Liam just left.
I woke up one morning,
saw his bedroom door was open,
but not him in among the squalor
with his
bare legs dangling out of the
side of the single bed.
‘Where’s Liam?’ I asked Mum.
‘Gone.’
‘Good riddance,’ Terry said,
and I had to bite both my lips
really hard
to stop myself from saying something
like
Yeah, you did this, Terry.
Then
I left for school like normal
but didn’t go in,
hid between
the recycling bins
in the Queen’s Head car park.
And I couldn’t stop crying,
couldn’t even breathe properly,
because without Liam
I was on my own.
Completely and utterly
on
my
own.