Charlotte (or Lottie, as I knew her) popped into my life suddenly when we both appeared in a school play, when I was about 15 or 16. We used to hang out together before rehearsals and so forth and I suppose I developed quite a crush on her (not to mention her quieter friend, Eve). There were two things that fuelled this. First, I was now in my mid-teens and up to this point had failed to have any kind of adult-ish, meaningful friendship with a woman, yet Lottie was always very friendly towards me and smiled a lot. She also wore very short skirts and had really, really great legs. Second, she was pretty cool, which made her seem very slightly on the edgy side: and edgy meant wild, and wild meant dangerous, and dangerous meant attractive (like the kid in About A Boy).
Lottie ended up joining our school a couple of years later, but I never even tried to resume our brief friendship. Bottoms.
Kentish Times - December 2000
The parents of a young local man are to release shocking pictures of his body superimposed on the smiling image of his young daughter, as part of a major new anti-drugs campaign.
David was once a highly promising student who, as far back as primary school, had been tipped for great things. And so it seemed right up to the age of 16: he was a consistent school prizewinner and did very well in his GCSEs.
But as he embarked upon his first year of study for A-levels, he also began a tempestuous relationship with a girl he'd met at school. For legal reasons, we are obliged to refer to her as "C".
Sources close to him described the relationship as "ill-advised". "David and [C] were brilliant people, both apart and together," he said. "But there was such spark between them when they were together that the schoolwork of both of them suffered."Barely three months later, with C studying for her GCSEs and David approaching mock A-levels, C fell pregnant. Needless to say, it was unexpected. "[C] stuck it out to the end of the school year," says the source. "But David was shocked and humiliated and dropped out of school straight away."
David was adamant that he would be part of his child's life and took a job to support his new daughter (who also cannot be named) but, after the birth of S, found C becoming increasingly distant. "She went back to school. She was still keen to learn."
After leaving school with a brace of A-levels, C moved out, abandoning David and his 21-month-old daughter. According to the source, "David was devastated. He stopped working in order to look after S, but never had enough money."
In retrospect, when David turned to drugs to solve his problems, there was an air of inevitability about his rapid descent. "He stopped being able to look after himself or after S."
His daughter was taken into care by Social Services shortly afterwards. David continued to live in poverty and squalor and started to avoid friends and family. "He was devastated when he lost [S]", according to the source. "He tried harder and harder drugs and he looked after himself less and less well."
When his body was found, he had been dead for nearly three months. His body was badly decomposed and scarcely recognisable, making an exact cause of death difficult to determine. An inquest recorded an open verdict, although many people, including David's family, believe that a massive diamorphine (heroin) overdose was to blame. They hope that photographs of his body - juxtaposed with the smiling face of S, now a happy four-year-old - will help to prevent the same thing happening to other young people.
"David was a happy, normal child", they said in a press statement. "We are terrified by the rapidity at which he came off the rails. Although we are deeply saddened by his death and obviously distressed by the horrific images of the place in which he died, we are releasing this photograph in the hope that some good may yet come of his tragically short life."
Remember, folks: This is a work of complete and utter fiction from start to finish. I haven't seen Lottie since school. Friends Reunited reports that she is living in Scotland and is in a happy relationship.
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