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because I knew that it was all a lie. I wasn’t a part of them, not truly, and I never would be. I’d always be an outsider, and I’d always be different.
                  Reluctantly, I stepped out of bed and shuffled my way to the bathroom. I turned the shower on and let the water heat up as I inspected myself in the mirror. My hair was knotted up, and I had black marks around my eyes. I looked exactly how I felt: terrible.
                  The water was as hot as I could take it without it burning my skin, and I took comfort in its heat as it trickled over my body. The bruises on my arms now looked more vivid than they had yesterday, and this made me feel angry and confused both rolled into one.
                  Brandon had no right to have done what he did to me, but I shouldn’t have reacted as badly as I did. I should have just made the door swing open or made him trip up or something. My anger and fear had caused me to do things that couldn’t just be put down to coincidence. Now some lowlife knew what I could do, and this fact terrified me.
                  Surely no one would believe him if he told people what I’d done. They’d just think he was mad, and he’d be risking the truth to come out about what he was trying to do to me in the first place. Also, I hoped that he was afraid of telling anyone in case I did something else to him. The more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion that Brandon wasn’t going to say a word.
                  Then there was the boy from last night. How long had he been following me for, and why? He’d said that he wanted to help me, but could I really trust him when I didn’t know anything about him? This meant that it hadn’t been Max that day standing outside of the school, which I should have been relieved about, but instead I found myself worried. At least I knew who Max was, whereas the boy from the park was a mystery to me. I didn’t even know what his name was.
                  I needed to shove all this stuff from my head and just get on with the weekend. It might be my last weekend in this house with the Prestons anyway, so I might as well make the most of it.
                  Back in my bedroom, I put a pair of black skinny jeans on and a red jumper, and I dried my hair with the dryer for long enough that I’d taken most of the damp off it. I put some concealer under my eyes and put on a coating of sheer lip gloss before I left my room.
                  I walked into the kitchen to the smell of freshly made pancakes. Terry had a tower of them covered in syrup on the plate in front of him, and I wondered, as I often did, how he managed to keep his slim physique when he ate so much.
                  ‘Morning, Celeste,’ he smiled at me before he put a forkful of pancake into his mouth.
                  ‘Morning,’ I forced myself to smile as I pulled out the chair by Louisa and sat down, which caused Alf to run off from under the table and whine his way over to his basket.
                  ‘We’re going to Monty’s for lunch; they do the best steak ever. So I’m only having one pancake for breakfast so I’m not too full,’ Louisa said cheerfully, not seeming to have noticed Alf’s weird behaviour.
                  ‘Cool,’ I replied.
                  ‘Do you want syrup, strawberry, or plain?’ Gloria asked as she placed a glass of orange juice down in front of me before walking back over to the cooker.
                  ‘Plain, please.’ I decided that I should follow Louisa in not eating too much. I hadn’t been to Monty’s before, but knowing the Prestons, I knew that it’d be good.
                  Gloria looked as glamorous as usual in a dark brown knee-length floral dress. There wasn’t as much as a strand of her pinned up blonde hair out of place, and her