I'm sat on the ground at the foot of Effy's bed. I've been sitting here for ages. I don't know where she is. Eff's mum let me in when I called round, told me she was upstairs. Well, she fucking wasn't. I've no idea where she could be. I've been staring at the wall ahead of me, fiddling with a (now empty) purple lighter. I think it was Eve's, I nicked it the first day of school and forgot to ever give it back.

Effy's room is so, Effy. There's all these edgy posters on the walls, mess scattered essentially everywhere. Any surface top in her bedroom has clutter all over it. Bits of jewellery dangling here and strewn across some surface there. This is all normal girl clutter, though I wouldn't exactly consider Eff a normal girl. That's what I love about her.

Her wardrobe doors are slightly open, a few clothing items spewing out onto the ground. All of them some kind of dark tone, real Effy colours. Most garments also about three inches long. It's messy, but it works. I feel at home here.

I snap back to focus when I hear the front door slam from downstairs. Finally. I hear light footsteps thudding quickly up the stairs, and making their way toward this room.

I turn my head to watch the door as it opens to reveal Effy. She notices me, a look of surprise on her face. She looks flushed. She closes the door behind her and stares at me. "Why are you here?"

"Always a pleasure to receive such warm welcomes from you, Princess," I chuckle, pushing myself up off the ground. "Your mum let me in. She said you were home. Where were you?"

She shrugs, her cheeks still slightly pink. "Out," she mumbles, sitting on her bed.

I sit beside her, pulling a pair of fishnet tights out from under me. "You're all red," I motion my finger around her face, and she bats it away lightly.

"It's cold out," she responds plainly. "I was out to get some skunky."

I stare at her in disbelief. "You know you could've just asked me, yeah?"

I sell occasionally, usually when I'm desperate for a bit of cash. I try not to make it much of a habit, but it gets me out of a hole.

She shrugs.

"I could've sorted you a better deal and everything," I sigh. "Go on, who'd you get it from, then? Definitely some wanker who doesn't know what he's doing."

She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a clear plastic baggie, with a couple buds inside. "Freddie."

I blink at her, confused. "Freddie?" I exclaim, disbelief in my tone. "Since when does he sell."

Effy shrugs, yet again. "He doesn't."

"So..."

"So he sold me this," she shoved the baggie into a drawer in her bedside table.

"There's no way in fuck Freddie would just sell you an eighth out of nowhere," I snort.

"Well, he did," Effy sighs. "If it bothers you so much, go talk to him. Not my problem. Weed is weed."

I look down at my hands in my lap. "Right then," I mutter, glancing at her. "Don't get so pissy, babes. Just asking, me."

She examines me for a moment, her face an unreadable expression. "I'm meeting Panda in half an hour. Wasn't expecting to see you today but since you're here, do you want to come?"

I perk up and grin at her, nodding. "Where to?"

-

We're sitting at the bus stop nearest Effy's house. It's me, Effy and Pandora. Effy is in the middle, spliff in her hand, passing it to me every so often.

The scenery is bleak here. No surprise though. There's a slow stream of traffic behind us, the engines of the cars merely a low rumble in the background. The only greenery being the hedges in the front gardens of houses, and the small patches of grass beside some footpaths.

It's my turn now, I toke on the spliff a couple times before offering it to Pandora. She's about to take it when a lad who seems to be our age approaches the bus stop. He's wearing fingerless gloves, two hats and about fifty jackets. He's holding a brown paper shopping bag.

He smiles at us as he sits himself down on the bench beside Pandora. He reaches into the bag and pulls out a doughnut, shoving it into his mouth as if he'd never seen food in his life. The three of us watch in disbelief and he stuffs another doughnut into his gob without even swallowing the first one.

Panda's staring at him with a look of awe on her face as he swallows and pulls out a third. "Wow, you've got a whacker lot of doughnuts."

He stares at her. "Yes," he hesitates, before shoving his doughnut back into the bag. "Of course, I have too many." The boy offers the bag to Pandora.

"Crazy!" She exclaims, eagerly taking a doughnut from the bag. "Ta."

He offers the bag to Effy.

"No thanks," she mutters, taking a pull on the spliff in her hand.

He proceeds to offer the bag to me, and I hesitate, before shaking my head. "I'm alright mate, thanks."

"Effy and Cook don't do doughnuts," Pandora mumbles through a mouthful of doughnut.

The boy nods, staring at us. "I see. So what do they do?"

"Drugs," she replies, turning to Effy. "Effy's just picked up some earlier, didn't you? And Cook said he'd sort us any time we want some."

Effy raises her eyebrows in acknowledgment as she passes the joint back to me. I nod at Pandora. "I would've taken that doughnut but I'm planning on getting absolutely fucking munted tonight so I'm trying to keep an empty stomach." I finish by patting my belly and smiling at the lad with the doughnuts.

He half smiles at me, a look of uncertainty on his face.

Pandora takes the spliff out of my fingers and takes several long pulls, her mouth still full of doughnut. She gives the joint back to Effy and pops the last bite of doughnut into her mouth, pulling at the boys bag to take another.

I raise my eyebrows at Effy, and she simply just shakes her head. That's impressive, to be fair.

"I could eat six of these, no problem," Pandora babbles to the boy, crumbs all over her face. "Except mum usually hides them behind the fridge-freezer." She says that with a scornful tone, taking another bite.

The lad looks at her, admiration in his eyes. I nudge Effy, a grin on my face.

"Wow, this is blimmin' amazing!" Pandora exclaims. "But I need juicing."

Effy stares at her. "You need juicing?"

"Yeah," Panda responds. "Toss us the Irn-Bru, would you Cook?"

I hand her the bottle that was standing on the ground by my feet. She takes it from me and turns to the boy.

"Barry!" She shouts loudly. I jump a little in surprise.

Effy turns to her. "What are you talking about?" She snaps, blinking in annoyance.

"My uncle Jock always says Barry before he drinks Irn-Bru. I don't know why, mum says it's because he's Scottish and mad." She finishes her third doughnut and takes a swig of the Irn-Bru.

"Hello," the boy says. "My name is Thomas, I am so glad to meet you." Thomas leans over Pandora and outstretches his hand to Effy, which she takes, shaking it.

"Effy, so glad to meet you," she smiles, slightly sarcastic.

Thomas then offers his hand to me. I take it, shaking it firmly. "I'm Cook, nice to meet you, mate."

"I came here yesterday from Africa," he continues. "This place is exceedingly cold."

"Bummer," Effy responds dryly.

"Yeah, bit of a change of scenery, to be fair, going from Africa to Bristol," I laugh, and Thomas smiles at me.

He's about to say something else, when Pandora suddenly pauses mid-swig, and gags, the Irn-Bru she just drank coming straight out of her mouth and dribbling down onto the skirt. She retches and leans forward, vomiting onto the footpath.

Effy and I jump up off of the bench, groaning in unison. "Fuck sake, Pands," I laugh. "Easy on the doughnuts next time, yeah babe?"

Thomas looks at Panda, who is still bent over, sick dribbling out of her mouth. He looks back at me. "I see, you two must be in a relationship."

I look at Effy, and we both laugh loudly. "Me and Panda? No no, Thomas, kid," I chuckle, walking over and patting his back. "You got a bit mixed up there, pal."

Thomas stares at me, baffled. "But you called her babe? Am I wrong?"

Effy snorts. "Cook calls everyone babe," she sighs, patting Pandora's back. "We can take her back to mine, I think she's passed out."

I put my hands in the air. There was no way in fuck I was carrying her back to Eff's especially with that reek of sick and Irn-Bru. Thomas gets up instead and lifts Panda over his shoulder. "You lead the way," he says to Effy, adjusting Pandora on his back.

Effy simply just nods and walks ahead, while I shove my hands into my pockets and trudge behind her.

-

We arrive at Effy's house, she opens the door and invites us in. Thomas looks around in amazement as we walk into her narrow hallway.

"This way," Effy says to him, as she sets her keys down on a nearby dresser.

"Incroyable!" Thomas murmurs under his breath.

Effy and I stop as we look back at him. "Sorry?" She asks, confused.

"Your house," Thomas starts, Pandora still on his back. "It's incredible!"

Effy and I watch as he subconsciously places his hand on Panda's arse. He notices and quickly moves it back down, embarrassment plastered on his face. I snort lightly.

"Thanks," Effy mumbles, eyeing him for a moment, before heading up the stairs. "Come on, bring the dozy cow up here."

We head up the stairs in single file, until we reach the landing, where Thomas finally sets Pandora down onto a chair.

Her eyes still closed, she retches once again, ever so slightly, and a dribble of sick comes out of her mouth and splashes onto the floor. I glance at the Effy out of the corner of my eye and she sighs in defeat, a small smile on her face.

"I think, maybe these doughnuts is not good for you," Thomas states, smiling down at the passed out girl in front of him.

"Too right man," I mutter, staring at the dribble of sick on the floor.

"Yeah, that must be it," Effy smirks, looking at me. I smile at her, then cock my head to the sound of, dare I say, moaning?

I look at Effy and it's clear she's picked up on that too. She's eyeing a closed bedroom door, presumably her mum's.

"Mum?" She calls out uncertainly. The moaning continues, and Effy slowly begins to walk toward the shut door. "Mum?" She repeats, harsher and louder this time.

The moaning stops as I hear sudden cursing in hushed tones. Effy pushes open the door to reveal her mum, standing with a duvet cover wrapped around her, clearly naked, and some man, his belt unbuckled and his shirt half on.

"Effy, what are you, er, doing here?" Anthea stammers, looking around her shoulder and noticing Thomas, Pandora and I.

"Pandora puked," Effy responded blankly.

"Oh, you know Steve, don't you?" Her mum says, pouting her thumb at Steve.

Steve awkwardly smiles at us as he puts his glasses on. "Hi."

"He's been helping me with my, erm, my project," she stutters.

Steve blinks. "Right, yeah. It's really interesting, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Anthea whispers.

Thomas walks past Effy and I and enters the bedroom, offering his hand to Anthea and Steve. "Hello, my name is Thomas."

I don't know what to do. This situation is fucked. Effy told me she thought her mum was cheating on her dad but she wasn't sure because she had no solid evidence. She has plenty of it now, looking at the pair, they both look a wreck.

I watch as Anthea and Steve both, very awkwardly, shake Thomas' hand. He turns and looks back at Effy and I, grinning. Blissfully unaware of what's truly going on.

I step forward and put my arm around Effy comfortingly, I can feel her tension beneath me, as I steer her around and lead her back down the stairs.

-

I stare at the ceiling as I rub Effy's hair with my hand. We decided to go back to my dorm, as Effy wanted to get out of her own house as soon as possible. We said our goodbyes to Thomas after we dropped a half-conscious Pandora home.

We're laying on my single bed, Eff's laying her head on my shoulder, her hand on my chest, her fingers tracing circles lightly on the fabric of my t-shirt. She sighs and suddenly gets up, putting her head in her hands.

I sit up slightly and look at her. "You alright?" I murmur.

"It's so, so fucked," she groans into her hands. "Why are parents so fucking stupid?"

I scoot over to where she's sitting, and put my arm around her. "I couldn't tell ya, babe," I sigh. "We all have shit parents, don't we?"

She nods, leaning into me.

We sit there in silence for several moments, before I take my arm off from around her and stand up, tapping my thighs enthusiastically. "Hey, there's this big fuck off party, tomorrow night, yeah?" I begin, and Effy looks up at me, her eyes bloodshot, yet interested.

"Let's get so fucked that we just forget all these stupid shit problems that other people keep causing for us, yeah?" I smile, and she smiles back. "Would you be up for it?"

She nods her head eagerly, that familiar glint in her eyes. Standing up, she throws her arms around my neck and pulls me close, gazing into my eyes.

"When aren't I up for it, Cookie?" She grins.