Thirty Four.

"What the fuck did you do?" I'm racing toward Paul faster than anyone can stop me.

He doesn't look bothered until he sees I'm not going to stop, his eyes widening before my fist flies at his face. My knuckles crunch but I sense it rather than feel any pain. My anger takes over.

Before I can get another shot in, arms wrap around my waist, pulling me back and spinning me away from my target. "Bella. Stop." Cullen's voice is calm but it has no effect on me. I lash out, struggling to get away from him. "Let me go!" I scream.

He does immediately but then moves to block my access to Paul.

"What did you give her? She could fucking die. She could be fucking dead you arsehole." I don't push Cullen out of the way but I'm furious with him—for no good reason. My anger needs an outlet.

"I didn't do anything you psycho bitch," Paul spits over Cullen's shoulder, which is a mistake because he turns around and slams him against the wall.

"Watch your mouth."

Paul shrugs Cullen off him and holds up his hands. "You need to blame someone else. It's nothing to do with me."

"This time," Cullen says and turns his attention to me. "You ready to go?"

"No." I spin on my heel and walk away. My anger is replaced with panic and helplessness. What if she doesn't make it? The news is full of these horror stories, parents releasing pictures of their kids wrapped in wires and tubes, brain dead from taking shit on a night out. I think I'm going to be sick. I bend over and heave into the gutter, crouching to my knees, my head in my hands. I feel Cullen's hand on my back. "You ok?"

I shake my head standing up. "What should we do? I don't know what to do?"

"We should probably get out of here. The police might turn up. Do you wanna go to the hospital?"

"We should," I say but mention of the police worries me. "We could try and call Rose when we get home. See what she thinks about coming? See how Jess is?"

"Yeah, probably a better idea. Come on."

We say our goodbyes to everyone quickly. Tell Sam we'll make our own way home, despite a lift with him and Angie being an easier option. I'm relieved when we're alone again and that I don't have to go to the hospital, even if that's selfish of me. There will be too many questions I don't have the answers too. The police will take one look at our ages, my address, and that'll tighten their focus, nevermind the boy standing beside me. I tell myself there's nothing I can do.

Cullen is waiting. I see the glint of his lighter, turning in his hand, but he doesn't spark it. Instead, he reaches for me, drawing my attention away from Paul who's laughing with his mates like nothing has happened. I want to kill him.

But instead of murder, we wander down the main road in silence for a while, away from the club. There are crowds of people trying to flag taxis, drunk and happy, unaware of what's happened. It's then that my hand starts to throb. I flex my fingers and wince.

"You need some ice on that," he says, tugging me to the kebab shop across the road. The smell turns my stomach but I'd rather be in the greasy warmth of the shop than outside—the cold I'd been oblivious to has made me numb.

I perch on the edge of the window ledge, ignoring the drunken racket going on around me. Cullen comes back with a paper cup of ice. I take a piece and run it over the swelling on my knuckles until water drips onto the dirty lino floor. The noise grows and a couple of lads, off their heads, start pushing each other, dropping their doner kebab and chips all over the floor. The whole place erupts, people shouting and pushing and shoving. I feel like I might cry.

"Let's get out of here." Cullen guides me to the door, takes control, which is a relief because I can't think straight. "I'll get you home."

We walk a long way, and for what feels like hours, until we eventually give into the cold and manage to flag a passing taxi, the buses finished for the night. It's money I can't afford so I'm grateful when he pays as we pull to the edge of Shelton, just as the sun is beginning to rise.

He offers me his jacket which is warm around my shoulders. I slide off my shoes, dangling them from my fingers as we walk toward my apartment block. Before we head into the estate, I take a quick detour into another phone box, trying not to breathe in the stink of stale piss, as I fumble for coins in my purse. I dial Rose's number, hoping she's home by now. She picks up after one ring, breathless from running to grab it before I wake up her house.

Cullen waits outside but he's watching my face like a hawk. When Rose tells me Jess is okay, that she's stable, I give him a tired smile and mouth "She's ok". He visibly relaxes, wrapping his arms around me when I hang up and return to his side. We stand that way for a minute or two, relieved to hear the news, before we walk across the courtyard hand in hand. Nobody is around apart from the early birds heading out for their dawn shifts, and a bin lorry going from block to block. Even the usual gangs who torment the residents are missing.

Neither of us says much until we get to the door.

He grabs the collar of his leather jacket I'm still wearing and pulls me toward him, kissing me gently. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

That is too far away for me. "No, I don't want you to go."

He tips his head to the door. "What about your mum?"

"She'll have already gone to work." I hope.

I slide my key in slowly and creep into the hallway. Her bedroom door is shut but I don't want to open it in case she's home. I reach back out and grab his hand, pulling him gently toward my room then go back to shut the front door. The soft click echoes through the flat but there's no noise from inside her room.

I grab a glass of water, the ice tray from the freezer, and some paracetamol from the kitchen cupboard and take two, gulping the water down like I've not drunk for weeks. I take the glass into my room where he sits on the bed. I join him, curling my legs up as he takes the ice tray from me. He pops out some ice and runs it gently along my hand, the sensation making me shiver. "This is gonna hurt for a bit."

"It bloody hurts now."

"Yeah, we'll if you'd asked, I would have advised against punching someone in the face."

"He deserved it." I pout and he laughs quietly.

"Yeah, but your hand didn't."

I watch him in the half light, the outline of his face, his concentration as he tends to my hand. It sends flares beneath my skin and I forget about the throbbing in my hand. He senses I'm staring and looks up, his eyes crinkled with a half smile. It sends my heart hammering.

"What?" he asks.

I don't answer this time, leaning forward to kiss him. The ice thuds onto the floor as he drops it to reach for me. His hand is chilled against the skin of my cheek as he deepens the kiss, humming his pleasure against my skin. I need to get closer. I want more.

We have so much to talk about after tonight but I don't want to do anything other than this. I half climb, and he half pulls, me onto his lap. He slides his palms up my thighs under my skirt, pulling my hips closer. I tighten my arms around him and his fingers thread through my hair as he turns his attention to my neck, presses his lips along my collar bone.

He groans under his breath, searching out my breast, fingers sliding along the edge of the lace bra until he can find a way in. I'm hot and panting, grinding down against him, desperate for some friction as his tongue finds my nipples and he bites down gently. I moan too loudly and his hand shoots out over my mouth, I bite onto his fingers until he lets go. "Fuck, don't do that to me," I warn him. "I won't be able to keep the noise down."

His voice is low and crackles with amusement when he responds. "Sorry, not sorry."

He doesn't listen and bites me again and my eyes roll backwards in my head as I feel his hands reaching for the heat between my legs, pushing my knickers to one side. Then the front door slams and we almost fly across the room, separating from each other. I run to my bedroom door, pulling my skirt down and trying to catch my breath. I look back at Cullen who is adjusting himself. I shush at him and he rolls his eyes and flops back onto the bed, shoving my pillow over his face.

"Shit, shit. She must have been on a late shift." A vague memory of her telling me this floats in my mind but it hadn't seemed important to listen at the time.

I hover silently at the door as I hear my mum moving about in the kitchen, the kettle going on, then the shower. When I hear the bathroom door close, I run back over to Cullen and straddle him, finding his face under the pillow. "She's getting ready to go to bed but before then she will come to bring me a brew. You've got to go."

"What, no fucking way." He reaches up and grabs at my waist, hands beginning to wander again. "No fucking way. You can't do that to me. I'm gonna have blue balls."

I grind into him, slapping his hands away gently but he grabs me by the arms and flips me over. "You're gonna regret that."

His smile is wicked as his hand, once again, disappears in my knickers and his lips to my neck. I moan and press against him, then hearing the shower turn off I tighten my thighs around him stopping his access and smack him in the shoulder. "You gotta go now. Seriously. Go."

His mouth drops open and he shakes his head. "You're killing me."

"I'll owe you," I say, righting all my clothes and hair as I peek out of the door and shove him down the hall and out, grabbing his face for one last kiss before I shut him out. I run back to my bed before my mum comes in, my fingers finishing what he started until I fall into a Cullen-induced deep sleep. Not even hearing my mum bring the cup of tea in. Not at all ready to face what happened last night.

AN: Thanks for sticking with me. I appreciate all of you more than you know. Meg iambeagle and Choc are angels for motivating me to write again. This baby isn't beta'd so all mistakes are mine. x