The Escape

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Sixth in my series of Doctor Who fic. :D

Rose left Earth, but her mother and friends remained there. This is about what happened to them.
#1- Not The End Of The World– Mickey after Rose
#2- So Are You– Jackie before Aliens of London
#3- It’ll Be Alright– Trisha during AOL/WWIII
#4- Coward In Your Own Story– Mickey visits Clive’s family
#5- The One I Love– Trisha and Mickey go on a date, as friends- they hope.

Rating: R. Because teenagers swear a lot.
Concrit: Yes please. :D

The Escape

When she was fourteen years old, Shireen Matthews had done a bungeee jump for charity. To this day it was the scariest thing she’d ever done: she had stood at the very top, staring down at the small crowd of people, and known she was absolutely not going to do this.

So the cute assistant turned her head away. “Shireen, right?” he asked her. “Okay. Talk to me while we wait for you to be allowed down. What’s your favourite movie, Shireen?”

“Um,” she said, still quite shaky. “I don’t know. Don’t really have one. Can’t I just-”

And he pushed her off.

She fell screaming. She was convinced she would hit the ground and die. In three or four seconds she furiously hated the cute assistant, cursed herself for ever signing up for this-

And she bounced back up again.

She raised over fifty pounds for charity, and she was rather proud of herself- but she also figured that perhaps she had no reason to be, for she hadn’t done any of it willingly.

*****

It was over a month after Rose had left. Shireen had kept the answering machine message she’d left behind. It drove her crazy: Rose sounded so happy…

Hi, Shireen! I’m sorry we didn’t really get to talk. But I’ll be back soon- maybe in a few days, alright? Sometime soon. I can do that, you see- isn’t it great? I’m going with the Doctor- you must have seen him at my place, he’s fantastic, isn’t he? He’s going to show me the universe- I’m going to see all the stars! I’ll bring you back something- maybe a bit of ice that never melts? The Doctor said they’ve got that all over the place, they’re as common as seashells…

Ice that never melted. What the hell could you do with ice that never melted? You couldn’t show it to anyone, because they’d demand to know how come it was ice that didn’t melt. They’d ask where it had come from…and Shireen wouldn’t really know, only Rose would.

If Rose offered her something, she’d just have to say no. No matter what it was. It wasn’t like she wanted some sort of reminder of the fact that her best friend had gone off and left her, anyway.

She hadn’t even asked if Shireen wanted to come! And she did– she’d have loved to leave London and her job, and even her parents she could live without, and…all of it, she could live without all of it. It wasn’t fair.

But she was stuck here.

*****

The next day she recieved an email from Mickey- she had to go to the library to check her email, but it was free, thank god. She went every day, or the days when she had nothing better to do- she was supposed to be seeing Derek, after all, he took her out sometimes – but she didn’t like him much, in truth.

The email was relatively short:

do you remember the wedding of stuart&sarah hoskins…you know, the one where Rose’s dad was killed?

Shireen couldn’t help but flinch at those words. What on earth…?

we need photographs. we’re asking the whole estate, me and Jackie. have you got any? could you ask your parents, or your friends?

–mickey

She closed the email crossly. What a bloody idiot, bringing Pete’s death up again, Rose would be furious if she knew…

But of course, she wouldn’t know.

Shireen left the library and walked the long way home. She went back to her flat; her parents weren’t there. She watched TV, tidied her bedroom, felt horrendously bored…

She looked for photographs. She tried all the drawers, but her parents generally threw photographs away. They threw virtually everything away- they were neat freaks. She was not.

She eventually found a clump of old photos in the bookcase. She sorted through them: there were a couple of just her parents, a couple of her older sister, a couple of her when she when she younger, even a couple of her and Rose. But nothing of the wedding.

She glared at the Rose photos. This is all your fault. I would have LIKED to have gone with you, instead of staying here and pretending to do important things.

*****

The next day she recieved a phone call. It came early in the morning, while she was still in bed. She groaned to herself: only one person was stupid enough to phone her that early in the morning.

“Mickey, is that you? What the hell d’ya…”

“It’s me,” said a girl’s voice. Shireen sat up in bed, and wondered about throwing the phone against the wall. It was Trisha.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Trisha…”

“Mickey just emailed me, and he said he was sorting out all the photos he’d recieved- I knew he’d emailed you, so I was wondering if you actually had any photos?”

“No,” Shireen said shortly. She waited to see if Trisha would hang up, but she didn’t.

“I, ur, I think maybe we should all talk, you know? Because Mickey thinks he’s found something interesting.”

“Oh for god’s sake, go away.”

She hung up. She go out of bed, had breakfast, watching morning TV, got washed and dressed, and…gave up and went to Mickey’s house.

*****

She rang the doorbell. Mickey let her in.

“Did Trisha phone you?” he asked.

“Yeah, she did.”

“I thought she would.”

Shireen walked through to the kitchen. “You got anything to drink?” she asked, in a attempt to make conversation.

“No.”

She looked to see what he was doing: he had photographs spread out all over the front room’s floor. He was sorting them out into piles.

“What’s that for?” she asked.

“Have a look,” he told her.

She had a look. They were photographs of a wedding. Stuart and Sarah’s wedding. She had a deep sense of foreboding all of a sudden. She ought to go home. This was stupid.

“No, not those ones- those ones,” Mickey said.

She looked at the photos he was indicating. A black dragon creature, some sort of dark monster, stared back at her. She wrote that off as impossible, picked up the pile and flicked through all the pictures-

It…no, they…they were in all the photos. Inside the church where the wedding had taken place, outside in the sky, leaping on people, killing people…

“That’s not real!”

“Looks real to me.”

“Don’t be an idiot, it’s just…” But words failed her. She was actually frightened now. She hadn’t been frightened for a while: she’d been angry and hurt and confused, but not frightened…

“Look, you…”

“Did you bring any photos?” he asked.

“What?”

“Didn’t Trisha ask you? Ask you again?”

“Oh, yeah. No. I couldn’t find any. What the hell is going on, Mickey?” She stood up. “What the hell is in those photos?”

“I don’t know. It’s probably not really important-”

“Not really important?”

“Have you been to the website lately?” he asked.

“No. I haven’t. And-”

“We found a video of Jackie and Pete’s wedding, and if you paused it you could see Rose and the Doctor in the background. I think she’s gone back to meet him…meet her father. Since she never got to know him.”

Shireen stared.

“For God’s sake,” she said, and began, inexplicably, to laugh. “You’ve really worked all this out…”

“Well, it makes sense.”

“What’s she doing at the day he died, then? Huh? If that’s what you’re saying.”

“I dunno. But that doesn’t make sense.”

*****

Shireen sat in the house for several minutes, doing nothing while Mickey sorted out the photos. He appeared to be putting them into three categories: ordinary-looking ones, ones featuring the Doctor and/or Rose, and ones featuring the dragon-things. Shireen was slowly getting angry: it was beginning to feel like something had been kept from her.

Then the doorbell rang, and Mickey let Trisha in. Trisha looked at Shireen, and it was an odd sort of look.

“I thought you weren’t…”

“Well, I am.”

Both Mickey and Trisha kneeled next to the photographs. Trisha picked some up and peered at them closely, and Shireen, irritated, stomped off to the kitchen. She looked around for something to eat, found nothing, and returned to the sofa. Mickey put the last photo on a pile, and gave a sigh.

“You know what?”

“What?” Trisha asked.

“I think the Doctor killed Rose’s dad.”

*****

They sat around Mickey’s kitchen table. He handed out some cereal bars: apparently it was all he had.

“Don’t anyone tell Jackie, alright?” he said determinedly. “Don’t you dare, alright, Shireen?”

“I won’t!” she said hotly. “If you don’t trust me…”

“I’m just checking.”

There was silence, apart from the sounds of Mickey eating. Trisha had refused any food.

“How old were you in 1987, Shireen?” Mickey said, through his breakfast.

“I was only a baby.”

“I was about four, I think…and I remember the day of the wedding,” he said. “I mean, I remember Rose’s dad dying. I mean…”
He groaned. “I remember something. I remember my mum trying to talk to Jackie the next day.”

“What are we going to do?” Trisha spoke up suddenly.

“I don’t know,” Mickey answered straightaway. “I think I’m going to scan these photos in- some of them, anyway, and put them on the website. Jackie doesn’t have the Internet, so she won’t see it. But I want to see if anyone has anything to say about it.”

“Like what?” Shireen asked.

“You’d be surprised at the messages I get,” he said. “I expect once I put that lot up, hundreds of people will say they saw flying dragons on that day, too.”

“Well, maybe they did-”

“But why would they remember? You’d think someone would have mentioned it, right? ‘I went to a wedding yesterday, it was great, except someone died and a load of flying dragons showed up’, you know?”

“Fine.”

“It must have been something the Doctor did. He must’ve brought them here.”

*****

Shireen went home, and spent the rest of the day doing nothing much. Derek didn’t phone or anything. She wished Rose was here. They could go to the shops.

I think the Doctor killed Rose’s dad…

Good lord, how had this happened? To her? It felt like she was missing out on some spectacular adventure, and the missing out hurt so much she wanted to run away, cover her ears and pretend everything was normal, but it didn’t work like that.

You needed faith, sometimes.

So if the Doctor had killed Rose’s dad, what were they supposed to do? Reach through time and space, bring Rose back and give her a stern talking to? No. They could do nothing. All they could ever do was wait. Wait for months and months, if necessary.

It was so unfair.

Especially since the only people she had to talk to now were Mickey and…Trisha. Trisha had nothing to do with anything. She was just a fat little girl, she didn’t know Rose as anything but a co-worker, all this was none of her business…

And yet she was hanging around with Mickey, understood what he was on about all the time…how had that happened? Why had her entire world just suddenly and freakishly changed? Mickey the slow, rather stupid best-mate’s-boyfriend suddenly this leader? Trisha Delaney the shy girl suddenly talking back at her all the time?

Her best friend suddenly abandoning her?

Freakishly changed, for sure.

*****

Two days later (one of those days she spent going ice skating with Derek, and discovered he found it funny to push people over on the ice) she returned to the library. There was nothing in her inbox, but she checked Mickey’s website- it had been updated, and now had a nice new header saying Did the Doctor KILL Rose’s Dad in 1987? The photographs were underneath, the black dragons clearly visible.

She felt sick.

“You don’t want to be looking at that, dear,”

Shireen looked up, it was one of the librarians.

“Why not?” she asked neutrally.

“A boy from one of the estates owns that, so I’m told- he murdered his girlfriend and invented that to try and take the blame off himself.” She laughed. “Imagine! No-one bought it. Although the photos sometimes looked convincing, nothing a good artist couldn’t do…” She continued in this vein while Shireen listened incrediously, and then said “But anyway. Lives right near here, that boy does, apparently- I’d be careful on the streets if I were you. Some people-”

“Yeah,” Shireen said helplessly. “Yeah, of course.”

When she got home she checked the answering machine for messages; there were none. She slept on the sofa for a bit. Strange images went through her head: stained-glass windows hiding the dragons, the Doctor holding a baby-

GET AWAY FROM ROSE! WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE?!

-a boy in a playpark all alone. It wasn’t fair, all of this, why hadn’t Rose considered she might want to come, she’d probably asked Mickey so why not her…and what was that ringing noise?

She woke up. It was the phone.

She went over and got it.

“Hello?”

“Shireen?” It was Mickey. “Guess what.”

“What?”

“Jackie went to a friend’s house today, and he happened to have the internet, so she went online and found the website and she knows.” He gave a sigh. “That was so stupid of me. I shouldn’t have posted it there at all. Anyway, she’s round my house, really upset-”

Shireen was caught between two feelings: Leave me out of this, I like to do things on my own! and Oh, you idiot- poor Jackie.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Can you talk to her? I can’t do this on my own. That’s the point, Shireen- I could never do this on my own.”

“You got yourself into this,” Shireen said, and hung up. Instantly she regretted it: Mickey had just told her something very important. He’d just…sort of…made her a part of all this, even though they were so helpless…since when had Mickey admitted to not being able to do things on his own?

She hurriedly called him back, but the line was engaged. Annoyed, she decided to head for his flat herself. She went to the lobby to find her shoes, and then her mother came wandering downstairs.

“Shireen-” she said with a yawn. “God, what time is it?”

“It’s almost half-one,” Shireen said. “I’ve gotta go out.”

“To where?”

“Mickey Smith’s house,”

“No, Shireen- even if he’s innocent, there’s something about that boy I don’t like…”

“I don’t care, Mum.”

She ran to his flat.

*****

When she got there, Mickey wasn’t there. Neither was Jackie. Cursing a little, she headed for Rose’s flat instead. She still called it Rose’s flat, even though she wasn’t there anymore.

She rang the doorbell and Mickey answered.

“What’re you doing here?”

“I felt bad about Jackie-”

“Well, you were a right bitch on the phone,” At her expression, he hastily backtracked. “Okay, I saw your point-it’s just…”

“Are you going to let me in?”

“Someone else is here.”

“Trisha, is it?”

“No…Maggie Finch. Remember her, the woman who gave me the website? I phoned her, because she always said she wanted to talk to Jackie…and, well, that’s what she’s doing.”

“But Jackie doesn’t know her!”

“So?”

So…nothing. Shireen walked past Mickey, and he let her go. She stood in the lobby and heard Jackie’s voice.

“It’s just…I remember…she said she could easily be back in just ten seconds, and I waited for ten seconds, and she never came back.”

Shireen shifted towards the living room door.

“And…god, I can’t sleep at nights, I wake up wanting to kill that man…”

“According to Mickey, and my late husband,” came another woman’s voice, “he’s not actually a man. Just…looks like one.” She gave a sad little laugh.

“He’s a transvestite?” Jackie said, confused.

“No, an alien.”

“Oh. Well, I knew that. Saw the spaceship, didn’t I?” Shireen could see her now, sitting on Mickey’s sofa with her mascara running. “Big an’…sort of plant-looking. On the inside, I mean. Outside it’s just a box.”

“I wish I could see it,” Maggie said.

“No you don’t…he brings destruction, that man.”

Shireen had never pictured Jackie saying a word like ‘destruction’ She thought the same things about Jackie that everyone else did: she was well-meaning, but thick.

She turned back to Mickey.

“So where’s Trisha, then?”

“She had to go out with her family. Her older brother- Rob, you know Rob- he showed up and said he was taking them out. She didn’t want to go.”

Jackie looked up at them then. “Shireen? That you?”

“Yeah…I…”

“Came to talk to me?” Jackie asked. “You in on this as well, are you?”

“In on what?”

“Mickey’s little detective agency.”

Shireen stared at Mickey, who shrugged.

Maggie Finch glanced around the room, perhaps wondering if she’d overstayed her welcome, or pondering the sanity of these people. “Anyway, Jackie,” she said softly, “Rose didn’t leave because of you.”

“I know.”

“And she’ll be back- I’m convinced of it. And I’m sure she’d hate it if you just sat around unhappy.”

Jackie sniffed loudly and then said, “Well- I met someone, you know. Very good looking, and I think he wants to get serious. Rodrigo, his name is…”

Shireen went through to the kitchen, where Mickey now was.

“That woman,” she said, shaking her head. “She’s so…”

“Who?” Mickey said, looking up. “Maggie? Jackie? Who’re you talking about?”

“Jackie, of course.”

“Oh. Well.”

She sensed he was trying not to yell at her.

“How come you run around after Jackie all the time?” she asked. “She’s a grown woman, she can look after herself.”

“Her daughter went missing for a year,” Mickey said shortly. “How’d you like it if that happened to you?”

“I’m not having kids.”

“You know what I mean.”

She had no idea what he meant, and thought he was being a bit of a prat. She looked around the kitchen- it looked slightly different now. Different to how it had been when Rose was there. Dirtier. Jackie wasn’t going to win any prizes for having a clean house, after all.

“Maybe we should clean the kitchen,” she said.

“Nah, don’t bother,” said Jackie. She had appeared in the doorway all of a sudden. Maggie was in the living room behind her, putting on her coat. “It’ll just get messy again.”

“Maggie,” Mickey called, “Don’t you want to stay and-” He realised then, too late, that it wasn’t his house. Jackie rolled her eyes at him.

“Act like you own the place! Maggie, would you like to stay for…coffee or something?”

“Okay,” Maggie said. “Yes please.”

*****

They sat around the table and drank coffee. Aside from Shireen, who had nothing. She wanted to ask for a beer, but something told her that wouldn’t be a good move. She had images of Mickey marching into the house, taking every last drop of alcohol away, and then…maybe giving it to his mates or something.

Presumably Mickey still had mates. Well, he had siblings, she was fairly sure- although they’d all gotten out of London by now. Maybe it was just her, Trisha, Jackie and Maggie Mickey had to talk to.

She herself had considered him a murderer. Mostly. She’d thought Rose, you’re not a good judge of character, you dated a psychopath again, you really did it this time- Rose, I want you back! How could you have been so stupid? Forgetting all the advice you were ever given…

Then Rose had come back. They’d all been wrong.

Then Rose had gone away again.

“Shireen,” Mickey said.

“Urrmmmm….yeah, what?”

“There’s a biscuit tin just behind you, could you pass it over?”

Shireen did so. Biscuits were offered round, she took one. The conversation turned to Maggie, as Jackie asked her questions.

“Where do you work, then?”

“In ICT,” Maggie said, cradling her cup of coffee. “The place where Clive used to work…they said they’d employ me.” Shireen noticed her eyes whenever she mentioned her husband; there was an awful lot of grief there.

“Ooh, that’s nice,” Jackie said, oblivious. “I’m thinking of getting a job at one of the cafes, maybe, Rodrigo said he might be able to find me something…”

Shireen, who hadn’t been employed for ages, said nothing. Maggie’s gaze fell on her.

“Shireen…ah, you were Rose’s best friend.”

“Yeah,” Shireen said, wondering about the were.

“Mickey told me a bit about you.”

“What sort of things?”

“Oh, good things, don’t worry about that.” She cast a glance at Mickey, then looked at her watch. “I ought to be getting back, I’m afraid- I need to do some shopping, and pick Thomas up from school. It was nice talking to you all.”

“Yeah,” Jackie said, “Thanks for comin’ over…”

Mickey climbed off his chair and walked with Maggie to the door. It struck Shireen how wrong this seemed to her: a woman Rose didn’t know in Rose’s house, talking to her mother about her- Shireen herself in Rose’s house without Rose there, talking to Rose’s boyfriend-

But Rose had been the one who’d left. If she’d stayed, what would they all be doing now?

*****

After Maggie had left, Mickey sat down again, and finished his coffee.

“She’s nice, isn’t she?” he said to everyone in general.

Jackie nodded. “What I want to know is- didn’t want to ask her, might upset her- where was the Doctor when her husband was getting shot?”

Mickey looked uncomfortable, and said, “He was with Rose, I reckon- looking for that alien thing.”

Jackie nodded, and Shireen thought she might cry again. “Not fair, is it?” Jackie murmured. “Nice lady- she didn’t deserve that-”

“No,” Mickey said.

“-and she had a kid and all.” She gave a sigh- it didn’t sound like Jackie then, not the Jackie Shireen knew, who was as selfish as them all- and finished her coffee.

“Maybe I’d better go now,” Shireen said. “I’ve got…things to do.” That was an obvious lie, but they let her go.

*****

On the way home she ran into two people who she really, really, really didn’t want to see. One of them was an ex-boyfriend of Rose’s. His name was Jimmy Stone: he was attractive but an utter prick- those were the precise words Rose had used to describe him after she returned from his house sobbing her eyes out. Shireen had never forgiven him for breaking Rose’s heart, and she was sure she never would; since coming back to London he’d done little to redeem himself. With him was his girlfriend, Alex, who was best described as an emptyheaded blonde.

“Oi, Shireen!” Jimmy called, and she walked over to him, hoping for an argument. “Did Rose really go off with a forty-year-old?”

He’s not forty, Shireen thought crossly, but she said, “Yeah.”

“Holy shit. Hey, have you met Alex?”

“Yeah,” Alex said in a bored tone, before Shireen could say anything. “We were in the same English class.”

“Oh yeah,” Jimmy looked at Shireen. “Hey, you want to come down the pub with us? I’d ask Rose, but, well, she’s not here.” He gave a smile that he probably imagined was charming, but made Shireen’s stomach turn.

“No,”

His manner changed instantly. “No, what?”

“No, you fuckhead.”

Alex gave a cackling laugh, and Jimmy rounded on her. “Shut up!” And to Shireen: “It’s no, thank you, you bitch.”

“Whatever.”

Jimmy stormed off, Alex wandering next to him. Irritated, Shireen headed home.

*****

Her mother was slumped on the sofa when she got in. Shireen sat down next to her and watched TV for almost two hours. There were a great amount of reality shows to choose from. Eventually, her mother got up and went to the kitchen.

“Shireen,” she yelled, “Could you go out and get more bread?”

“I just got in! Why can’t you go?”

“‘Cos I’m sick, Shireen!”

She probably wasn’t, of course, but there was nothing on the telly and she had to walk to keep fit. She got off the sofa and found her shoes.

“Just bread, right?”

“Yeah. Unless you want some chocolates or something. They were doing two-for-one offers on them last time I was there.”

So Shireen went to the shop- it wasn’t far away. She got some bread, and went back, purposely moving slowly. Maybe she should give Derek a ring tonight.

Maybe she should give Mickey a ring.

She wandered through the park, kicking at stones on the ground, and then she saw Trisha. She didn’t recognize her at first, for some reason, but it was her. She spotted Shireen almost at the same time Shireen spotted her, and she raced over to her.

“Shireen!” she said breathlessly. “Have you seen Rob anywhere?”

“What, your brother? No.”

“He and Mum had a fight- he ran off,” she said. “Mum sent me out to look for him, and I…I dunno where he could be.”

Shireen looked at her; she seemed rather upset. “Do you want help?” she asked, without really meaning to. Although somewhere in the back of her mind, she must have meant to.

“Yeah,” Trisha said. “Yeah- thanks.”

“I remember your brother- I bet I know where he is, anyway.”

They started walking.

“Where?” Trisha asked.

“The local pub, of course.”

“Oh.”

Shireen headed in that direction, Trisha walking along behind her. She figured it would be a good idea to text her mother telling her where she was: she’d become a lot more sensitive about that sort of thing since Rose vanished for the first time.

“I hope he’s there,” Trisha said nervously. “Things were really mad…he was…he took us out for lunch, you see, but him and Mum started yelling when we got back, it was pretty nasty…”

Shireen had witnessed members of her own family yelling at each other many, many times, and figured she could sympathize.

They reached the pub. Shireen wondered suddenly if it was the same one Jimmy and Alex had gone to- it was the only one in the area. Trisha hurried inside.

“There he is,” she said. “Thank God. Thanks, Shireen. I’d better go talk to him.”

She dashed over to him, and Shireen turned to go- but then felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around. It was Jimmy- a drunk Jimmy.

“Wanted to see me after all, did you?” he said, stinking of alcohol.

“No. I don’t like you. Go away.”

But he didn’t. And he didn’t let go of her shoulder, either.

“Why don’t you like me? Just because I dumped Rose?”

“Yeah.”

“I said sorry for that, yeah? Alex has gone out to top up her mobile, come and have a drink with me.”

“Fuck off.”

“Don’t you tell me to-”

There was suddenly a yell from the other side of the bar.

“Fine then- I’ll apologize to that tart! But I won’t mean a fucking word of it, understand? Be grateful.”

And Rob Delaney stumbled out of the bar, his sister following him almost in tears. Shireen shook Jimmy off her and hurriedly grabbed Trisha.

“He’s not worth it, alright?”

“I know,” she said glumly. “But he’s my brother…and he’ll just make her cry again.”

“He’s a prat. We could go to another pub, have a drink or something-” She shot a look at Jimmy as she said this, and that seemed, for some reason, to really annoy him.

“You’re a right stuck-up cow, you are, Shireen. Just like Rose.”

“Shut up, dickhead.”

Trisha looked anxious, and moved to leave, but then Jimmy spotted her as well.

“Oh, hi there, Trish- your brother was being well polite about you just now.”

Trisha said nothing, so Shireen felt oblieged to speak up. “Leave her alone- she’s upset. Come on, Trisha, let’s go.”

They got out of the bar, Trisha looking downcast, and headed off in the other direction.

“I hate people like that guy,” Trisha said out of the blue.

“Who, Jimmy?”

“Yeah- I hate Jimmy.”

“Oh.”

They walked on.

“Actually, I’d rather not go to a bar,” Trisha said. “I’d rather just go home. If that’s alright.”

“Yeah,” Shireen said. “I’ll go home, too- my mum will ring me up any time now.”

So they turned around and headed for home- and then Shireen spotted someone. Jimmy, to be exact, wandering drunkenly along the pavement.

It was beginning to get dark by now. She cursed mentally and wondered what to do. Jimmy came up to them,

“All right?” he said.

“Jimmy, you’re drunk,” Shireen said coldly.

He ignored this. “I think Alex is gonna leave me.”

“Don’t blame her.”

“See, you are a fucking cow.”

And then Trisha spoke up for the first time. “Could you leave her alone, please?”

Jimmy stared at her as if he’d never seen her before. “Please? Ha. Fuck off. Where the fuck are you two going?”

“Home.” Shireen said.

“I thought you’d be off with Mickey Smith…ha ha…fucking about with him…one of my mates saw you and him at the cinema the other day, Trisha…”

“It was a friends thing,” Trisha said nervously.

“My arse it was. I didn’t think you were his type. I thought Shireen was more his type…or Rose, that little slag…”

At that, Shireen decided she couldn’t stand him anymore. She smacked him round the face, hard as she could, as if he was the embodiment of everything that frustrated her.

And she regretted it instantly.

Jimmy staggered backwards. “Fuck, man!” he said. And then, as Shireen readied herself to run, “I’m gonna get you for that!”

So Shireen ran. And Trisha ran too, in the same direction as Shireen, clearly somewhat freaking out. She hoped Jimmy would just give up and wander home, but he wasn’t going to. Damn.

They kept running. Shireen wondered, in a detached sort of way, what would happen if Rose was by her side instead of Trisha.

She saw some stairs leading up to a balcony.

“Up here!” she yelled. She leaped up the stairs two at a time, and Trisha followed. They got to the top and Shireen realised how stupid she was: there was no way down other than the way they’d just come. The balcony went all the way around the building- the building was an abandoned chip shop- but there was only one flight of stairs.

And Jimmy was down below.

“You fucking bitch! Who the fuck gives you the right to hit me?”

Shireen raced around to the other side of the balcony.

“Come back here, you-”

Trisha hurried around to join Shireen.

“Stupid fucking fat dyke!”

Shireen glanced over the balcony. “Trisha-”

Trisha gave a whimper.

“Trisha, you can jump from here, alright? You’ll hit the hedge down there, it won’t kill you. Can you jump?”

“NO!”

There were noises on the stairs. He was coming. Shireen had heard all this before: boys went out and got drunk, got into a fight, got their pride wounded, chased down their offender and killed an innocent bystander instead… was Jimmy the type to carry a knife? Probably.

“Trisha,” she said. “Just jump. I’ll come with you, seeing as this was pretty much my fault.”

Trisha said nothing, but Shireen knew she wouldn’t jump. Not off a balcony in the dark- she was always one of those smart, careful, uptight people. But then again, Shireen was nothing like Trisha, and she’d never jumped either.

“Trisha!” she demanded. “What’s your favourite movie?”

“Um…Titanic. Or Beauty and the Beast. Why on earth-”

Shireen pushed her off. She heard her scream, hit the hedge, and roll off onto the ground, bruised but hopefully unharmed. Jimmy Stone came racing round the corner.

“You bastard,” she said, and jumped as well. She landed next to Trisha. Jimmy Stone gave a yell of rage and threw his bottle down at her. It missed them both.

“Jimmy!” came Alex’s voice, all of a sudden. “Jimmy, what the fuck are you doing, you’re gonna get someone killed!”

“That fucking bitch, she…”

Shireen heard no more of that. Relief flooded through her. She never thought she’d see the day when she was glad to hear Alex, but then again she’d never thought she’d see the day where she and Trisha Delaney escaped a crazed Jimmy Stone by jumping off a balcony in the dark.

Jimmy appeared to have gone away. Trisha was standing up shakily.

“Oh my god,” she said. And then, “And…Rose dated him? That…that psychopathic…”

“He’s only like that when he’s drunk,” Shireen said, rising to her feet. “Alex’ll take care of him. Let’s go.”

They started walking in the dark, breathing in the coldness. The street-lights flickered up ahead.

“I guess that’s me out of the running for time traveller, then,” Trisha said.

“What are you on about?”

“It was only a drunk lunatic, and I almost collapsed with terror.”

“God. Jimmy Stone is scarier than any aliens I can imagine.”

They gradually walked faster. Shireen checked her watch; it was five past eleven.

“Your mum’s gonna be worried.”

“No, she won’t be.”

They reached Trisha’s flat.

“Bye, then,” Shireen said, and hurriedly left her there. Heading back to her flat, her phone rang.

“Shireen!” her mother called. “Where are you? You said you were going down the pub! Where’s my bread?”

And of course, in all the chaos she’d lost it. “Sorry, mum,” she said. “It might have to wait.”

“Shireen!”

“Sorry. Back in a second.” She hung up the phone and went home.

*****

Next day, while she was still in bed, the phone rang. It was Trisha.

“I wanted to say thanks,” she said nervously. “For pushing me off the balcony. Forgot to say that last night.”

“S’alright.”

“Yeah…just wanted to say…thanks. Although I’d rather you never did it again.”

“Yeah. Now I want to get back to bed, alright? Goodbye.” She was careful to not sound cruel.

“Alright. Bye.”

“Bye.” She hung up the phone.

The world -or her world at least- had changed, that was for sure.