she didn't feel comfortable with them lingering. Ugh.

They threw in their own ideas for Not-Nathan's-Step-Dad's inexplicable public nakedness. Melody reckoned he must have been a flasher. Alisha decided he had to be gay, cruising for rough trade. The casual way Kelly suggested rapist was actually quite worrying, and then came Simon. "Maybe he's a werewolf."

"Twat!"

"It's what happens in films," He explained, looking genuinely serious. "You turn into a werewolf, you kill someone, and you wake up somewhere naked."

"You should get out more, love." It comes out a little more harshly than she intended and the little flicker of sadness on his face as Nathan breaks into a rant about pussies and jars makes her feel a little guilty. She'd apologise later, boost his self-esteem a little. Jesus, how narcissistic was that? As if all his problems would magically straighten out just because Melody Murphy had decided to say two words to him.

"What if the storm messed him up?"

"That's bollocks. What are the chances?"

...

Sally, the replacement probation worker, had told them to be back at the community centre by midday and not to be late under any circumstances as they were going to be helping out at an OAP's disco that afternoon. The vehemence in her instructions was so severe it was almost as if the old people would drop down dead when the clock struck twelve, unless they got their cups of tea and biscuits served by petty criminals. She told them they'd also be able to wear their own clothes, the words falling out of her mouth with a patronising smile draped all over her face, as if they should treat this as a luxury sent from heaven itself.

It wasn't. And she couldn't be arsed, but hey, you do the crime, you do the time. She threw on the jumper and skinnies that she had worn this morning, purely because they were the cleanest clothes she could find and washing machines are not her best friend. Alisha was in front of the mirror, Kelly had gone for a quick fag before the disco and the others, Melody assumed, had already gone.

On her way to the hall, she stops suddenly and narrows her eyes. "What are you doing up there?"

Nathan spins round, glancing down at her from the balcony. "Havin' a wank. Wanna help me out?"

There was a barely detectable tone of uneasiness in his voice that triggered her curiosity. She'd only known him for a week, and while she wouldn't put public masturbation past him, she finds her feet taking her up the stairs. He was stood over a large rucksack, rifling through what seemed to be clothes. "Please tell me you're not stealing clothes that are meant to be going to a charity shop or something?"

"I dropped ash on my fucking jeans. Burnt a hole right through and with a face like mine, I have to have decent clothes to match!" Nathan doesn't look at her while he speaks, still rifling madly through the bag.

"Looking to pull some grannies, are we? Don't quite see the appeal myself but hey, who am I to judge?"

He stops, holding up a pair of black skinny jeans with a proud grin on his face. "You're welcome to stay and watch me change, love."

Melody rolled her eyes and began to walk away, and then she realised something. Nathan had a rucksack of his clothes in the community centre. It was one thing to be organised in case of an emergency but Jesus, she expected something like this from Alisha rather than a seemingly care-free Irishman. She looked around, taking in her surroundings properly. The empty pizza box, the phone charger in the wall, the makeshift mattress half covered with a tatty old blanket - Nathan was living here.

"Are you living in the community centre?" she asked bluntly. Melody had never been one to mince her words. The perpetual smug grin on his face faltered, just for a millisecond; it was back before she'd even noticed it had gone.

"Yeah, so what if I am," He said, lazily throwing himself down onto his makeshift bed. "I'm protestin',"

"Really?" She smiled. "Against what?"

"Against.. against community service!" It was quite clearly a lie but he looked like an excitable little puppy. It was amusing. "They can put this tag on me but can they bollocks stop me being free! See livin' here, I answer to no-one. Birds love that whole artistic, floppy-haired bullshit."

"Yeah, you're right. What kind of girl doesn't dream about being seduced in a community centre?" She glanced over the edge of the balcony and saw a couple of old ladies being wheeled into the hall. It reminded her that they actually had somewhere to be. "Are you coming then?"

"Ughhhh," Nathan whined, like a small child not getting his own way. "I can't be arsed. Anyway, you're here, I'm here, there's a bed-"

"Don't finish that sentence." He was actually kind of growing on her. He was bearable, at least, and sometimes he was even quite funny but there was only so must creepiness she could handle. "Come on, they'll probably be some free food in it for us. You're homeless. Don't you need all the food you can get?"

He stands up and scratches his head awkwardly. "So, er, listen Mels.. d'ya fancy keeping this to yourself? Not that I give a fuck what the others think, nooo, course not, it's just.."

"It's your business and no-one else's, yeah?" Melody said, leaning against the railing and watching him tuck the bag of clothes behind a stack of chairs. "So... are you going to tell me the real reason you're here then?"

He explained in his own strange, nonsensical way that his mum had thrown him out in favour of her new boyfriend. He seemed to think it'd all blow over soon enough, and he'd be back in his own bed by the end of the week. Completely invading his privacy without thinking, Melody automatically asked about his dad. Nathan shrugged and said he'd rather be homeless than ask that prick for help. It made her cringe. She knew she had no right to judge peoples personal decisions - she had no idea what had gone on in their lives - but she couldn't help feeling that they didn't know what they were throwing away.

She tactically changed the subject before her thoughts lingered towards her own father. "Oh, so you don't actually live with the rapist werewolf guy then?"

"Jeremy? Noooo. Well, I did for a bit. Fuckin' freak."

"You should probably go and tell your mum what she's living with,"

"Yeah I'm going to," He says, grinning that stupid fucking grin again. "Then she'll kick him out and let me move back in! Sorted,"

"Just break it to her gently, yeah? Don't just knock on the door and say 'Hey mum, guess what? Your boyfriend is gay, a rapist, and a potential werewolf!'" Judging by the look on his face, that was exactly what he was planning on doing. He had literally no tact whatsoever. "Now fucking hell, will you come on? I want to see if they have some of them little sausage rolls. I'm goin' to be all over that shit, man."

...

AN: So this chapter didn't go where I wanted it to go and I'm not too sure about the Nathan/Melody interaction? Does it seem.. forced? I want it to come across as natural.

Thanks for reading. Hope you're liking Melody, I'm trying to make her as genuine as possible while still making her interesting. Please review! :-)