Alice was sitting in an English lesson when she received the dreaded message.
“At 11am you will call me for phone sex.”
‘Phone sex??!!’ Alice cried internally. ‘I can’t have phone sex! What even is phone sex?’
11am was break time at Adam’s school. Alice knew this since she’d gone to the same place before deciding to give it up in favour of the local college. Her school offered the same choices, but something about going to college made her feel grown-up. Independent.
 
On the walk to the bus stop, Alice was still deep in thought about Alek. Was it possible the TA was attracted to her? Or was Joseph just being Joseph.She was concentrating so intensely that she failed to notice Josh trying to get her attention. Glancing up, she frowned as she found him waving his art folder at her, saying, “Hello, world to Alice.”“Sorry, Josh,” Alice said, wondering why Josh had dashed over and flagged her down. Aside from the odd hello or sporadic conversations about paintbrushes, they hadn’t really spoken before.“Hey Alice, I sent you a friend request,&rd
When Dad dropped her at home Alice waved bye and rushed into the house. After an unseasonably warm Autumn, the weather was just beginning to cool down and the first signs of frost were appearing, glittering the tips of lawns and the edges of car windows.A blanket of warm air enveloped Alice as she entered her home. She searched the house for Jamie and found him in his room.“That was a real dick move,” she scolded him, bursting into his bedroom without walking.“Learn to knock,” Jamie tutted.
Ste squeezed through the crack in the fence, his trainers sliding on the wet mud and grass as he tried to unhook his shirt from a splinter in the wooden panel. He was ten over ten minutes late so figured Adam and the other would definitely be in class by now. They had to be.He spun on his heels to find Jamie staring him down with cat-like eyes.“Shit,” Ste gasped, an involuntary slip of the tongue. He didn’t bother to apologise or explain his outburst. “Where are the others?”“In class, I presume,” Jamie said. “You are ten minutes late, you know?”
Alice hadn’t stopped thinking about Adam all day. Part of her felt stupid—for being so rubbish in bed and failing at the most basic of sexual positions. Yet, there was a part of her that was excited to try again. That initial feeling of him entering her was something she craved. Every time she thought about it, the craving deepened, leaving her sitting in class while uncomfortably wet. If she got any hornier, she ran the risk of ending up like the creepy kid who’d been caught masturbating in the toilets.After lunch, Alice met Ed and Joseph in Art class. Ed was giving details about his date, who was apparently the only woman in existence who lived for Warhammer and LARPing. She was hot, too, Ed explained, which was always a plus.
A blast of cold air wafted into the kitchen as Jamie opened the front door. He had this terrible habit of leaving the door open as he took his shoes and jacket off, going back to close it as an afterthought while the rest of the house shivered.“You’re letting all the heat out,” Mum shouted from the living room. This was one of Mum’s favourite sayings.“Sorry,” Jamie shouted back. He rolled his eyes as he joined Alice at the kitchen table. Spotting her cup of tea, he hinted, “Have you just boiled the kettle.”This, in her house, was code for, “Make me a drink
‘Another Friday night alone,’ Alice sighed to herself. It wasn’t unusual. Ed was always dating, and Joseph had to work. Ed had invited Alice along on his night out with Carla—now his official girlfriend—but Alice didn’t want to feel like a third wheel.It was pointless to go in and pester Joseph at work on a Friday too, he was always run off his feet. She would be left sitting at the bar like a sad, lonely singleton, waiting for some man to come and sweep her away. The only men that ever approached her were too old, too drunk or just too gross.‘I have to have some standards,’ Alice thought. ‘Veeery basic standards.’
“A’ight?” Mike greeted the couple. He didn’t seem surprised to see Alice.It was weird, but Alice was starting to feel at home in Adam’s house. His family—the dog and the brother—both appeared to have accepted her.“What are you watching?” Adam asked him as he sat on the sofa and pulled Alice down to join him.“Some shit about revising sentences for violent offenders,” Mike explained. “This one guy, right, he used to be some proper gangster. Got nicked for stabbing someone to death and now he’s out and reformed.”
Alice woke up from a nightmare in the early hours of the morning. For a brief moment, she had zero recollection of her whereabouts and panicked as she looked about the strange, dimly lit room.Hearing a soft snore, she reached down to feel Adam, who mumbled something in his sleep and rolled over. Alice immediately felt better. The monster from her dream-world suddenly seemed a lot less scary with Adam by her side.It was always weird waking up to a foreign room, especially one so dark. The only light came from the streetlamp outside, filtering through a tiny gap beneath the blackout blind.Though she wouldn&rsqu
The old park was on the outskirts of town, roughly an equal distance between his location and Jamie’s. Still, he ran the entire distance, not wanting Jamie to get there first and be forced to wait around, having no clue as to what was going on. Ste leaned on the old goalpost as he caught his breath. His lungs were on fire, probably because of the smoking, but all that realisation did was make him crave a cigarette. ‘I need one to calm my nerves,’ Ste told himself. With a shaking hand, Ste dropped the pack of cigarettes as he went to retrieve one. A couple fell into a puddle and weren’t rescuable, but he scooped up the dry ones and poked them back into the packet, popping one between his lips. The cigarette made him feel lightheaded but slightly less panicked as he awaited Jamie’s arrival. He saw Jamie in the distance, walking at a slow pace toward him. He looked so small and innocent, hugging his oversized hoodie around himself and wrapped in a pink scarf. Ste wanted to hug him, m
“I need you to do something for me,” Jamie said, staring into Ste’s eyes with an intensity he’d never seen before. “And I'm afraid you aren’t going to like it.”“What is it?” Ste asked, dreading to think what Jamie might ask of him.“I planted a little seed in Adam’s mind. He thinks he’s so smart but he’s as easy to manipulate as anyone else. You remember when I mentioned that teen gangster who let all of his mates shag his girlfriend?” Jamie said.‘No… he wouldn’t want that to happen to his own sister. Sur
Alice smiled at Joseph, trying to focus on what he was telling her.She couldn’t.All she could think about was Adam. He never replied to her message about meeting Dave. This was either because he didn’t care, or he was annoyed about it.‘Or seething with rage about it,’ Alice thought with a shiver of dread.“So… should I say yes?” Joseph asked.
Seeing them there, holding hands and staring deeply into each other’s eyes, Adam almost couldn’t believe it.It had to be a mistake.Surely.Adam realised he’s stopped walking only when Ste walked into him and almost tripped over.“Sorry,” Ste uttered in a panicked voice, even though they both knew the collision had been Adam’s fault.Realising he had no choi
Alice smiled to herself as put her phone down and got ready for school. She was still smiling as she brushed her hair and applied her lip gloss, happy with how she looked today.After practically floating down the stairs, Alice greeted her family in the kitchen.“Yay, panda-cakes,” Alice cried, seeing the pancakes. “Thanks, mum.”Alice poured syrup and blueberries onto her stack, then tried to eat the pile of food without messing up her makeup.“You’re cheerful this m
Adam held his phone, thumbs hovering over the screen.‘Should I message her?’ he wondered. Would it be weird? Or would she be happy to hear from him?Adam shrugged to himself. If she didn’t want to talk, she could always ignore him.He unblocked Alice and sent her a good morning message.He smiled when she replied almost immediately.‘I wonder if she’s
Ste sat at the table, pretending he didn’t hear Alice pleading with her brother on his behalf.‘You can be the better person’… those words stung. He knew what she meant; that Jamie didn’t have to stoop to Ste’s level. Still… she was trying to do him a favour. He must really look pathetic.His reflection in the window confirmed this. He looked life ‘death warmed up’ as his granny would say.Ste still felt awkward enough as it was, being at Jamie’s house. Even dressed up in Jamie’s designer clothes—like a living Ken doll as Jamie pu
When Alice arrived at Adam’s gate, she almost turned around and walked away. He hadn’t invited her. He despised her, it seemed. Would he be angry about her showing up unannounced?She was mulling it over when she overheard a voice.“Please Adam, you have got to stop skipping classes. You know the soc’ is on my back. You managed to clean up the house for Christ’s sake… why can’t you just behave in school?”It was Mike.The smell of smoke wafted over the fe
Jamie plonked the shirt on the counter and coolly told the cashier he wanted to return it.The girl looked at him, swallowed, and muttered, “Erm, you can’t return it if you’ve worn it—”“The stitching is coming undone. I’ve worn it once. It’s shoddy,” Jamie told her. In truth, there was nothing wrong with the stitching aside from the portion he’d unpicked by hand. It hadn’t been easy either; the quality of the garment was, in fact, annoyingly high.The truth was, Jamie had spent the last of his allowance on clothes and left himself short. Now he c