I sighed, catching her eye line. “What happened?”
“Kinda fell in with the wrong crowd,” her eyes darting from mine. “Plus, Mum showed up.”
“What do you mean Mum showed up?”
She fiddled with her hands as she continued, “Turned up out of the blue, acting all sad and promising things would be different.”
I huffed a disbelieving laugh, “He's unbelievable.”
“What?”
“This has Danny written all over it. Getting mum to play the distressed loving parent to get you back.”
Her body fell sideways onto the pillow. “Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it. Like you’ve said before. There's no escape for us.”
“And Chester? You were staying with him for a while.” That’s when her face changed.
“Yeah, he’s gone,” she said, barely audible.
“What d’you mean he’s gone?”
She sat herself up, huddling her knees close. “I’d got into a bit of shit with one of Danny’s buyers, kept spouting some crap about how I’d stolen his stash when I hadn’t. I did what Danny told me to do. But they wouldn’t leave me alone. I got scared when they started following me, so I went to Chester. He said he would sort it, and I haven’t seen him since.”
She lowered her head, resting it on her knees.
“So, he could be lying in some ditch, and you didn’t do anything?” Her eyes snapped to me as I could see her rising anger.
“He said he was going to sort it, Ty! Told me to wait for him outside some café a couple blocks away,” her voice cracked, “I waited for hours.”
“And he didn’t come back?”
She shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. “Not a word. His phone went dead. I went by his flat, nothing. All lights were off; it’s like he’s just vanished.”
I felt something cold crawl down my spine. “You think Danny had something to do with it?” She didn’t answer. Just gave me a look that said everything, and I believed it. That lowlife had always hated Chester. Resented the way he looked out for us. I stood up, pacing now. My head was buzzing. Chester had been one of the few constants, the only one who ever acted as if we mattered. And now he was just… gone?
“He was gonna help me get out,” She continued. “Get me away from this fucking shit hole.” She sobbed. I turned back to her, “He still might.”
“No, he’s not coming back.”
CHAPTER 13
There was something about turning eighteen that didn’t sit right with me. Not because of the number. Not even because of the label people threw around,you are a man now. It was the way people started looking at me, as if I were something worth having. Something they could get their hands on.
Girls, mostly. Wide-eyed ones who giggled when I looked in their direction. Older ones who liked the bite in my voice and the silence behind my stare. But they didn’t know what my hands had done, or where they’d been.
Didn’t know that my smiles were sharpened things, shaped like weapons, not warmth. Didn’t know that the longer I stayed in a room, the heavier it got. It was like something invisible was bleeding into the air. But they liked it like moths to a fucking flame. I’d play along when it suited me; I am human after all.
I’d glance up, tilt my head just enough, giving that calculated half-smirk that made them think I might be sweet under it all. The broken boy who’d seen too much. Some of them stuck around, thinking they’dfix me,that they were the ones who could find the soft centre and tame the wild thing. Those were the ones I pushed hardest. Until they ran of course, didn’t take much. They were hardly a challenge.
When I wasn’t fucking around, I’d spend a lot of my time asking around the area, hoping to hear some information regarding Chester's whereabouts. The bar he worked in refused to answer my questions, ushering me out the door when Icouldn’t contain my growing irritation. He had never really mentioned any friends, and his family were strangers to him. I was starting to resent the fucker for vanishing on us. Or had we somehow concocted an imaginary friend, and Chester didn’t even exist.
Danny had started noticing a change in me, a twisted darkness that he couldn’t quite understand. He started watching me, not with suspicion, but curiosity. At times when the voice would whisper around my mind, he would call me out from my tormented daydreams. His eyes narrowing as he caught the devilish grin on my face. I wasn’t the only one who was changing. Danny had somehow got his dirty fucking claws into Squeeks, rucksack tightly tucked onto her shoulder, and a shifty look in her eye. When questioned, she would tell me she was hanging out with friends.
Seriously?
Did she think I was stupid?
I’d been in her shoes, far too often for her to believe she could get away with telling me anything other than making drop-offs for Danny.
