Shock and sadness filled the atmosphere as Bethany began to blink. As she looked around, all that greeted her was destruction and shame. What had she done? Barely old enough to drink, yet still too young to drive, she knew she'd been stupid. She lay in the driver's seat, her head in the soft airbag. Blood dripped from a gash on her head, and covered the bag in a river of the red trail. Tiny fragments of glass littered her surroundings. She looked across at Charlotte. The young girl's head was back, her eyes stared up at the car's ceiling, and blood ran down her face from a deep gash above her eye.

"Charlotte... Charlotte..." Bethany spoke, her voice quieter than usual.

She reached forward and tapped her sister on the shoulder in a desperate attempt to wake her, but nothing. She placed her fingers against Charlotte's skin, but nothing. Her younger sister began to feel cold, getting closer by the minute. Bethany pulled off her denim jacket and wrapped it around her. She grabbed her phone and dialled 999. No way was she going to stay and watch the young girl's life just slip away. Charlotte was going to get through this, Charlotte had to get through this, she just had to.

"Come on, Char, open your eyes... Come on... stay with me. Stay with me..."

Charlotte's eyelids flickered

"Hey, sis..."

Charlotte let out a moan, but before long her eyes gradually began to close and darkness clouded her vision once more...

***

For several hours the girl slept, bleeping machines by her side desperately trying to keep her alive. Charlotte's eyes didn't flicker and her chest barely rose and fell. She lay in a hospital bed, a tube ran from her nose that kept her alive. Inside her weakened and silent body, her mind was awake with the most incredible dreams filling her subconscious. In her dream, she was at home, her real home back in Cambridgeshire, her family by her side and her friends all around her. She dreams of Christmas, a time usually spent half with her family, opening gifts and laughing at Dad's awful singing, and the evening, after Christmas dinner, at a friend's party.

Emily threw the most glorious Christmas parties at her foster father's house. They'd always have the biggest real Christmas tree almost ten feet high, decorated from trunk to tip in luxurious golden tinsel, huge glass baubles and pretty delicate hanging ornaments. Underneath presents galore, most of them wrapped in pinkish tones with the odd one or two in traditional paper, for John and Tom, Emily's foster fathers. Charlotte thought back to the previous party. She remembered her parents became stranded abroad during the festive week due to storms in the states, where they were visiting friends.

Mum and Dad were supposed to return by the eleventh of December, but by the twelfth, the storms had become life-threatening so the advice was to stay where they were for the rest of the week. Charlotte and her sisters remained in England with their grandmother, Dorothy and while she slept in the afternoon, the youngest of the Greyson girls was desperate for fun. She packed a small overnight bag and with Nana fast asleep, she hurried out of the house as the night fell. She ran down the road, her heavy bag banging against her back. She could see the glow and the flashing lights from inside her friend's house. Charlotte knocked on the door, but a tall young man about her age opened it. She looked at his chiselled jawline, and deep into his azure blue eyes. He ran his hand through his thick dark brown hair, sending shivers down her young spine.

"Hello?" He said as he looked down at the giggling girl standing on the doorstep.

"H, h, hi," Charlotte stammered, "is Emily in? I mean this is her house but you're not her. I mean, of course, you're hot... I mean you're not. You're a guy."

"Chad," the boy replied, "I'm Chad, Emily's boyfriend."

Boyfriend? Well, that was the first time Charlotte had heard any mention of him from her best friend. They weren't that close.

"Hey Chaddy-pants," Charlotte heard Emily speak and a few seconds later, her best friend arrived at the door and placed her hand upon the boy's rather muscular shoulder.

They opened the door and Charlotte entered the warm house, her stomach rumbled as the smell of the turkey feast drifted up her nose. The young couple showed her through into the dining room where the rest of Emily's wide extended family sat around a sizable dining table. Charlotte sat in between Emily and Tom. Chad sat next to John and his mother, who was Tom's older sister.

It first happened when Emily stood to serve the pudding. A hand brushed against Charlotte's knee. She felt her face heat and flush a tinge of rouge. Looking straight ahead, she caught Chad's eye, but knowing he was her best friend's first boyfriend, she quickly looked away.

Outside the snow fell, first only a slight sprinkle but as the night became later the quicker, and heavier it began to fall. When Dorothy phoned her later that evening, wondering when she would return, all the grandmother was told was that Charlotte would be staying at her friend's house for that night. But then it happened again.

Emily left the room that evening to FaceTime her mother who was on tour with her band, which was rather famous in the states. Charlotte sat in her room. She remembered hearing a knock on the door, and as it opened, there stood Chad. Charlotte's heartbeat quickened, and her palms became damp with sweat, as he entered the room. In his hands he carried two glasses of orange juice, he passed one to Charlotte and took a seat on the bed beside her.

If Emily hadn't been speaking to her mum for as long as she did, then there was no way it would have happened. If the internet failed or the battery on Emily's phone ran out of charge, then no way would it have happened. But it did happen, and nothing could have prevented it. For years Charlotte Greyson believed she was a good friend, the best friend, but in reality, she was far from it. A cheat. And a liar.

***

Loud machines stood at the girls' bed as they had done only a few years earlier. Her eyes slowly flickered. As they opened a bright glow of white came into view. Her heartbeat quickened from a slow beat to a more steady rhythm. Charlotte coughed to clear her throat, and as her eyes began to adjust to the light, the sweet smell of pretty jasmine perfume drifted up her nose. A smell she knew very well, a scent that reminded her of home, her mothers' perfume. She looked to the side as the sight of her parents came into view.

Mum sat on a seat nearby, gripping hold of her daughter's hand for dear life, pleading that her youngest girl would pull through.

"Mum." She said, "Dad... where am I? What happened?"

Charlotte's head pounded like she'd been attacked by club-wielding cavemen. As she shifted to sit up, every inch she moved made the pain worse. She touched her head and felt a material bandage wrapped around her forehead. She looked down at her left arm to find it was encased in a hard protective white shell.

"Oh my darling, you're in the hospital," Mum gushed, and she leant forward and swept her daughter's fringe out of her eyes. She placed a sweet kiss on her forehead. "There was a car crash, sweetie, Bethany had too much to drink and she crashed the car."

"Bethany?" Spoke to Charlotte, her voice was weak and her throat was sore. "Where's Bethany?"

Dad moved from his window gaze and perched himself at the foot of Charlotte's bed.
"She's fine," he replied, "battered and bruised, but she's alive and she's resting at home. So there's no need to worry about her."

For the next couple of hours, Charlotte rested in bed, and for the first time in what felt like ages, she had both parents to herself. They spoke about the family and discussed Castle Stone. But before long, after she'd had a drink and managed to eat a cheese and pickle sandwich, it was late and time for her parents to leave.

No. Not yet. They couldn't leave, not yet. As each parent stood to leave, a single tear welled in Charlotte's eye. The feelings of loneliness tugged at her heart just like they had years before, and it brought back memories she'd long tried to forget. It was the steady beeping of the machines and the strong smell of disinfectant that she'd tried so hard to put behind her. No matter how hard she tried whenever she dressed, or undressed, the scar that ran down her chest would always bring back the memories.

"We'll come back and see you tomorrow."
Mum said as she stood to leave. She placed a kiss on top of Charlotte's head, and plumped up her pillows, "you need to rest now."

"See you tomorrow, darling." Said Dad, "I think Bella might come with us tomorrow. That will be nice, won't it? Seeing your sister."

Charlotte nodded. Her parents had sat by her bedside for several hours since the crash and well into the next day. The minutes ticked closer to six o'clock in the evening and although it wasn't that late, both Mum and Dad had work the next morning and her two sisters were still at home. If they didn't leave when they did, who knows what could have happened? Bella was as far away from a decent cook as humanly possible and Bethany could easily burn water. With still no staff hired to help with the running of the castle, anything the girls or their parents wanted, they had no choice but to get themselves.

"Bye Mum," said Charlotte, "bye Dad."

Charlotte lay back on her bed, pulled the thin white cotton sheet over her body and closed her eyes. Inside her private room, it was nice and warm. Far away from the other girls in the ward, her parents thought it would give her some extra peace, which she needed. But the company of other girls her age was something she was more than used to and maybe being alone wasn't the right choice.

Time alone gave Charlotte time with her thoughts. Some good, but the reality was she was on her own, with all her friends still back home in Cambridgeshire, she was on her own. Although only a fortnight had passed since she left, Charlotte couldn't help but wonder if her friends still spoke about her or if she was just Charlotte.

She cast her mind back to Emily's last party. The moon shone through the thin curtains of her best friend's room. Charlotte sat on the bed, aimlessly flicking through a fashion magazine. The bedroom door opened, and in walked Chad, Emily's boyfriend who stayed with the family over the Christmas holidays. Emily's foster dads were very relaxed like that, but Chad still slept in the spare room with his mother.

In his hand, he held two glasses of orange juice, and as he entered the room, he passed one to her. He took a seat on the bed beside her and for what felt like hours, the two of them sat chatting.
"What's America like?" She asked, sipping her juice. She tucked a stray strand of dark hair back behind her ear.

"Oh wow, well it's great. Yeah. Florida's pretty hot in the summer, and Mom and I spend loads of time on the beach. I'm Mr Teen Surf Florida."

"Mr what?"

"Mr Teen Surf," he chuckled, "it means I'm the best male surfer in the states under nineteen championship. You should come and watch me sometime. I'm great at football too."

"I don't mind football. I mean I'm not obsessed with it like my dad is. Mum said he always wanted a son so he could take football matches."

"Yeah, who do you support?"

"Well," Oh dear, now she's done it. Charlotte knew a lot about a little, but football was not her forte. She knew it was a game played with eleven players that kicked a ball around and tried to get it into the other side's goal. But players, oh no, teams... well there was...

"Arsenal." She said, "I like Arsenal."

Chad scratched his head, and sighed, "yeah they're a soccer team. I meant American football. I play, you know. Yeah, I'm a quarterback. But enough about that."

Gradually he began to move forward, just slowly at first. A feeling of deep warmth came over Charlotte, the closer Chad moved. She found herself putting down the glass of juice as she inched closer to him. She didn't know what came over her. It wasn't what the day was all about. Before she knew it, her lips were pressed against Chads, but not for long.

"No, no. I'm sorry!" She grabbed her coat and jumped off the bed. Charlotte's footsteps echoed loudly as she hurried down the stairs and out of the front door, which banged shut behind her. She ran down the road away from Emily's house and through her front door, where tears started to fall from her eyes. What had she done?

That night, unbeknown to Bethany, who was away on a school trip, Charlotte cried herself to sleep. Her heart broke by her actions that Christmas Day as she wondered how she'd cope next time she and Chad were in the same room.