A Sea Change Read Free

looked out across the shore, he felt the worries and tension of the past few weeks gradually start to ease.
    It was all very well knowing you were innocent, but that didn’t always count for much, especially when it was your word against someone else’s. And when the video evidence against you looked bad, you didn’t have much of a chance. Craig knew he would never treat a police suspect with unnecessary violence. Buthe’d been set up by a gang of blokes with a grudge against him. He’d been responsible for arresting one of their mates who’d been sent down for a long stretch. As a result, they’d stitched him up and had him accused of police brutality. He’d been suspended while there was an investigation. Craig had spent the entire three months leading up to his case convinced he was going to lose his job – or, maybe, even worse.
    In the end, justice had been done and he had been found innocent, but the stress had taken its toll. He lived in fear of it happening again and now faced every day with dread. He was fine with his close friends, but felt awkward with other workmates he came into contact with. He could tell they were wary, wondering if he had been guilty. After all, there was no smoke without fire.
    The whole episode had made him question what he was doing with his life. He’d been longing to escape back to Everdene, so he could clear his head. Now that he was here, he felt more hopeful. As he sank into a deckchair outside the beach hut and looked at the view with a bottle of beer in his hand, the future didn’t seem quite so bleak.
    Jenna finally arrived at the terraced house where she lived. She had a bedsit on the third floor. She shared a bathroom and kitchen with six other people. Six other people who didn’t know how to use a dishcloth or bleach, or even flush the toilet, sometimes. She ended up cleaning up herself, even though they were supposed to take turns. It was either that, or live in squalor.
    She’d tried to make her room as nice as she could, but it was difficult. The carpet was green with mould in the corners. The wallpaper was ancient and coming off the wall in clumps. The windows let the cold in through the cracks in winter and turned the place into a sauna in summer. She couldn’t afford proper curtains, so she’d hung a pair of old sheets from the rail. On the walls, she’d stuck photos of her heroines: Marilyn Monroe and Dita von Teese – both glamorous pin-up girls not afraid to show off their curves. She tried to copy their image, but it was hard to look the part when you barely had enough money to keep body and soul together. Still, she always tried to wear a dress, and lipstick, and put her hair up, and this look usually helped to lift her spirits. If things were going badly, and you slobbed aboutin jeans and no make-up, you were bound to feel bad about yourself.
    No amount of dressing up took away her fear, though. She sat in the middle of her bed. It would only be a matter of time before the landlord came knocking. She didn’t have the money for her rent. Her stomach churned with dread. Where would she go if he kicked her out? She didn’t think she could get any lower. She’d left her mum’s house a year ago when their rows had got out of control. She’d thought she could stand on her own two feet. It was much harder than she thought.
    Jenna thought about phoning her mates and meeting them at the pub, then she remembered she wouldn’t be able to afford a drink. She was penniless. Someone would buy her one, of course they would, but she didn’t want to feel like a scrounger. She flopped back down onto the mattress. The room smelled stale. The air was almost too hot to breathe. Everyone was saying what a fantastic weekend it was going to be, with soaring temperatures and fun in the sun.
    There wasn’t going to be any fun on the third floor of 21a Boscombe Terrace.
    It was after his second beer that Craig began to miss Michelle.
    He knew it would happen. The first