We drive for around seven hours towards the Lake District, away from my old life. Harley tells me that we’ll be living in a small village called Kendean, where they are all from. Harley continues, telling me that I will be joining the twins in their last year at the local grammar school. The school does the same courses that I am doing now, and I can continue them for the few remaining months I have left. We talk about what I study, I tell him about my love of art and history. I also tell Harley that I want to work with my art when I’m older. I’m surprised when he thinks this is a great idea and can’t wait to see my work.

“So, what work do you do?” I ask.

“I own the local gym in the village. It’s the only one for miles, so we do good business. Plus, it helps that we all had a very good inheritance.” He glances at me before looking back at the road.

“That’s why you’re all buff then,” I joke, and he grins at me.

“Yes, and so are your brothers. You can come any time to build some muscles if you want,” he smiles.

“No, I don’t do exercise.” I laugh at his shocked face. “I’m serious. I can run if I want to, but I get all red and sweaty. Well, I’m lazy.”

“You’re joking, right? Don’t you eat? Because you’re quite thin and small,” his tone is now serious.

I can understand why, seeing where I came from, but I’m just lucky that I have a good body despite not doing much exercise. My friend Tilly always used to moan about that. “I just have good genes I guess. I have a bad addiction to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.”

I laugh with Harley when he answers, “It’s good that Luke likes that stuff, and it’s always in the freezer, then.”

“I may like Luke already,” I say.

“Do you drive? We live in the middle of nowhere, and without a car, it will be difficult to get around,” he says, and I sigh thinking back to Tilly’s father who bought me a crash course for my seventeenth birthday from all of them. It was the sweetest thing, even if I could never afford a car and insurance. I passed straight away out of pure luck, I believe, and a few late nights practising in my foster parents’ car.

“Yeah, I have a licence,” I answer.

“That’s great, all the boys have cars, so one of us will be able to drive you anywhere until Seb or I can buy you a new car,” he tells me.

“That’s too much money,” I frown.

Harley laughs at that and we carry on the drive in a comfortable silence. As we pull into the village, we cross over a beautiful, old bridge with a large river running through the town. As we drive further, I notice the small mountains in the background. The town is beautiful even at night-time. It’s now close to midnight, I see as I glance at the clock, and I’m hoping to go straight to bed when we get there. I’m glad we stopped off for some food on the road.

We pass more country roads and eventually pull into a small road with heavy, black gates which are open. I can see a long road behind them with massive trees on both sides, and it’s lit up with large, street lamps.

Harley mutters something about the gates being open when they weren’t meant to be and drives up the path. Slowly, the biggest house I’ve ever seen comes into view. It’s beautiful, grey stone even in dim lighting, but when I see all the cars parked in front and hear the loud music blasting from inside it distracts me from the house. I wonder if this is normal. I briefly think I have no chance of sleeping until morning as I look at the garage built on the side of the house and then the people flittering around outside. I can’t see much in the dark, but it seems to have big windows lining the front of the house.

“For fuck’s sake, I leave them for three days and come back to a massive party,” Harley says as he jumps out of the car and slams the door. 

I go to follow, and he gestures for me to stay behind him. I really don’t want to be my brothers right now. Harley looks scary as hell. He slams the massive, wooden doors open and pushes drunken people out of the way as I follow him. I can’t see or hear much over the amount of people and noise from some loudspeakers that make my ears feel like they are bleeding. I have never been to many parties because I just didn’t have the clothes or the time to go to them.

We pass through a dark kitchen which has three couples making out on the counters. I keep my head down and try not to look around. I do spot the booze everywhere when we pass through a dining room, where there were teenagers dancing on the impressive, wooden table. We eventually make our way into a living area with two massive speakers, one on either side of the largest TV I’ve ever seen. On screen, is a music channel with almost naked girls dancing. There are three black-leather sofas spread around the TV, and on each is a couple. The room is dark, so I can’t see much.

Harley leans into me to shout, “I’m going to turn the electric off in the basement. Stay here, if anyone bothers you tell them you’re with me, alright? I’m so sorry about this, Izzy,” he says with a frown, taking off his jacket and throwing it on a sofa next to a couple who don’t notice.

I nod, “No problem, go.” I lean against a wall next to the window in the lounge looking out into the massive garden with a huge tree in the middle. There are lights all up the tree, highlighting a big tree house. The tree house currently has drunken people in it, and I watch as two bottles fall off and smash when they hit the ground.

Harley’s going to kill our brothers.