Scott, his brain still working at half-speed, shook his head and mumbled something about the door not being locked. He’d been taken by surprise, hadn’t stopped to think, hadn’t heard the running water… and now he was just standing there. She’d been a little kid when he and Michelle had first got together, still at junior school, but Tammy was very definitely a woman now.
When he didn’t move, she did. She shoved him back out and slammed the door in his face.
She finished drying herself, taking her time, trying to calm down but just getting angrier and angrier at the way he’d barged into the bathroom without a damn care. It made it even worse when he’d just gawped at her without apology. Any decent man would have looked away with embarrassment, so why not him? And this wasn’t the first time. She’d caught him looking at her before, and he’d always had an unspoken reputation amongst her friends. None of them liked being around him on their own. Katie called him a letch, said he was always undressing her with his eyes. She’d always wondered – though had never dared to say – if he’d done something to that little girl he knocked down, if there’d been more to the accident than he’d let on… There’s no smoke without fire, she’d always thought, and what he’d just done was proof positive that her step-dad was a seedy bastard. She wished he’d get out of their lives altogether. She wished the police hadn’t let him go.
She didn’t bother getting dressed, just put on her bra and knickers and draped her towel over her shoulders. She thought she’d put a show on for him, see how he reacted…
He was lying on his bed with his back to the door, curled up like a frightened little kid. She knew he was awake, and she knew that he knew she was there. She stayed a safe distance back, checked no one else was near, then pushed the door shut behind her.
‘Pervert.’
Nothing for a few seconds, then a mumbled reply. ‘I’m not a pervert. I didn’t mean to walk in on you like that.’
‘You sure? I think you did.’
He felt himself getting tense. He scrunched up the bedding in his fists and fought with himself not to react. ‘I’m sure. I’m sorry.’
‘So, Sunday night, with that bloke,’ she said, knowing she was playing with fire but unable to stop now, ‘what was that all about?’
‘Your mum was worried about you. I said I’d go and look for you. When I saw what he was doing, I lost my temper.’
‘Why?’
‘You shouldn’t need to ask that.’
‘I mean, I know the reasons you gave Mum, and probably the police too, but is that really all there is to it?’
He looked back over his shoulder, saw that she was only half-dressed, then turned back again and covered his head with his hands. ‘You’re family. It’s my job to protect you.’
‘You sure you weren’t jealous? Maybe you just wanted me for yourself? I know what you really are, Scott.’
He was on her before she realised what was happening. In a single sudden movement he sprung off the bed and pushed Tammy back against the door, covering her mouth with his hand. Their bodies were close now – too close – but there was nothing sexual about this. She cried with fear when she looked into his wild eyes, but with her mouth covered she couldn’t make a sound. He stared at her; no words, just his breathing - low, hard and heavy like an animal poised for the kill. It was only a few seconds but to Tammy it felt like forever. She couldn’t move.
‘I’m not a pervert,’ he told her. ‘Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for this family, it’s just that you ungrateful shits can’t see it. We’re all out of options now, in case you hadn’t noticed. There’s nowhere left to go. So if you breathe a word about this, make any accusations or threats, I’ll break you. Understand?’
She nodded, tears streaming down her face and over his hands. He relaxed his grip, ready to cover her mouth again if she dared cry out.
‘I get it,’ she said, and he backed away. ‘But if you touch Mum again, I’ll tell the police you tried to rape me.’
‘You wouldn’t fucking dare.’
She leant against the door for support, legs like jelly, doing all she could not to let him see. ‘Try me.’
He just smiled. ‘Go on, fuck off.’
Scott spent the night alone on the sofa in the living room. He told Michelle he couldn’t sleep and he didn’t want to keep her awake. She knew better than to argue.
18
It was getting really late but Heather didn’t care. Dad thought she was in bed. He and Jamie were watching football downstairs, yelling at the TV so loud that they hadn’t heard her slip out the back door. Chez was watching the same match at his place, so she hadn’t stopped there for more than a few minutes. He’d tried to get her to stay, but she’d got more self-respect than to hang around in his kitchen waiting for a quick half-time shag. She’d toyed with the idea of trying to see Tammy earlier, but she’d decided to keep her distance. If everything Jamie’s mate Joel had said was true, she’d be giving that whole family a wide berth from now on. Much of what Joel said was usually crap, but he’d been right about that Polish girl at the weekend. That Tammy was a nice enough girl, but from what she was hearing, her step-dad was a fucking nutter. Probably best to cool off a little. She’d have to give her some distance at school tomorrow.
It was a frigging pain in the arse being a teenager in Thussock. There was bugger all to do, mid-week especially. Being a girl was harder still, because girls were few and far between here. Most of the other girls on the estate stayed home most of the time, ’cause the boys here were predators, only after one thing. Having Jamie around had made it a little easier for her, but she’d had enough of all that mucking about. Chez was the only bloke she had sex with now. He was a real man (when the football wasn’t on). She’d had enough fingers and fumbles with inexperienced kids to last a lifetime.
She walked back home trying to work out if she’d ever be able to afford to learn to drive. Dad kept trying to talk her out of it, because all he thought about was the cost. He did have a point, though – driving tests and lessons cost a bloody fortune, and she’d have to go elsewhere for them because there weren’t any instructors in Thussock. And then there was the cost of a car and fuel and insurance and all the associated bills… she knew Dad was right, but there was one thing he wasn’t taking into consideration, and that was the value of her freedom. Being able to get away from Thussock whenever she wanted and go and see the few mates she was still in contact with who’d already managed to escape… now that was priceless. She’d been thinking about maybe getting a scooter. She daydreamed about it as she walked the dark streets back home.
It was raining. Just a light mist, but wet enough to soak her and dense enough to reduce her visibility. The light from each streetlamp was little more than a hazy corona, a yellow-white flower head, and the few windows illuminated from lights inside barely made any difference at all out here. Heather plunged her hands into the pockets of her quilted purple jacket and walked a little faster. Tammy said she liked this jacket. Chez bought it for her off the Internet. Tammy said some of her friends in Redditch had jackets like it and that she’d wanted one herself. It made Heather feel good knowing she’d got one up on the girl from the city.
She wasn’t that far from the estate, just near the community hall, when she heard a noise she wasn’t expecting. It sounded like animals scavenging around the bins. Wait, no… she could hear something else now. It sounded like someone crying. Not sobbing their heart out or anything like that, just a low, quiet, intermittent moan; an occasional sad sob.