More blows rained down on Ruby and Harry. More screams.

‘Get her!’

‘Kill her!’

‘Slag!’

‘Shithead!’

She kept her eyes on Harry as he pushed people away. But there were too many of them.

‘Oy! What the…? Come on, quick, a couple of moshers are getting banged up bad,’ came a yell.

Running feet. The mob scarpered, scattering like marbles spilled from a pocket, and disappearing into the shadows. Skateboarders appeared, surrounding Ruby and Harry, but this time with gentle hands, soft voices.

‘Woah, man, are you okay?’

‘We’re fine. Thanks, though,’ Harry mumbled through a lip already swelling, his beautiful skin split and dripping blood.

With well wishes from the skateboarders, the couple limped away. It took several streets before Ruby realised Harry’s fingers were entwined with hers. It had been so natural, so right, that it hadn’t seemed a big deal. They were bonded for ever, thanks to those troublemakers.

---

Ruby’s parents were still out when they got back to her place, thank goodness. She hated to think of the drama they’d create if they saw her. No way was she going to tell them.

Harry looked like crap. As well as a thick lip, one eye was black. Ruby tried to mask it behind heavy black eyeliner, telling him he looked like a gorgeous goth, but nothing could disguise the swelling.

‘Aren’t your parents going to ask questions?’ she asked anxiously.

He gave her a look that told her she had inadvertently asked an exceptionally stupid question.

‘How are you doing?’ His face was tender now. He ran a thumb along her jaw, giving her goosebumps.

‘My bruises are mostly hidden,’ she replied. ‘Look.’

She lifted her top, almost wincing as her arms rose to shoulder level – her muscles were stiff from the pounding they had received. Harry flinched when he saw the storm cloud bruises billowing across Ruby’s ivory flesh. He reached out, hesitant, but Ruby didn’t move away. His fingers landed on her ribs like the wings of a butterfly. His digits kissed her skin as they traced the outline of her injuries with only the lightest of touches, making her shiver when he arrived at the tenderest spots.

‘You might have a cracked rib,’ he said, as she took a shuddering intake of breath.

‘I’m fine,’ she lied. Because she knew her breathing was down to more than simply her injuries. Finally, she had found where she belonged, she realised. Nothing else mattered. People could do what they wanted to her, as long as she had Harry.

‘Who were those people, anyway?’ he asked.

Ruby’s eyes darted round, trying to flee the conversation. Harry took both her hands and rested his forehead against hers. They breathed in one another’s breath, until Ruby’s pounding heart had slowed to match Harry’s. No one else existed apart from them. Ruby stared at Harry’s eyes, noticing the deep brown flecks that made them look almost black, the amber around the pupil that made them glow like fire.

Then she told him everything. How hard she had tried to fit in at her old school. How badly she had failed. And her hopes for a fresh start at her new school.

‘Everyone hated me at that posh school. They made my life a misery,’ she revealed. ‘All I wanted was to go to a normal school. But Dad simply had to make me attend that place, trying to impress the neighbours or his partner or whatever. Who cared if his own daughter was miserable as long as everyone knew how much money he was chucking at me?’

‘It’s over now. All that’s in the past. Everyone at school likes you so far, so screw these others. Bumping into them was just bad luck.’

The bitter betrayal and constant fear of the last few years melted away at his words.

They fell asleep together, exhausted. Holding hands, still facing each other, curled up on their sides.

---

The front door closing woke Ruby. Her eyes flew open, and she prodded Harry awake. His eyebrows shot up in confusion that was rapidly blinked away at her urgency.

‘You’ve got to hide. Quick. Into the cupboard.’

Without a word, he hurried over, and the second he pulled the door closed, she entombed herself in the duvet and closed her eyes. Turned away from the door and forced her pounding chest to rise and fall slowly.

The bedroom door opened quietly, the only giveaway was the hushing sound of it brushing over the thick carpet. A pause, then the same hushing and a click.

‘She’s fast asleep,’ Ruby heard her mum say out on the landing.

She waited for a minute, heart still threatening to give her away with its thumping beat. It could be a trick. Her parents may have realised she wasn’t asleep and wanted to catch her out.

But they hadn’t.

After five minutes, she crept over to the wardrobe, wincing at the movement.

‘You okay?’ she checked.

Harry gave her a soft smile of reply. ‘Am I all right to go now?’

‘Should be. Come here.’ She opened the window and leaned out. ‘See that ledge? Immediately below it is a trellis and, look, that fancy bit of stonework. Think you can climb down using them? Don’t look so worried, Mouse did it all summer. She thinks no one knows, but I’ve heard her during the day, when she wants to get something from her room and doesn’t want to get told off by Father for “traipsing through the house every five minutes”.’

‘Yeah, I can do that. No problem.’

He hesitated, then leaned forward and kissed her. Gentle; all the more so because of his split lip, but it made something inside Ruby come alive.

Her first kiss.

---

By the Monday, everyone had known about the attack.

That was the message that flashed across Ruby’s phone. There was a video of her. Blurry, but still discernible, as she had momentarily curled up into a ball, feet kicking at her. She wasn’t even aware she had done that.

From that moment, her fate had been sealed at her new school. Somehow, a girl called Jayne Seward had spotted the footage on Facebook or something. Recognising the new girl, Jayne had made sure the video was shared far and wide.

Jayne had continued what Poppy had started at Ruby’s previous school, for no reason other than it was fun. People sniggered, pointed, whispered comments.

So much for a fresh start.

Ruby’s family were the only ones who had no clue. The teen hid her war wounds beneath long-sleeved tops and a mask of thick make-up. Before, she had tried everything to be like everyone else. That changed after being beaten up. Ruby realised she would never fit in – and she decided to embrace it. Her make-up got thicker and darker, her clothes blacker and more extreme. People were going to stare and hate anyway, so she gave them something to stare at and focus their hatred on.

Her father shouted at her for what she wore, of course. He was such a loser. As for her mother, she was predictably mute as a statue. If Ruby stabbed her, she wouldn’t be surprised if the blade broke on her stone exterior.

Now Ruby’s parents wanted to ban her from seeing the only person in the world who understood her, and who cared about her. Why were they so determined to do everything in their power to make her life a misery? She wished they could leave her alone, disappear without a trace. They expected her to play happy families when it suited them, but they despised her.

And she loathed them.

That was why she had stayed in her room all day while the decorations were put up. She’d used to love that, until she had been sidelined and forgotten by her own family.

A yell came from downstairs. Mouse was calling her name.

Across the other side of the room, Ruby’s phone vibrated angrily. She had received a message. She stood, gave a resigned sigh, wiped on her jumper the sweat that had suddenly bloomed on her palms. Then read the text.