SOMEONE DIFFERENT (23 page)

Jay and I both stared at her. ‘Why?’ I asked, shakily.

‘Because the police are here. I phoned them straightaway, as soon as I saw him attacking Rory; I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up in prison for this.’

Her words soaked in steadily until they triggered the memory – the memory of what Jay
had said would happen if he committed any more offences.

He closed his eyes and I ran to him. ‘Oh
, I’m so sorry.’ My arms clung to his body and I buried my damp face in his hoodie. ‘I’m so, so sorry.’

He reached up and touched the back of my neck, then his lips brushed the top of my head. ‘Don’t cry; it’ll be OK. There’s no way I could’ve stood there a
nd let him scare ya; just tell ’em what happened, yeah?’

Dad took my elbow and pulled me away. I looked up to see that two police officers had arrived, and they were standing behind Jay.

Before they could even get a word in though, Rory swung into action. ‘Me scare her?’ He spluttered like he’d sucked in a mouthful of vinegar. ‘I was simply speaking to her, it was you who scared her, when you became jealous and assaulted me without provocation.’

‘You lying bastard.’ Jay pushed forward.

Immediately, I stepped in front of him and made his eyes focus on mine. ‘Don’t, please. It’ll make it worse.’

‘But he wants his fuckin’ head kickin’ in; tellin’ lies like that.’ He caught his breath. ‘What the
–?’

Both officers had closed in on him and grabbed hold of his arms. ‘OK, sunshine,’ one of them said. ‘Let’s just keep it calm, shall we?’

‘
Calm?
Would you be fuckin’ calm if he were chattin’ a load of shit about you?’ Jay twisted hard, fighting to free himself from their grip. But within a couple of seconds they had his arms pinned behind his back, and he winced as the handcuffs tightened on his wrists.

I turned round to Dad. ‘Please, don’t let them do this. It’s wrong. It’s not his fault.’ I stared up at him through the tears. But he didn’t even look at me.

Jay stood still then, his head lowered. The police officer kept hold of his arm, but spoke to Rory. ‘So, would you like to tell me exactly how you came to get that bloody nose?’

‘He punched me. Out of the blue ... for no reason. And not just in my face either
, in my stomach as well.’

‘And did you punch him, or engage in any other physical aggression?’

‘Absolutely not.’

‘Only because you’re a fuckin’ pussy and you missed.’ Jay raised his head to stare at Rory.

Amongst all the tutting and gasps, I pleaded with them again. ‘He only did it to help me – it was Rory, he wouldn’t let me pass.’

‘OK, OK.’ The officer who wasn’t holding Jay took out a notebook and looked at him. ‘Give us your name and date of birth.’

Jay told him, and the officer wrote it down then went out on to the yard. After a long minute or so of awkwardness, where Dad still couldn’t bring himself to look at me, and Gillian had to find yet another handkerchief because David had a coughing fit, the police guy came back. ‘He’s on a two year YRO. Six month tag and curfew,’ he said. ‘We’ll have to take him in.’

The one who held Jay sighed. ‘OK, mate. You are under arrest on suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm ...’

He went through the speech as Jay and I gazed at each other. Before he’d even reached the end though, I found myself falling into Jay and hugging him.

He kissed me briefly then they pulled him away towards the door. ‘I’ll phone ya,’ he said. ‘As soon as I can.’

My hands clasped together. It was all so wrong. It never should have got to that. Where would they take him, what would happen to him?

My thoughts spiralled so rapidly, I didn’t even notice Rory striding forward.

‘Oh, and officer,’ he said.

They stopped and looked back.

‘What about him having sex with her – with a fifteen year old, I mean? Isn’t that unlawful as well?’

Jay blinked, his face white.

‘Well,’ the guy said. ‘We can discuss that with the young lady and her parents later, when we come back to take statements.’ He tugged on Jay’s arm, and they set off again.

I ran to the door. Slowly, Jay walked away with his head down. My heart stung and my arms ached to hold him. I gripped on to the doorframe to keep myself steady, and watched as they led him across the yard, and out of sight.

33 – Jay

The blue plastic mattress thing squeaked as I shuffled back and looked at the hole in my sock. If I’d have known me and my trainers were going to end up on opposite sides of a cell door again, I’d have put a different pair
on. But I didn’t, did I? Cos everything had been going alright ’til then.

Bastard. If I ever saw him treat Anna like that again, I’d break more than his stuck-up nose.

I thumped my fist into the mattress. Just because he couldn’t fight his way out of a crisp packet, and Anna’s mother’d had a proper bitch-fit and called the cops – that wasn’t my fault, was it? There was no need; no need for me to be stuck there at all.

I slumped against the wall. Well, OK ... I know; I did hit him ... twice. And he did look a bit of a mess. But he’d asked for it, hadn’t he? And it wasn’t even that bad; they didn’t have to get the cops involved.

What were they playing at anyway, the cops? I’d been at that station for about six hours, how long were they planning to keep me for? They hadn’t charged me with anything, not even interviewed me yet, but they’d asked if I wanted a solicitor – so something must be happening.

I stood up and walked about a bit. Was Anna OK? Were her mum and dad still being idiots? Would that tosser actually go through with it and get me done? God, I hated it, not knowing what was happening. And if I got sent down for ages, it’d be like that all the time.

I flopped down again.

I’d tried to call her straightaway, Anna, when I’d first got there. It was the only phone call I got, but she hadn’t answered; which I wasn’t totally surprised about.

I hoped she was alright.

Finally, the door opened and a youngish cop stood there. ‘Your solicitor’s here. She wants to see you before we do the interview.’

I followed him along a corridor and into this little square room. A woman with short blonde hair was already sitting on a grey plastic chair, and she smiled and pointed at the chair next to her for me to sit on.

The cop left us as the woman took a pen out of her briefcase. ‘My name’s Fiona Pemberton,’ she said. ‘Duty solicitor.’

‘Right.’

‘And you are ...’ she looked back through a notebook. ‘ ... Jayden Harris?’

I nodded.

‘OK. Do you understand you’ve been brought here for questioning, because you’re under suspicion of assaulting and causing actual bodily harm to another young person by the name of Rory Kilton-Hunt.’

‘Is that his name?’

‘Yes.’

I smirked. ‘You’d be alright getting the sounds the wrong way round after a few cans of Stella, wouldn’t ya?’

‘The intricacies of his name aren’t really the issue here,’ she said, pushing her hair back off her face, but her lips did turn up a bit at the edges. ‘So, are you clear about why you’ve been arrested?’

‘Yeah – but it weren’t an assault, it were a fight. He just lost, that’s all.’

‘Did he hit you first?’

I thought about it. Me lying was one thing – my dad had taught me well; I’d been doing it since I could talk. But Anna? Would she? Should I even expect her to?

I looked at my knees. ‘No. He didn’t hit me at all. He tried a couple of times, but he missed.’

‘OK. Why did you hit him?’

‘He had Anna in a corner, he wouldn’t let her out.’

‘Anna ...’ she checked the notepad again. ‘... Richardson? Is she your girlfriend?’

‘Yeah. An’ he were scarin’ her.’

‘Did he have any physical contact with her – was he holding her in anyway?’

‘Well, no; not really. But he wouldn’t let her leave when she wanted to, an’ he were makin’ her cry.’ I gripped the chair with both hands. ‘An’ it’s not right
, is it? Makin’ her feel like that? Fuckin’ bully. Just cos he’s bigger than her an’ stronger. He got what he deserved.’

‘Alright, alright.’ She closed the notebook and looked at me. ‘I can see how you might have felt you were protecting her. But he’s received a broken nose as a result of what happened, and am I right in thinking you’re already on a Youth Rehabilitation Order for a previous violent offence?’

I looked down again and nodded.

‘Then that’s not going to help matters, Jayden.’

‘Will they let me out on bail?’

‘I don’t know; that’s up to the custody sergeant.’ She fastened up the top two buttons on her jacket and shuffled forward on the chair. ‘Now, for the time being at least, when they interview you I’d like you to answer ‘no comment’ to each question, do you understand that? Nothing else, just ‘no comment’?

‘Yeah, I get it.’

‘Right, before I go ahead and let them start the interview, do you have any other questions, or anything else you’d like to add?’

I stared at a brown stain on the grey tiled floor. I tried to get the words out, but they stayed deep down.

She leaned forward until she looked right into my face. ‘Go on, what is it?’

It took another couple of seconds, then I made the words come out. ‘That kid, that Rory kid – he said to the cops, right ... about me an’ Anna, about it bein’ illegal ... ya know ... that we’ve had sex?’ I paused. ‘Will anythin’ happen about it?’

She leaned back again. ‘You’re sixteen?’

I nodded.

‘And she’s ...?’

‘Fifteen.’

‘OK.’ She spoke proper softly. ‘Strictly speaking, it is unlawful for the two of you to have engaged in sexual intercourse, because she’s under the age of consent. If someone makes a complaint about it – her or her parents for example – then the police’ll have to consider whether to pursue it. But, as your ages are so close together, it’s really unlikely any action would be taken. Unless, of course, there are any questions around her being coerced or forced into having sex against her will.’

‘No way!’ My head shot up. ‘There’s no way I’d ever force her into anythin’.’

She smiled. ‘I’m not saying you did. I’m just explaining the situation. And I should stress, although it’s very unlikely any action would be taken if it was consensual, it’s not completely unheard of; ultimately, a sixteen year old who has sex with a fifteen year old is committing an offence.’

I looked at the red marks on my wrist where the handcuffs had dug in. There wasn’t much of an ‘if’ about it really, was there? I’d put my last quid on Anna’s mum and dad grassing me up.

The solicitor stood up. ‘Shall I tell them we’re ready now?’

‘Yeah, I suppose so.’

The cops came in and set the tape recorder running. They asked all the questions the solicitor had, then some more as well, and I said ‘no comment’ about fifty times in half an hour. Thank God they only asked about the fight though, not the sex thing, and I started to wonder if maybe I’d got it wrong about her mum and dad.

At the end, I asked about bail again. One of the cops went out, came back in, and looked at me. ‘Because of your previous offences, and the conditions of your YRO, the decision about bail is going to be made by a judge. You’ll be detained here overnight, then transported to court in the morning.’

My head slumped to one side. ‘What time?’

‘It’s difficult to say.’ He scratched his nose. ‘Why, you got something more important to be doing? Having a lay-in? Playing on your Xbox ...?’

‘It’s my mate’s funeral.’

‘Oh. Right ... well, if they do allow you out on bail, you might still make it.’

‘And if they don’t?’

‘Then you’ll be remanded to custody.’

Shit. I looked at the solicitor, hoping she’d say something, something about that probably not happening. But she didn’t.

They took me back to the cell then. I got a tuna sandwich and a packet of crisps for my tea, which was something, I suppose, but after that they left me on my own again. It was a bit like before – wondering what was going to happen and where I’d be sent – except that now it was a million times worse, because this time I hadn’t got Billy in the cell next to me, and I had got Anna to worry about.