‘So are you gonna be at the after-party?’ ‘Is the sky blood red? Hell yeah, I am. I even scored four VIP tickets for my mates and they were ecst...tic. I think, for the first time I’m going to get mind numbingly drunk.’ She smiled as she turned to plant a kiss on his cheek. She did not even care that she had just done so, she was so chuffed at everything. Rufus smiled at her impulsive kiss. He wanted to grab her and take her to his room, sod the stupid after party. ‘Fine, do you need a ride back. I only just met her in Year 9 when she joined the school as a teacher. I do a lot of after school sports, and she runs the running class. One day, after school, after the running class, I put all the equipment away and so I was the only one getting changed, because I was last to come in. When I pulled my top off, She smiled and said, ‘Well done, you did really well today,’ and then patted me on the back, where my bra strap was. ‘Oh, your bra has come undone,’ She said,. I'm as dead as a very deadthing- dead as a dodo, dead as a dinosaur, dead as a...well, you get theidea. Anyway, I guess I'd better give you the details you've been waitingfor, right?Okay, well...when I was alive, my name was Nicholas 'Nick' Nocturne.Yeah, makes me sound like some detective from an old film, right? Anyway,I'd just had my twenty-fifth birthday, and my girlfriend had given me thebest birthday present I'd ever had- but you don't need to know what itwas. I was a radio DJ for the. A waste. He would customarily work himself into a lather of fury. When words were no longer hurtful enough, he would use his hands or belt or whatever was convenient. Kicking and swinging in a rage, until he couldn't breathe. Until he tired himself out. Janice didn't know how to respond. How to keep him from erupting. It was all her fault or so she believed. She would cry and apologize profusely. She once asked him if he wanted to divorce her. That was a trigger, that Janice thought wise, to.