-ten-

Denzil was stood outside his sister's bedroom, just staring at the closed door in front of him, with the sign on the door that read "Sam's Room". Ever since he'd learned of his sister's illness he had come to realise, that as much as she annoyed the hell out of him, and how much of a wind up merchant he was for her, he loved her so much, and didn't want to face up to the fact that his sister wouldn't be there for his entire life, Marley would miss what little time she had left because of university, Earl definitely would because he was stupid enough to kill his girlfriend and get locked up, but Prince would barely remember her. He saw her every day now, but once she was gone, and he'd never see her again, he would almost certainly forget about her.

But not Denzil. He remembered every tear she had wiped away, every argument and cross word they'd said to one another, every "I love you" every hug to keep away his fears and every time she'd protected him and Prince from Reynold. Although the waste of space had never raised a finger to her, to Denzil's knowledge, he'd definitely raised his voice to her and tried to shout her into submission.

Denzil knocked on his sister's door, and waited for the quiet "Come in" from the girl inside. Upon hearing it he opened the door and walked inside. He could see his sister sat by the window. "You can come into school you know?" he said, walking over and sitting by her. There was no way he was showing her how scared he was. He knew she needed his strength right now, because she wasn't getting it from Finn. He hadn't been round since Sam had told him everything.

"No… I'm not feeling up to it…" Sam said quietly, looking at her brother. "You okay?"

Denzil nodded, hearing her. "I'll try and get Finn to come round today." He said and nodded again. "Yeah I'm okay… it's you I'm worried about."

Brother and sister shared a hug.

"I'll be fine." Sam smiled.

"Denz come on you're going to be late for school!" Rose shouted.

"Go on. You don't want to annoy Clarkson by being late." Sam managed a smile.

Denzil forced a smile and got up, walking out, walking down the stairs for his school bag and out the front door for school.

Rose walked up the stairs and up to her daughter's room. "Tom's asked me to go in for a couple of hours; can you manage here on your own, love?"

"Yeah, I'll stuff myself with whatever's in the cupboard and watch telly." Sam smiled, even though she knew there was no way she'd eat anything. With the medication she was on, it was taking away her appetite.

Rose smiled a little at her daughter and kissed her on the head. "I love you Sam"

"You best not be saying goodbye yet. I'm going nowhere yet." Sam said determinedly.

"Of course not love." Rose smiled. She had to admire her daughter through all of this, showing her strength of character, showing her she was coping. "I won't be long." She added and walked out of her daughter's room, closing the door behind her and made her way down the stairs, taking Prince out the door with her, taking him to school and made her way to Waterloo Road School once she'd taken him into school.

Sam sighed heavily, looking around her room. Maybe she could finish some coursework that she had… it might stave off boredom for now… She got up and walked over to her desk where her bag lay on the floor and she picked it up, pulling out books and she started to work on them.

"Finn just don't do anything stupid. Yeah you're angry now but Amy and Lauren are only looking out for Sam." Bex sighed as she spoke on the phone to him. She was stood in the corridor with her friends, ready to go into the dance room.

"Not you as well! Why can't anyone just get off my case!" he snapped.

"You asked for my advice, Sharkey, don't like it, don't ask for it." Bex retorted.

Finn sighed heavily. "Yeah I know… I'm sorry…" he muttered.

"Okay… if Amy starts getting on at you again just tell her to shut it and walk away."

"I don't think I can do this Bex…"

"Do what?" she questioned.

"This whole… standing by her thing… I dunno…" he sighed.

"It's okay to be scared you know… it's normal even. Just think about it before you make any rash decisions okay?" Bex said.

"Rebecca, off the phone now please." Michelle, her dance teacher said.

"I thought no one called you Rebecca." Finn commented with a smirk.

"Zip it Sharkey." Bex smirked and hung up; turning the phone on to silent and she put it in her bag, filing into the classroom with everyone else.

Finn smiled a little, but it still didn't clear everything up in his head. He thought he needed to call it off, because if he didn't know where this was going, it was unfair to leave Sam in the lurch.

"Finn come on! She's nearly here!" Amy called, walking over and dragging him. He decided he had better go with her whether he wanted to or not.

Everyone was packed into the school canteen, waiting for Sam to arrive, and everyone shouted and applauded as she entered the room.

Finn walked over and hugged her, forcing a smile. He was happy to see her, of course he was, but there was still that voice in the back of his mind saying "You can't do this. You're a coward. Run away now like you always do." But at this moment he chose to ignore it, leading her over to where the food was being served, and they both took their trays and sat down.

He really needed to stop and think before he spoke. He'd put his foot in it once again, forgetting she wasn't going to get better for just one moment. He looked around at the girls sat at the table and he sighed heavily, scowling. He got up and stormed out of the room, Sam following him.

After moments' talking, a hug and an attempted kiss, Finn stepped back from the girl he was supposed to love. He'd seen the scared look on her face at that point, but it still didn't stop him from saying they should call it a day. He'd seen how hurt and heartbroken she was, and all he wanted to do was hug her, tell her he didn't mean a single word of it, but his fear made him turn and walk out of the school, and spend the rest of the lunch break outside by the basketball court.

Sam was stood, rooted to the spot. She couldn't believe what she'd just heard. She was torn 3 ways, part of her wanting to run after him and demand an explanation in true Sambuca Kelly style, part of her had accepted that he couldn't and wouldn't be there for her despite all her hopes and the final part of her wanted to fall to the floor and cry there and then.

"Sam?"

She didn't move at the mention of her name, and closed her eyes, allowing the tears to fall as she felt the two pairs of arms of her best friends hug her.

"What happened?" Lauren asked, stepping back a little and moving a piece of hair from her friend's face.

Sam just looked at them both with tears still in her eyes. Lauren would have a sympathetic ear and Amy would want to go and kill him. She sighed heavily and looked at the floor. "Finn dumped me…" she muttered.

"Where is he? He can't do this to ya!" Amy ranted, going to walk out of the school but Lauren yanked her back by the hood of her jacket.

"Kill him later." Lauren said and nodded to Sam.

Amy looked at them both and nodded, hugging Sam again. "Tell ya what? Me, Lauren and Josh will come round to yours later, and we can stuff our faces full of crap, stick a few girlie films on and make a day of it?"

Sam nodded a little and smiled slightly. "Yeah I'd like that… " she said quietly.

"Great that's our evening planned then." Lauren smiled. "Feel up to staying or do you want to go back home?"

"I just wanna go home." Sam admitted, she looked the way she felt. Drained, tired, and now? Heartbroken.

Both girls hugged her again. "We'll stay here, keep an eye on him." Lauren said. "And I'll try not to let Amy kill him."

Sam laughed at that. "Leave that to me…"

Amy smiled. "Okay, but if you need help you know I'm more than capable."

Sam nodded. "Yeah…"

"Let's go find your mum and Mr Clarkson and they can take you home. We can tell them our plans for later." Lauren said.

"Mates round, junk food, films, and killing a teenage boy." Amy grinned.

Sam looked, still giggling and she walked in between them, both of them linked their arms with hers. She really would miss them. She worried about them, how they would cope when she wasn't around. What would happen with them?

Lauren saw the worried look flit across her friend's face. "Don't worry about us. We'll be fine…" she whispered.

Sam looked at her, not saying anything, the three of them walked back to the canteen, finding Tom and Rose stood together.

Amy and Lauren explained what had happened, and said they were going to go round to Sam's later.

"I'll see if I can find him later and try and have a talk with him." Tom sighed heavily. "Okay well we'll make ourselves scarce later, Denz is going to Emily's later anyway so he'll be out of the way."

"I could strangle that boy sometimes." Rose muttered.

"Join the queue." Amy put in.

"He's probably just as scared as we all are." Tom said. "The thing with Finn, as you know, he doesn't deal with things that scare him well, does he. Remember when he thought he'd have to leave you all behind?"

Amy listened, and reluctantly agreed. She did remember it, a little too well sometimes. That didn't stop her from wanting to at least give him a slap across the face.

Tom, Rose and Sam left Amy and Lauren to it, and they went home, Tom had to go back to school though. He had tried to talk to Finn, but Finn didn't want to know, so he left it until the end of the day.

Finn had managed to escape a talking to from Clarkson, but hadn't quite managed to stay completely out of trouble. Stupidly trusting a child killer, who had also lied about something that was happening to the one he loved. He'd gone out of class to meet her outside, he wanted to know what she had to say for herself, and nearly ended up getting seriously hurt himself.

And now he was say in the quietest place he could find outside the school and he was sat against the wall, his phone in his hand. It was ringing, and he knew it would be Bex. Sighing heavily he answered it.

"Hey." He said.

"Hey.. you decided what you're gonna do yet?" she questioned.

Straight to the point. That's what he liked and admired about that girl. She also wasn't afraid to say exactly what she thought, just like Sam. "I ended it…" he muttered.

There was a moments' silence. "Did you want to? Or was that fear talking and you ran?"

"Fear talking and ran…" he admitted quietly. There were only 2 girls he would never be able to lie to, and it was Sam and Bex. Not intentionally anyway.

"So go over there and get her back." Bex said.

"What if I can't do it? I'm just gonna be the biggest let down to her, and I can't do that, I can't see that look of disappointment on her face."

"You'll be amazed what you can do. You won't even know you're doing it at times." She told him truthfully.

He trusted her; he knew she'd gone through the exact same thing of losing someone she loved to this vile disease. He'd seen it in her face when she spoke of it, something he wasn't able to detect in that child killer's face. That girl didn't even deserve to be called by her name; she should be locked up, not in witness protection. "What did you do?"

"I was just there whenever I could… we took him out, gave him the time of his life when we could… We were just… there. Didn't even have to go anywhere sometimes, but it was nice to. So just… go over there. Explain to her you were scared. Tell her you want to be there for her. Cause she's gonna need you now more than ever, Finn."

Finn nodded, listening to her. "Yeah… yeah I guess you're right."

"Okay. I'll be home at the weekend and I expect my two friends back together by the end of today, alright?"

He could hear the smile in her voice, which made him smile too. "Okay. Talk to you then."

"Bye, Sharkey."

"Piss off, Rebecca."

"How rude!" she laughed, as did he, and they both hung up.

Finn sighed heavily again, putting the phone in his pocket, and he stayed there, thinking for a few moments, before acting on his friend's advice and getting up, going to win back his girlfriend.