A/N – Hi guys, first things first, I am so sorry for the lack of updates the last few months. I have been in a constant battle with my mental health since last summer and sometimes, my mental health wins. I really hope you can forgive me for my radio silence and I really hope this chapter makes up for it! As usual, thank you so so much to Guest, Judging. All Day Every Day, Ronnie. H, Toni, jojomonsterbunni, unholycrown and nyxovertop for your lovely reviews!

Chapter Four – Stepdad Porn

I don't think I slept for even two hours that night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Tony's feral face, saw the blood crusted over his nose, saw his bared teeth, heard that deep, animalistic breathing. I saw the evil in him as he charged at me. I heard the crunching sound as his fist had connected with my chest. I heard that awful splattering sound as Kelly smashed his head in with her foot.

I saw the breath leave his body as he died.

I tossed, I turned, I curled up into the foetal position, I starfished over the entire double bed. Nothing I did helped me get to sleep. Once the sun began peeping over the top of the bleak London flats surrounding me and the birds started singing, I decided that my attempts were clearly futile and admitted defeat, throwing the duvet off me and standing up. Oh fuck me, my head hurt. Maybe it had been a bad idea for me and Nathan to drink all that alcohol the second we'd stepped through the door.

Peeping over the top of the half-wall, I saw the curly-haired one snoring away on the sofa, all wrapped up in a spare blanket. At least he'd managed to get a full night's Zs in. My sofa definitely beat a grungy mezzanine in a community centre. Maybe now Nathan would see sense and agree to stay with me until he got himself back onto his feet.

Stretching my arms over my head, I stuck my feet into my slippers and – as quietly as I could – began to pad around the studio flat in my sleep shorts and vest, clearing away the various bottles and cans strewn around the tables and kitchen counters. Yes, the pyjamas were more than slightly revealing, but Nathan and I had had one of those friendships where at the age of six, if we'd got covered in paint or food or mud then our mums would just pop us in the same bath together. We'd seen every part of each other, even as teenagers, so this really didn't bother me in the slightest.

I cleaned up as much as I could as quietly as I could, but eventually it got to the point where I needed to get the hoover out and Nathan was still fast asleep. Seriously, it was like he sank into a minor coma whenever his head hit a pillow. With a small smile, I crouched down next to his head. "Nathan? Naaaathan?" I whispered.

He let out a low groan and turned away from me. "Not now, Mum. I told you, no school today..."

Biting back a snort, I brought my mouth closer to his ear. "Oh Naaaate…"

"Muuuum, get off!"

"NATHAN!" I yelled, and he let out a startled squeak like a ten-year-old girl, rolling straight off the sofa...and straight onto my bare foot.

"Arhhh!" I screamed out, wrenching my toes out from underneath him as he lay on the floor, moaning and cradling his head. "Jesus Christ, lay off those midnight trips to Sultan's Kebabs, you fat fuck!"

"That's karma, that is! Karma!" he spluttered, scrabbling to his feet and jabbing a finger at me. "Why you out here disturbing my beauty sleep like that?! I was having a lovely dream!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah! I was shaggin' Megan Fox! She was wearin' that lovely schoolgirl outfit from Jennifer's Body...it was a crackin' dream!"

"Charming." I rolled my eyes. "But to go back to your first question, have you completely forgotten about our community service?! You know, that thing we're sentenced to two hundred hours of? That thing we were doing when we killed a bloke yesterday?!"

"Shhhh!" Nathan hissed, clamping a hand over my mouth. "What if the FBI are listenin' through the walls?!" Cue second girlish scream of the morning as I licked his hand to make him let go. "You are one dirty little bitch!"

"We're in England, you prick," I deadpanned. "If anything, it's MI5. No one is gonna be listening in to my shitey little flat, are they? They're probably preoccupied with fucking terrorists."

"Better to be safe than sorry, I say."

"...Just get dressed, Nathan. We need to get out of here in an hour."

I couldn't get it out of my head. The whole time we were getting ready, herding Nathan into the car like cattle, the drive to the community centre. It was like it was suffocating me.

We'd killed someone, buried them and discovered we each had some kind of power. Fuckin' superpowers. You couldn't make this shit up. I couldn't feel anything that touched me, I felt no pain. Was I indestructible? Would I be able to feel other sensations? What if I had sex? Did I experience pleasure? I didn't know, and it was the unknown that pissed me off more than anything. I could be a right control freak at the best of times – something inherited from the PTSD of being in a physically and emotionally abusive relationship – and the fact I had absolutely zero control over this 'superpower' did my head in no end.

"Want a bite?" Nathan offered me through a full mouth, brandishing a half-eaten packet of Quavers at me as we made our way into the community centre hallway.

I shook my head. "Not feeling great right now, but cheers for offering me food that I paid for."

"You know me, Blakey, all heart," he said proudly, pushing open the door of the locker room.

Not surprisingly, Kelly and Alisha were already changed and heading out of the door to the main hall. Simon was looking at something on his phone and Curtis was still changing. I opened my locker and stripped off my jeans, stuffing it into the locker and pulling out the community payback jumpsuit. I zipped it to a point where you could still see my Nirvana t-shirt, pulled up my socks and was about to head out when Nathan suddenly clicked his fingers at me to get my attention. I closed my locker, and he did the same. He whistled to get me, Simon and Curtis to gather around him.

"Alright," he whispered, zipping his own jumpsuit up halfway, leaving his black t-shirt on show. "So, if anyone asks what happened yesterday, we say nothin'. Right? It was a completely normal day." We all nodded and, in turn, headed into the main hall. Soon after, a pale woman with long, dark hair came out of the probation office and asked us to stand in a line, saying she needed to speak to us.

"Gary and my colleague Tony have both been reported missing," she told us. I stiffened slightly. Shit. Why, why had we not realised that would happen!? Of course they'd been reported missing! They both had families…families that were now grieving for their missing sons or boyfriends or whatever.

"Their families are very worried about them," the woman carried on. "Have you seen anything unusual? Anything at all?" We all stood in silence, willing her to leave us. That was when Nathan raised his hand. We turned to look at him. What the fuck was he doing?! "You saw something?" the woman asked.

Nathan nodded. "A few days ago, I go into the toilets. Gary and Tony are in there, they're butt naked. Tony has Gary by his hair, like this-" he grabbed the back of his head. "And he's just doin' him. Doggy style." This was where Nathan saw fit to add hip-thrusting gestures. "And he's all 'who's your daddy? I'm your daddy! I'm Big Daddy!'-" cue another disturbing gesture. "-'oh yeah, you like that? Oh yeah, I'm Daddy Cool!'-" yet another explicit gesture. "So I'm guessing," he continued calmly, hands on hips. "That they've run away to continue their illicit, homosexual affair and I ask you, in this world of intolerance and prejudice, who are we-" he gestured at our little group. "Who are we to condemn them?"

The woman gave him a look of sheer disbelief, like she genuinely couldn't even comprehend the words that had just left that Irish idiot's mouth, before walking back into the probation office. I waited for the door to close firmly before I rounded on him. "What in the name of all that is holy was that?!"

"That, my ill-informed princess, was me throwing a depressed penguin a lovely chunk of red herring," he said smugly.

"You cannot be serious! We needed to keep this as bland and boring as we possibly could!" I fumed. "An 'oh no, we have no idea what you're talking about' kind of thing! Not whatever the hell you just did, you prick!"

"Oh Blakey." Nathan patted the top of my head condescendingly. "You're so cute when you're mad over unnecessary shit."

"Unnecessary- you know what, I am not even having this conversation with you. But just know that when we're all in prison and you're getting arse-raped cause you dropped the soap, I will not be helping you!"

Jesus, if we weren't screwed before, we definitely were now.

Miss New Probation Worker never came back out of the probation office, so the six of us decided to head up to the roof. We stood by the edge, looking over the lake. We'd only been stood there about ten minutes when the front doors to the community centre opened and out she came, looking severely depressed. She stood outside for a few minutes before just turning and heading towards the car park.

The second she left our line of sight Nathan removed his fag from his mouth and said, "Well I think we got away with it!"

"Do you actually believe that?" asked Curtis. "Or are you just really dumb?"

"I actually believe that!" Nathan declared. "I mean, I was there. I should have one of these bullshit powers!"

"You can have mine!" said Kelly irately. "You wanna hear what people are thinkin' about you?"

Nathan took a drag on his cigarette. "Not so much, no. I want somethin' good. Y'know, somethin' from the A-list."

"Maybe you can fly?" said Simon tentatively.

"He's not gonna be able to fly!" said Alisha superficially.

"Yeah! There's always someone who can fly!" Nathan said eagerly, climbing on top of one of the chairs.

"I wouldn't do that, Nate. It's not high enough. Try the edge of the building," I suggested.

"Ha fucking ha, Blake," he said, before leaping up and forward about half a foot...only to land in a painful, moaning heap on the floor. "No…that's not it."

"Told you it weren't high enough," I taunted.

"You're a right laugh this mornin', aren't you Blakey?" he said with an eye roll.

I shrugged. "I'm running on about half an hour of sleep; apparently me and survivor's guilt don't mix well together."

"So…what happens now?" asked Curtis. "Is this it? We're gonna be like this forever?"

"What if we're meant to be like…superheroes?" said Simon.

"Oh my God, yes!" I exclaimed. "I call Batgirl!"

"Funny. No offence, but in what kind of fucked-up world would that be allowed to happen?" said Nathan.

"I did not sign up for that!" snapped Alisha.

"None of us did," I snapped back at her. "So maybe we should learn to make the best of the situation we're in, babes." Alisha death-glared me so violently I was half expecting my head to catch fire; there was no way me and this girl would ever be friends.

Nathan looked at Simon and scoffed, "Superheroes? I love this guy. You prick!"

"What if there's loadsa people like us all over town?" Kelly wondered.

Nathan shook his head dismissively. "No. That kind of thing only happens in America!" He draped an arm around my shoulders comfortingly. "This will fade away. I'm tellin' ya, by this time next week, it'll be back to the same old borin' shit."

"I hope so," I said quietly, leaning my head back on his chest. "I really do.

The day came and went in a blur. Miss New Probation Worker only came to see us once, informing us of today's mundane child(ish) labour which was…cleaning the community centre's main hall from top to bottom.

"I should be thankin' everyone for cleaning my new living quarters, really," Nathan told me as we dumped our mops and buckets in the storage cupboard. We were the last two left, everyone else had buggered off to get changed and leave. "It's a shame I can't tell them I'm homeless when I think about it."

"Except you don't have to be homeless," I reminded him. "Surely last night was enough to convince you that my sofa is better than a shitey community centre?!"

"Last night was purely for your benefit," he insisted, flicking a damp rag at me. "What kind of man would I be if I left my bestest mate on the verge of a mental breakdown?"

"Touché. I'll give you that one," I allowed, wiping dirty floor water off my face with a smile. "I really did appreciate you being there. I probably don't say that enough."

"Easy on the sentiment there, Blakey," he snorted. "I might start thinkin' you're comin' onto me."

"In your wildest fucking dreams, babe." I laughed aloud for the first time in twenty-four hours, and it felt pretty damn good. "The day I start coming on to you is the day that something has gone drastically, terribly wrong in my life."

"And I look forward to that inevitable day," Nathan smirked, moving to smack my arse as I let out another shriek of laughter. This was...strange. Nathan had never, ever tried to touch my arse. Sure, he'd commented on it numerous times – he was Nathan, I was a warm-blooded female, of course he'd commented on it – but touching seemed a little too over the mark for the two of us. A little too close. A little too intimate.

I brushed it off; he'd probably got overexcited and forgot where he was and what we were doing. Yeah. That was it. It was just a joke… "Do you want me to hang around tonight?" I asked him, clearing my throat slightly to bring down the blush I just knew I'd be sporting. "I can order in a pizza?"

Nathan shook his head. "Hard pass on that, Blakey. I need some man time, my testosterone levels are dangerously low after spending almost forty-eight hours in your company. Might do a bit of decoratin', turn this place into a right nice man-cave."

"Decorating. Sure. Sounds like real man-time," I snorted. "Alright, I'll get crack-a-lackin' then. See you tomorrow morning, bright and early and all that shit."

"Sleep tight," he grinned. "Don't let the bed bugs crawl into your vagina."

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Nathan?" I sighed, smacking his head before wandering off to the locker rooms to get changed.

Walking out of the front doors five minutes later, I reached into my bag to grab a cigarette, but ended up taking out my phone instead as it vibrated with a text. Flicking it up to unlock it, I glanced down at the screen.

- One New Message -
J

Missing you, Princess. How come you never come round to see me any more?

My blood ran cold when I read through the message. No. No, no, no, he wasn't supposed to contact me! We hadn't seen each other since That Night, the night Nathan and I both got arrested. Why couldn't he get it in his head?! Oh who was I kidding. If me getting Nathan to call the police on him didn't keep him away from me, a screaming match in a bowling alley certainly wouldn't.

Leave me alone, Julian. I have nothing to say to you.

Don't be like that, Bee. I seem to remember you had plenty to say the last time I saw your gorgeous face. How's community service going, by the way?

Fine, not that it's any of your business. How's the broken toes?

Healed, thanks for asking. Come on, babe, just come round. Have a drink with me. For old times. I miss you.

What, so you can try to sweet-talk your way into my knickers, then smash my face in again? I think the fuck not, pal. Fuck off and leave me alone.

Just remember Princess, you'll never find someone else, someone who loves you. No one will want you like I do.

Oh yeah? Well I'd rather be alone for the rest of my life then let another piece of shit like you control me again. Prick.

This isn't over, bumblebee. You're mine, never forget that.

Tears pricked at my eyes. Choosing to ignore Julian's final text, I shoved my phone in my back pocket and started up a powerwalk to my car, suddenly desperate to get home. I was not that terrified girl in love with a violent, abusive dickhead any more. I was strong, I was street-smart, I was independent. Julian would never hurt me again. Nothing would ever hurt me again. I could make sure of that now.

Over the next few days, a kind of pattern set in. I'd arrive at the community centre, find some entertaining way of waking Nathan up, deliver him the latest Bag for Life that I'd stuffed with food, the others would turn up, we'd get changed, the new probation worker (Sally) would give us our monotonous task for the day, we'd do said monotonous task until we could leave.

It was during those monotonous tasks that a smaller pattern set in: Nathan would have some kind of hissy fit about how he didn't have a power, Kelly would punch him, I'd laugh, Simon would film us like the creepy little pervert he was, Alisha and Curtis would flirt, and Nathan and I would banter between ourselves. It wasn't flirting, despite what Alisha and Kelly were fond of saying. Clearly they didn't understand the eclectic – and fucking hilarious – brand of banter Nathan and I had specialised from the day we discovered the appropriate way to swear.

I hadn't heard a single world from Julian fucking Quinn since that day at the community centre either. I wasn't stupid enough to believe that he'd got the message that I never wanted to hear from him or have anything to do with him. No doubt he was waiting in the shadows like the fucking psychopath he was, just waiting for the right time to catch me off my guard again. So fucking what, was my attitude to that.

Every passing day since that texting exchange had ended up being a whirlwind of cleaning graffiti and scraping up dog shite. Now, on Day Seven of our community service, Sally had handed us litter pickers and set us loose on the streets to clean up.

"And what, cause you're all special and I'm not?" Nathan was demanding as we headed into town. "Yeah, well I doubt it. You can think what you like, but I've got a -" Cue stereotypical-sounding gay voice. "- 'superpower', and I just need to find out what it is!"

"Oh my God, I am getting so bored of you saying that!" I groaned, hitting him in the back of the leg with my picker. "Play a different record, I am fucking begging you!"

"Yeah. Maybe you're just super-retarded!" put in Alisha, sounding exasperated.

"Maybe I've got a whole Spider-Man vibe going on!" Nathan continued, completely blanking us both. "Maybe I can climb stuff and do spider shit!"

"Yeah, cause that makes sense," sneered Curtis. "Why would you be able to climb stuff?"

"I don't know! How is it that you can turn back time, apparently?" challenged Nathan. "How is it that Blakey has apparently turned into a block of concrete, and Weird Kid -" he snapped his picker in Simon's face. "- can turn invisible? It's not like this situation is backed up by a wank-load of logic, is it?"

Curtis just gave him the finger. So far, so normal...right?

Wrong. It was when we were in one of the car parks picking up the litter that things started to get a juuust little bit fucked up again. I picked up what looked like a rotting cucumber and stuffed it in my bag when Curtis suddenly exclaimed, "What is that?" His voice held a vague tone of disgust.

We looked in the direction he was gawping in. There, practically unconscious on the concrete, was a man. A naked man, to be exact. Of all the things that had happened over the last week, I think this held the contender of being the weirdest.

"Is he breathin'?" Kelly asked when we got closer to him.

"I…think so?" I said, craning my neck forward to double check. "Yup, he's breathing."

Alisha walked forward and tentatively poked the guy's arse with her picker. "Hey Nude Guy! You're naked!"

This seemed to wake the guy up. After stirring for a moment, he rolled over, apparently completely unaware of where he was. And as he rolled over, his legs reflexively opened, revealing to us – six very mentally disturbed twenty-somethings – his absolutely fucking gigantic knob.

And I really do mean gigantic. That thing looked like it could do a gal – or guy – some serious internal damage. It was like my fucking forearm!

We all let out varying noises of shocked disgust, though to be perfectly honest, I think the guys were slightly in awe of this man's, ahem, talent. From my position next to him, I didn't miss Simon take a picture of the dude's cock either. Yeah, just as I thought. Perverted.

However, as I looked at the screen and saw the man's face, I realised something. Why did that silver fox beard look so familiar…?

"OH MY GOD!" I yelled at the same time Nathan shouted out, "You!" It was Jeremy, his mum's boyfriend. The same Jeremy that she'd kicked Nathan out of the house for. No wonder Nate sounded so fucking angry.

Truth be told, I was currently desperately looking anywhere except for at Jeremy's lower half. He looked at us, then down to his crotch, then back up to us. He scrambled to his feet and started running as fast as he could.

"Hey!" Nathan shouted after him, causing Jeremy to look back and trip over, quite literally almost going balls to the wall. We all burst into raucous laughter, as he jumped back to his feet and proceeded with the sprinting again, rounding a corner and disappearing from sight.

"You wanna tell us who that was?" Curtis laughed.

"He's my mum's…he lives with my mum!" said Nathan weakly.

"Your step-dad has got a massive cock!" announced Alisha, giggling.

"What?! No! Jesus!" cried Nathan as they all laughed. I kept my mouth shut as a sign of solidarity...even if I did find it fucking funny myself. "And he's not my step-dad, alright!"

"Did you see that thing? That was like monster big!" Alisha made a noise to indicate pain. "Your mum will hurt."

Nathan stuffed his fingers in his ears and chanted, "La la la la la!" before snapping, "Shut up!"

"Why's he naked?!" demanded Kelly, like we had a clue.

"An excellent question," I said. "Maybe he's one of them guys that gets off on flashing young, impressionable children. Has your mum had him checked, Nate? What if he's on the register?"

"He's obviously some kind of pervert," said Alisha. "Or he's gay."

"Yeah, that follows," said Curtis.

"What? He's cruising for rough trade!" said Alisha defensively. "They love that shit!"

"Oh, a little light homophobia? Go for it!" Curtis gestured for her to follow Jeremy, an offer she quite obviously did not take up.

"He could be a rapist," Kelly said casually. "There's loads of 'em round here."

"Cheers for that, Kelly. A nice thought for when we're all walking home on our own," I said sardonically.

"Maybe he's a werewolf," suggested Simon.

"Twat!" exclaimed Nathan, pointing at him with his litter-picker.

"It's what happens in films!" Simon defended. "You turn into a werewolf, you kill someone, then you wake up somewhere naked. Like a zoo."

"Isn't that more like Twilight?" I frowned.

"No," said Simon. "In Twilight they aren't werewolves. They're shape-shifters." Consider me corrected.

"Look, he's not a werewolf!" said Nathan. "This guy's such a pussy, he needs my mum to open jars for him! I'm sure if he was a werewolf he'd be able to open a jar of peanut butter for himself!"

"Can confirm," I added, holding up my hand. "He asked me to open a bag of Wotsits once...he is not muscularly gifted in the bicep area."

"What if the storm messed him up?" Kelly piped up.

"That's bollocks," Nathan said, but he didn't sound so sure. "What're the chances?"

"Look around you, Nathan!" I said, gesturing around the group. "You're standing here with a boy who can turn invisible, a girl who can read minds, a boy who can turn back time, a girl who can make people want to shag her on contact, and a girl whose nerve endings don't exist! How can you not think there's a chance something happened to that guy?"

But Nathan shook his head, adamant. "No way. It would just be way too much of a coincidence."

A couple of hours later, we were back at the community centre, ready for the next half of our day. I froze as we walked into the main hall.

Oh my good God, they were everywhere. The room was dominated with them. They were eating, drinking, dancing. Old people. Now I'm no ageist, but when you're confronted with a hall full of people over sixty-five, you get a bit overwhelmed. Being forced into a line, I glanced at everyone in their casualwear. This is the first time we had been allowed to wear what we wanted, as opposed to those God-awful jumpsuits, and I genuinely started to think I might give one of the old dears a heart attack in my red and black striped shorts, cropped baseball shirt and, of course, my staple black Vans.

"Help out, talk to them, make sure everyone's having a good time," instructed Sally. We all hesitated, not really wanting to move into the throng of OAPs. "Move!" If this woman didn't top herself by the time she'd finished with us, it would be a miracle. Nathan, Kelly and I approached an old man in a wheelchair, who wasn't moving, had his eyes closed and was scarcely breathing.

"Is he dead?" asked Kelly, peering for a closer look. She whipped her head round to look at us, eyes wide. "I think he's dead!"

"They wouldn't just leave some dead guy around," I said nervously. "Would they?"

Nathan leaned in closer to the old man, putting his mouth next to the guy's ear. "SHE'S STEALING YOUR PENSION!" The old man jumped like he'd been shot, very much alive. Nathan turned to Kelly and me and grinned. "He's fine."

I sighed and headed to the dancefloor, where several of the old people were shuffling away to the music, pulling Nathan's hand as I did. "Come on, let's dance!"

"Have you ever noticed that minging smell old people give off?" Nathan asked me as we swayed in time to Gene Pitney's 24 Hours From Tulsa; a very different vibe to Warehouse District, the nightclub in Wertham town centre that Nathan and I were known to frequent on Friday and Saturday nights.

"What, you mean the very distinct aroma of foist, mothballs and incoming death?" I snorted, letting out a laugh when he spun me out then pulled me back to his side, swinging us in a circle. "How could I not?"

I pulled away from him with a very Shakira-like hip wiggle, dissolving completely into a fit of giggles, though I hadn't missed Nathan's gaze never leaving me.

He opened his mouth to say something when a pale hand tapped him on the shoulder. Oh look, here was Sally, ready to sap any inkling of fun out of the situation. The woman was like a fucking black hole. Even her hair looked depressed, hanging there all limp and lifeless. Bitch.

"Nathan, Joan is asking for a nice strong young man to take her on a walk," she told him. "So I told her I knew the perfect candidate."

"Curtis?" I suggested irately, thoroughly pissed off that she'd seen fit to interrupt our dance.

"No, Blake, not Curtis," she sighed, glaring at me. She tugged on Nathan's arm. "Let's go."

"I'm busy," Nathan argued.

"You're right," Sally agreed sarcastically. "You are busy. Busy with your community service."

"I'll catch up with you later," Nathan muttered to me as Sally quite literally dragged him towards a wrinkled old woman with thinning white hair perched in a wheelchair.

"Fucking bitch," I snarled after them. I turned on my heel and tried to stalk off in a dignified manner, but the illusion was shattered by a well-dressed elderly woman, who introduced herself as Christine, asking me to play a game of cards with her.

As much as I didn't want to, I accepted, trying to take my mind off how annoyed I was. I sat down with Christine and she produced a pack of cards, declaring she wished to play Go Fish. Halfway through the game, I was starting to get bored. I looked around the room, and saw Simon awkwardly dancing with some woman, Alisha was making tea and Kelly and Curtis were also dancing. Nathan was by the food table, talking to some really pretty blonde girl in a multicoloured sundress. As quick as a dagger to the chest, I felt a huge stab of jealousy rush through me, a silent snarl marring my lips.

Who was this girl? As I watched, they both began laughing together, and that violent, territorial feeling intensified. No Blake, stop it! I had no reason to be jealous. Nathan and I were best mates. Any other feelings were just...wrong. More than wrong. They were completely misplaced. If I was ever stupid enough to even consider developing feelings for Nathan, then bigger fucking fool me. Nope. I would leave Little Miss Blondie to him. He'd only be looking to get his dick wet.

"Dumb whore," I mumbled under my breath. Apparently I hadn't been quite as quiet as I'd hoped as I didn't miss Christine giving me a reproachful look. I ignored her and looked back up at Nathan, who in the space of forty-five seconds had torn himself away from the blonde and was now dancing with an old woman in a yellow cardigan.

Christine followed my gaze and cracked a grin. "He's a nice one."

"He's alright," I said facetiously, rolling. "Not really my type."

"Oh please," scoffed Christine. "It's etched all over your face that you like the boy."

"Don't be gross, Christine," I replied casually, shuffling the cards in front of me. "Nathan and I have been best mates since we were like five. I physically cannot find him attractive, it would be incest at this point."

"Of course , my love. Whatever makes you feel better." Christine looked at Nathan again. "He is ever so good looking. If I were fifty years younger…"

"What say I get you a cup of tea, yeah?" I interrupted, standing up and hurrying over to the drinks table.

As I poured some milk into a cup, Nathan came up behind me. "Alright there, Blakey girl?"

"Right as rain, thanks very much," I muttered, stirring the cup of tea so ferociously I'm amazed I didn't crack the china. Instead, a load of the tea sloshed over the sides of the cup and splashed over my hand. I could see the skin rapidly turn red and a small little blister forming, but of course, I felt nothing. I was numb, like my soul. Now I was just wound up that I'd made a fucking mess. "Motherfucker!" I grabbed a handful of napkins and dabbed at the tea on my hand to dry off.

"Easy on the language there," said Nathan. "There are impressionable old people around!"

"Look, is there something you want, Nathan?" I snapped, turning around with my hands on my hips.

He blinked, very clearly put out by my attitude problem. "Who the fuck pissed on your sausage roll?"

I sighed, dragging a hand through my hair. There was no need for me to be acting like such a bitch. Nathan had sniffed around women like a dog in heat ever since we were fifteen and he got his first handjob from Carla Thomas behind the Sixth Form bike shed. This time was no different; of course it wasn't. "Sorry Nate...that time of the month."

"And that is information that will be enough to end this portion of our conversation," he grimaced. "Listen, don't suppose you have any...prophylactics on ya?"

Now it was my turn to blink. "Um, no, Nathan, I can't say I have. I've practically been a nun since Julian and I split, I've had precisely zero need for them."

"Shit," he groaned. "Gonna have to try and nick some from Superdrug."

"For fuck's sake, man, just buy some," I said exasperatedly.

"What the fuck is the point in buyin' condoms when I can't guarantee immediate use of them?" he argued.

"Oh yeah? So who's the lucky lady you plan on stealing condoms for? That pure-looking little blonde?"

"If you mean her -" he pointed to the girl I'd seen him talking to earlier. "Then yes. Beautiful, isn't she? Sure, she's not got much going for her in the vital areas – you know, tits and such - but she's so in to me it ain't even funny."

I mimed gagging. "She looks like a fucking Bible-basher. She will never shag you, Nathan."

"'Course she will. I'm a fuckin' catch!"

I smiled wickedly. "Tell you what, let's make this more interesting, shall we?"

Nathan's interest was immediately piqued. "Go on."

"Let's have a little bet," I smirked. "If you can somehow get into her knickers by the end of the week – Friday, that is – then you get twenty quid. If you fail, you owe me the twenty."

Nathan chuckled. "Oh-ho, you underestimate me, Blakey. You're fuckin' on. I'll fuck her so many times before Friday that you'll owe me at least a hundred."

"Game on, fucker," I grinned, holding out my hand for me to shake as I tried to ignore the green-eyed monster that was desperately trying to envelop me.

"Seriously, what is it with old people and playing card games?" I grumbled in the locker room when we had finally been set free. "I'm tellin' ya, the next time someone asks me to play Snap with them, they are getting a slap!"

"You sound like you had fun," said Alisha, grinning.

"Is it obvious?" I said sarcastically, pulling my backpack out of my locker and closing it.

"Someone knows!" Curtis suddenly exclaimed out of nowhere. We all turned to face him, fear spreading through my veins. He was holding a piece of paper, an appalled expression marring his face. "They know we killed our probation worker!"

"What the fuck are you on about?" I demanded. In response, he held up the piece of paper so we could read it. On the sheet was a series of cliché ransom-note-style newspaper clippings spelling out I KNOW WHAT YOU DID.

"Is this a wind-up?" Kelly said, not sounding particularly bothered.

"Was this you?" I asked Nathan, who shut his locker indignantly and put his hands in his pockets. Let's be realistic, this was exactly the kind of prank his type of fucked-up sense of humour would pull.

"If I was tryin' to wind you up, I think I'd be a little more creative," he scoffed. He adopted a spooky, Vincent Price-esque tone of voice. "'I know what film you saw last summer.'"

"This isn't funny!" said Kelly angrily.

"If I wanted to freak you out, I'd've dug up the bodies and stuck those in your locker!" he exclaimed.

"If it wasn't him, who was it?" Simon asked fearfully.

"Well we've all done stuff," said Nathan intensely. "They could be talking about anything. Blake ran over a dog the day after she passed her driving test, they could be on about that."

"Oh fucking cheers, Nathan!" I yelped. "Wasn't like I was desperately trying to keep that memory suffocated or anything!"

"It was in your locker!" Alisha pointed out to Curtis.

"This was meant for all of us!" he insisted. "They're talkin' about the probation worker!"

"You don't know that," I said fairly. "Seriously, it's probably just some prickhead dicking around with us! Who bothers with this kind of shit?"

"Yeah. Let's just say your right," said Nathan. "If they actually knew anything, they wouldn't be dickin' around sticking notes on lockers. They'd've gone to the police, and we'd all be banged up in prison gettin' gang-raped in the showers! But this -" he gestured at the note. "This means they have no evidence, no proof. Nothing. And anyway, I'm guessing it's about some other totally unrelated shit that you've done," he added to Curtis. "So, if we're all done here freakin' out over nothing, there's somewhere I need to be." He patted Curtis patronizingly on the shoulder and sauntered out of the locker room.

There were a few seconds of an intense silence as we all looked at each other, wondering if Nathan could be right for a change.

"Please tell me you don't actually believe that prick!" exploded Curtis.

"Fuck off, Curtis!" I said heatedly. "That 'prick' is my best mate! Stop being a fucking drama queen for once and chill out! This ain't proof! It's a fucking piece of paper in a locker! It's bullshit!"

"Whoever did it's just tryin' to freak us out, right?" said Kelly, getting wound up. "So just act normal!"

"Good idea," I agreed, a smidge calmer. "I mean, come on. What's to worry about? The probation worker's six feet under, there's nothing to panic about. Give it a week, and him and Gary will need dental records to be identified. We are fine." Famous last words.

A/N- Again, I just really want to apologise for the lack of updates recently. I'm hoping I'll be getting back in the swing of things and be able to update chapter 5 faster, but just bear with me. I promise I'm getting there. Please review, they always give me that extra burst of motivation to keep going. Love to you all. Xx Gee xX