The following term at school was not a nice one. I had lost a friend to suicide, and that was one of the most devastating periods of my life. On the first day of school, Craig approached me and realised that my eyes were red, wet and swollen. He then picked me up and walked around the school with me. I didn’t want to scream because I knew everyone was looking, so I just kept a low profile and he took me to the secret passage that my friend and I loved to go to. He then put me down and asked me what she would have said if she saw me there.

I immediately laughed and tried to imitate her. “Damn, your hunk just got better at his shit,” I said, then I started crying again.

When Craig saw this, he hugged me. “I know a lot of people might have told you about my background and the kind of person I am,” he said, “but I’m pretty sure no one had told you that I’m actually an emotional crab, and that I probably suck at consoling people. So, please don’t cry, I hate being helpless.”

After talking, Craig tried rubbing my hand, smiling at me, singing, and playing music, but none of that really worked. I didn’t think he understood what losing half of you really meant.

I didn’t have the guts to contact my friend’s family, but I heard Chloe say that our classmate would be buried after 2 weeks, which made no sense. To be honest, they were all just saying that her things were going get buried, not her body, because her corpse was not even found. She had disappeared for days, and they all assumed that she was involved in the recent train crush.

Craig changed a lot after that, and it was way too shocking. He smiled more often and checked up on me like no one ever would. But something was a bit off. He was a bit too much, and to be honest, I preferred him when he was stricter, overconfident and arrogant. That fierce person I met at school with a grumpy face and a fuck boy attitude, that was what I wanted. Not a sweet, caring, and an attention giving pervert.

During this other night, we were just chilling on my bed when his phone rang. I reached out to pick it up, but he quickly grabbed it and went outside to answer it. After a few minutes, he texted and told me to sleep because he wouldn’t be coming back.

In his forgotten bag, I found a white powdery substance, and I immediately guessed that it was definitely drugs, nothing else. I was shocked, broken, and confused when I saw that. I had fallen in love with a drug dealer. My friend had warmed me about him, but I never listened.

It was true, Craig and his family killed people, stole cars, and sold drugs. I had the biggest shock of my life when I realised this, but I couldn’t do anything about it. It hurt so bad, and I couldn’t handle it. I had nothing else to do but to just sit down in a corner and cry myself to sleep, because I had flopped big time.

I was indecisive about what to do after that, and I didn’t know whether to call him or not. Well, at that moment, calling him was the only thing that made sense to me. “But what if he lied?” I asked myself, but I still made the call anyway.

After calling Craig, I asked him to rush back as soon as he was done because something huge had happened to me. But immediately after saying that, I got scared. When he arrived after 1am, I didn’t know how to tell him what I had seen, so I showed him the stuff instead. He looked at me with anger, then he took the bag and went out. I really got scared when he did that, and I immediately packed my things because I thought of moving away. I was scared for my life, because what if he killed me for knowing the truth. I couldn’t risk that.

During the same morning, at around 5am, I took a taxi to another town to live with my aunt. I then changed my SIM card and gave away my key to the landlord. After that, I went away and told them I was going outside the country so that, if Craig asks them where I was, they could mislead him.

Tell us: Do you think our main character will be able to successfully get away from Craig and his dangerous family?