want him near me, to be honest, but I loved him so much that I genuinely told myself it was a one−off.

It sadly wasn’t.

Mum was the first one to notice the split lip. I had tried to cover it up with as much as I could and told my first lie to my parents that I had opened the pantry door and a tinned can of food hit me hard in the face. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. Gavin had had grown more intense and more distant at the same time.

It was a confusing time being with him. I didn’t realise it then, but Gavin was going through an intense and difficult time at home and was taking out all of his frustrations and anger out on me.

Don’t get me wrong…hitting me didn’t make it right.