Authors note: Hey guys :) Thank you to the people who've reviewed, favourited or followed this story. Also thanks to immortalmorgana for posting such amazing and positive reviews on so many chapters. Sorry for not updating in a while, but I have been on holiday, I promise I'll update more often now.

There was only one person on my mind as I walked through the school gates. Liam. The events of the other day were running endlessly through my head. I couldn't ever remember having had that much fun in my life, even with all the worry about my mum, the court case, the dumping ground I still had a great time.

I was so lost in thoughts of Liam and the other day that I hardly noticed when I bumped into Heather. She laughed as I collided with her, and then her face split into a mischievous grin. "P.E. next, don't fancy that much." She said with a groan.

I gulped, I'd forgotten we had P.E. first period and I gulped. "Me neither, I hate P.E." I said with as casual a laugh as I could manage. For the first time that morning my thoughts had strayed from Liam to the scars and bruises that were hidden beneath my uniform.

"Well if we don't get marked in registration we could just jib off for the day?" She suggested with a sly smile, I could tell she had plans for the day out of school, and last week I would have agreed straight away, but something made me hesitate. Liam. I'd been looking forward to seeing him, especially after him saying he was looking forward to seeing me last night. Something about being with him just made me incredible happy.

But even as I thought of Liam my hand had absentmindedly strayed to the still unhealed scars on my stomach, and I had to work not to wince as my fingers came into contact with the fragile skin. I bit my lip and then smiled at Heather. "Sounds like fun, way better than P.E."

"Knew you'd be up for it." She said almost triumphantly. "Hayden and Joe weren't so sure. Come on, they're waiting for us at the gates. We'd better make sure that none of the teachers see us." She turned on her heals and began to walk back the way we'd came, keeping a watchful eye out for any of the teachers on the way. I followed her closely, pulling my phone out and opening the most recent text from Liam.

I sighed a little and then put it back in my pocket, and walked a little closer to catch up with her. We reached the front gates where two guys were stood waiting. One of them was the boy who came to the café with us yesterday, I was pretty sure his name was Joe. The other who must be Hayden I vaguely recognised from my increasingly frequent trips behind the bike sheds. They smiled when they saw us coming and Hayden walked forward and draped his arm around Heather.

I gave the school one last look before following them down the road and into town. It takes about twenty minutes to get to the shops, between there and here is just rows and rows of terraced housing. Hayden and Heather were being all gross and coupley, which left Me and Joe trailing after them awkwardly.

"Your one of them Elm Tree lot then?" He asked after a while. He was a lot taller than me, quite leanly built and his face was kind of square, but he was still quite good-looking. He didn't smile much but when he did it seemed to take over his whole face and he looked really great.

I pointedly stared into the distance and stuck my chin out. "Elm Tree is a place where I happen to live." I said, trying not to sound annoyed. He just grunted and then lit a smoke and passed it to me. I gratefully took a drag, hoping he wouldn't bring up Elm Tree again. "Do you know where we're going? Heather wouldn't tell me." I said in an effort to change the subject.

"Sure, they want to get tattoos. Each other's names, like prison tat's on their fingers. There's this parlour in town, it's not too expensive, and they don't ask for ID during school hours." He said with a small shrug. "Might get one as well if I've got enough dosh, what about you?"

I frowned, taken aback by the information. Then I bit my lip as I thought it over. I was skint anyway, so I couldn't get one, but if I had money would I. Most of my friends had tattoos, and they looked pretty cool. I shrugged and took another drag of the ciggy before passing it back to him. "I'm broke." I said simply, even if I wanted one I didn't have a choice.

Joe just grunted, and then lit another smoke with the end of the last one. I smiled for a moment, remembering for a moment a friend from the estate who used to do the exact same thing all day, and then I sighed and decidedly tried not to think about the estate. It hurt too much. I still hadn't called Alicia, and I knew she'd be worried by now, so I made a mental note to do it later.

"I thought care kids got a load of pocket money." Joe said, pulling me from my thoughts.

It took a moment for his words to register, because the gap in the conversation was so long and because I'd been distracted. "I'm not a care kid." I said once I'd understood what he said. "And I've only just started living at Elm Tree." I probably said a little more curtly than necessary, but the guy was getting up my nose now, and it was taking a lot of my self-control not too be very rude to him.

To try and calm myself down I tried to think about how much pocket money I was getting. It was a lot more than it was back at home, but I never got pocket money there so that didn't mean anything. I shrugged and then tried to change the subject again. "You got anything other than fags?" I asked with a smile.

"Sure." He replied, pulling a bottle of vodka out of his bag and passing it to me. I tried not to pull a face, straight vodka is something you drink when your already drunk, or as shots, it didn't have the best of flavour's. But I twisted off a cap and took a swig anyway, revelling in the familiar taste and the burning in my throat. Joe looked impressed at the swig, but as usual he didn't say much, and he just put the bottle back in his bag.

We passed the rest of the journey in silence. Occasionally catching parts of Heather and Hayden's conversation, but it was never very pleasant too listen to. After what felt like hours we reached the tattoo parlour. Heather was like an excitable six year old on Christmas morning as she paid for the tattoo, squealing and clapping her hands in anticipation. She didn't wince or show any sign of pain as the man wrote Hayden on her finger.

Hayden however was a different story. He yelped when the tattoo touched his skin, and spent the duration of the tattoo squeezing the arms of the chair and biting his lip so hard it bled while Joe and I giggled at his reaction. After Hayden and Heather had theirs done the man turned to look at Joe and I. He was one of those big, buff, biker guys covered in tattoo's and piercings, and the way he leered at us made me sure he was thinking something dodgy.

"Are yis' gettin' anyfin'?" He asked. His accent was strong and he didn't pronounce any of his words properly. I would've laughed if he hadn't been staring at me like that. Joe hadn't the man his cash and explained the tattoo he wanted on his arm. It was clear he was in pain but he bore it stoically and didn't make a single sound.

When he was finished with Joe's I looked at it admiringly. He'd gotten the words 'fuck it' written on his upper arm, surrounded by bright and skilled drawings of flames. "Do you want one like that?" The man asked, he was standing right behind me, although I hadn't realised until he'd spoken. I jumped and twisted round, but kept my ground, determined not to show him he scared me a bit. He looked a lot like my dad, so big and covered in tattoos with short hair, it was unnerving.

"Nah, I'm skint." I said quickly.

"Don't worry about it kiddo. Special deal, the hottest girl in here today gets a free tattoo." He said, still leering at me with that horrible smile on his face.

I tried not to swallow and sound confident as I spoke. "Alright then, I'll have one of those crosses, just a little one next to my knuckles. Here." I pointed to what looked like a less painful spot than Hayden's.

The man nodded and then gestured towards the seat while he got the needle ready. I bit my lip and braced myself.

It wasn't as painful as I expected, but it still hurt quite a lot and it was an effort not to gasp in pain as the needle went in. Afterwards the man put a bandage on it so it wouldn't get infected and then he smiled at me in that creepy way again. "If you want a bigger one next time that's no problem. Come here anytime, maybe without your friends next time."

I took a deep breath and gave him a huge smile. "Sure, sounds like fun. I'll see you soon." I said, even though I knew there was no chance I'd be setting foot in that shop ever again. I hopped off the chair and grabbed Heather's hand, pulling her out of she shop.

"Ouch, that's my finger." She said. I rolled my eyes but let go.

"What a creep." Hayden said with a laugh. I joined in, but inside I felt a bit queasy. You get treated like that all the time on the estate, being a girl lads seem to think they can say whatever to you. I was used to it, but it still made me feel a bit sick because it was how my dad had treated my mum. I shook my head, determined not to think about my mum or my dad, then I looked over at Heather.

"P.E. will be over now, shall we go back to school?" I said, thinking about Liam. Heather snorted and Hayden grinned.

"Don't be daft Ellie. We're free for the day because we never got marked in. Shall we go down the park, Ice cream on me." She said with a giggle, linking hands with Hayden and pulling him in the direction of the park. I looked at Joe and shrugged, then we sloped off after them.

We sat on the grass for a while, smoking and daring each other to drink more of the vodka. It was clear Heather was more than tipsy by the time we finished it. She was all giggly and couldn't walk in a straight line. I couldn't help but laugh at her. But it was hard to really enjoy myself, it reminded me too much of the park back on the estate.

After a while I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket and pulled it out to find a text from Liam. Hey,it read, are you okay? Are you bunking? Xxxx I bit my lip and sighed. Feeling guilty about not texting him earlier.

Bunking. I'm on my way back now though, see you at lunch. :) xxxx I sent the text back as soon as I could. There was no reply for a few minutes, and then I got one that simply said.

Okay xxxx

I put my phone away and stood up. "Come on guys, it's Drama after lunch, that's always a laugh, and I'm starving." They didn't look too impressed, but they stood up anyway and we made our painstakingly slow way back to school. It was halfway through lunch by the time we finally got there, and I was so eager to find Liam that I barely said bye to the others as they slunk off towards the bike sheds.

Liam was exactly where I thought he'd be, sitting on the field next to the football pitch with all his friends. I grinned when I saw him and sped up, he waved happily and gestured to the spare piece of ground next to him. I flopped down and then pulled my jam sandwiches out of my bag. "Everyone, this is Ellie." He said with a smile. "Ellie this is everyone…" He reeled of a long list of names that I would never remember, and everybody smiled and said hello before going back to their separate conversations.

Liam laughed when he saw my sandwiches. "Not very healthy." He commented with a grin. "But they look pretty tasty. I grinned and broke some off for him. He ate it in two bites then smiled happily and pulled out his own lunch of M&M's and cheese sandwiches.

"Who were you with this morning?" He asked me as he munched on M&M's.

"Oh, ermm, Heather Dunkirk, Joe and Hayden." I said, hoping I'd gotten Heather's second name right. For a moment I saw an unrecognisable emotion flit across Liam's face, what was it, annoyance, disapproval, hate? I couldn't tell it was there for so little time. But even after it was gone he didn't look very happy.

"The bike shed lot?" He asked, eyes narrowing.

"Yeah, why?" I asked, trying as hard as I could not to sound confrontational.

He frowned again but then his face softened into a smile, and he started wittering on about the maths lesson he'd had earlier. I decided not to pursue the subject of his obvious annoyance with 'the bike shed lot' and just enjoy the afternoon with him.

"Are you doing anything this weekend?" He asked with a grin. I sighed dismally and shook my head. "Well do you want to do something?"

"I'm grounded remember." I said with another sigh. He laughed as if that meant nothing, but I wasn't stupid, I knew that the social workers would notice if I snuck out this weekend, and then I really would be in shit.

"Okay, then I'll come over to the DG." He said, his grin, if possible, getting bigger. "I haven't been over in a while actually. It's high time I beat Frank at football again."

"Sounds like fun." I said with a smile.

"I hope Gina's cooking, I miss her curries." He said wistfully.

"It's gotta be better living with your brother though." I pointed out with a laugh. Although I had to admit Gina's meals were a lot better than the TV trays my mum would serve up, on the off chance she was in the mood to cook.

"Well yeah. Jack's great, but sometimes I do miss the DG." He said. I frowned a little, why would anybody miss the DG. It might be better than living rough, but it still sucks being a care kid. "It's just like, there's always something going on there, you know. Sometimes living with my brother can be kind of, I don't know, boring." I considered that for a moment, I hadn't really been living there long, so I couldn't really comment on that. Before I could say anything though, Liam was grinning again and chattering about one of his favourite TV shows.

I smiled, it was so easy being with Liam. It just felt right, the conversation flowed without gaps or awkward pauses. It was as easy as breathing.