The school bell rings. Reluctantly I pack my lucky green biro into the furry orange pencil case and drop them into my school bag. Picking up my bag, I wave goodbye to the other girls and begin the long walk home.

I'd wanted to confide some of my problems with Cherry my best mate, but I couldn’t tell her the whole story. She just wouldn’t understand. As it was all she could say was “Jen, he’s a boy and they’re just words. Ignore him!”

Trouble is Rowan’s the apple of Mum’s eye and since Dad left, she thinks of him as the "man of the house”. We’d all been victims of Dad’s abusive treatment, so why would he carry on where Dad had left off?

Sometimes it seems worse because Rowan thinks about it more than Dad ever did. Yesterday he’d touched me and when I pulled away he’d grabbed my blouse and punched me; in a place where he knew people wouldn’t see. The black and blue bruise and the plum sized lump on my ribs are still too tender to touch.

At sixteen he should be out with friends and enjoying himself – instead I catch him following me and watching me wherever I go. School has been my only refuge but now at term's end I face eight weeks with nowhere to hide. I tried talking to Mum about it when we were out shopping, but she got angry and said he’s just protecting us and that I’m over-reacting.

The abusive words and the physical violence I can take – it’s the lust in his eyes when he looks at my body that scares me, and where that could lead. I’m fourteen and adult enough to know; I just don’t know what to do…