Ash

There are a lot of people at Rabbit’s. More than he expected, I think. But he’s cool with it. Anyway, it’s not as if he has any neighbours who can get pissed off at the noise or anything, seeing as he lives in the woods. And so far tonight no one’s being a dick. Everyone’s behaving themselves, just having a nice time – having a little drink, having a smoke, having a dance and a kiss and a cuddle to celebrate the end of school.

Not me, though, not yet. I mean, I’ve had a little drink. Quite a big drink, actually. But I haven’t done anything else. No dancing, no kissing or cuddling. But I’m on the case. It’s all in hand. It will happen soon.

Right now I’m sitting in Rabbit’s garden with a couple of people from school. We’re about to have a little smoke cos I brought some of the weed with me. I light the joint and have a puff on it, take the smoke deep down into my lungs and keep it there for as long as I can manage. After about twenty seconds, I blow it out slowly and break into a massive grin. I feel good. I take another drag and then pass it on to Dylan, who’s sitting next to me. He does the same as me, takes two drags from it and passes it round the circle.

I kind of drift away as I watch the joint go round the circle. My mind feels empty for the first time in ages. The joint gets round to Joe, who takes a puff on it and coughs. Trust Joe. He couldn’t be cool if he tried. He makes me laugh.

As I sit there, my phone starts to ring. I take it out of my pocket. It’s Manky Mark calling. I bet he’s after another smoke.

I put the phone to my ear and answer the call. ‘All right, Mark?’

‘Ash,’ he says. He sounds serious.

‘What’s up, Mark?’

‘Listen, man,’ he says, ‘it might be nothing, right, but . . .’

‘What?’

There’s a pause at the other end of the phone. ‘Some geezers was at the rec looking for you earlier,’ he says.

The joint comes back round to me. I take it off Joe and have a drag. ‘Yeah?’ I say. ‘Probably my dad. Was he stupid-looking?’

‘Nah, it weren’t your old man,’ Mark says. ‘Big geezers. There were two of them. They was driving a BMW. Pulled up at the wall.’

I break off in mid-drag and choke a little. I don’t like the sound of this. ‘You what? In a BMW? Who were they? What did they want?’

‘One of them said he wanted to buy some skunk,’ Mark says.

I pass the joint on and stand up. I need to talk in private so I walk over to the pond, away from everyone else, to a rickety bench that overlooks it. I sit down. ‘Who was this man?’ I say. ‘What did he say? Was it a cop?’

There’s a pause. ‘I told you what I know.’

‘Did he say my name?’

Mark shakes his head. ‘Not exactly,’ he says.

‘What do you mean, not exactly? Either he did or he didn’t.’

‘They pulled up by the wall, got out the car and said that they heard there was some kid selling skunk in Fayrewood and they wanted to buy some. Said he might go by the name of Layzee Eyez. No one said anything. I just shook my head, said I didn’t know nothing about any skunk or Layzee Eyez. But then one of them got his wallet out, pulled out a wodge of twenty-pound notes. And Suzie jumped down off the wall and went and talked to him.’

‘Fuck!’ I say. ‘Didn’t you stop her?’

‘I shouted at her,’ Mark says, ‘but I couldn’t do nothing else. They was big geezers, man. Gold chains and all that. I didn’t wanna get messed up in their business, you know what I’m saying?’

I close my eyes. This is bad. ‘What did Suzie tell them?’

‘Dunno,’ Mark says. ‘She went off and talked to them and she ain’t come back to the rec. I called you as soon as I could.’

I run my hand through my hair. I don’t say anything. I’m in shock, I think. I can’t quite take this in. Who would have known that I had the weed? ‘Where are they now?’ I say.

‘Who?’

‘Suzie. The men in the BMW.’

‘I don’t know where Suzie went,’ Mark says, ‘but the geezers in the BMW went off somewhere. Revved the engine and did a wheel spin and they was gone.’

I stare at the reeds in the pond. ‘Shit!’ I say.

‘Sorry, man.’

But I hardly hear him. I’m too busy thinking. About who could be looking for me. About whether Suzie gave them my name. About what they might have done to her. About whether they’ll be able to track me down. I hang up and put my phone in my pocket.

I get up from the bench, walk back over to where everyone’s still sitting smoking. Joe’s looking spaced out, waiting for the joint to come back round to him.