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Mum opens the door, and I follow her into the living room, where Ollie and a friend I’ve never met are sitting with Dougie, watching football. “Cuppa?” asks Mum, and I nod, following her back out and into the kitchen. “It’s lovely having kids around the place,” she tells me as she fills the kettle.
“Who’s his friend?” I ask.
“Kyle.”
“He looks older,” I state.
She shrugs. “Maybe a year or so older. Dougie knows his dad.”
“We’ve left the club,” I tell her, and she pauses mid pouring hot water to look at me. “I think Ollie and I need a fresh start.”
She places the kettle down and tuns to me. “Ollie is settled here. He’s making friends.”
“He’ll make friends wherever we go.”
“Is it because of Albert Taylor?” she asks.
I shake my head. “What makes you say that?”
“You came here with him that time and you’ve not mentioned him. I assumed you’d had a fall out.”
“I have a lot of male friends, Mum. Doesn’t mean I’m in any kind of relationship with them.”
She goes back to the tea. “So, you and he weren’t—”
“No,” I snap. “What about Dougie? He seems settled here.”
She hands me a cup of tea and smiles. “He’s good for me. Don’t get me wrong, we have our differences, but I like a bit of fire in the relationship.”
I have flashbacks of when I was a child and she’d be screaming and fighting with bikers or whoever she was fucking that week. “I remember,” I mutter dryly.
“Dougie rents out properties,” she says thoughtfully. “Maybe you could stay in one until you figure out what you want.”
“I know what I want, Mum. I want to leave here and start again. I only really came back to London to put some shit to bed. After I did that, I’d decided to stick around, but it was a mistake.”
“Not really. It brought you back to me,” she says.
I resist rolling my eyes. I never did understand how we’d fight like cat and dog one minute and just move forward like it never happened the next. “We can call or whatever.”
Ollie comes in. “I’m not leaving here.”
I scoff. “Sorry, who made you the person in charge?”
“I mean it. I’ll just keep running away.”
Mum smirks. “Who does he remind you of?”
“I ran away for very different reasons,” I snap, glaring at her. “Not because I was having a tantrum. Ollie, there’s nothing for us here.”
“Apart from Nan,” he points out. “And Mav, Hadley, and Meli.”
“We can visit.”
“I don’t want to visit. I want to stay. I promise to be better at school.”
I soften slightly. “Ollie, leaving isn’t a punishment. I just think we need a fresh start.”
“Because of Albert? Did he dump you?”
