You Against Me

Twenty-three

Tom Parker stood at the top of the stairs in his ridiculous checked trousers and white polo shirt and folded his arms like a bouncer. ‘What’s going on?’

Ellie took a step back. ‘What are you doing here?’

He didn’t answer, looked Mikey up and down. ‘You’re the bloke from the party. You’re the one who nicked the whisky.’

Mikey laughed, couldn’t help it. Ellie had set him up brilliantly. Here was the brother, obviously part of the plan. The parents would turn up in a minute with handcuffs and ropes, closely followed by the cops.

‘You think it’s funny?’ Tom unfolded his arms and took a step towards Mikey. ‘You taking the piss?’

‘Take it easy, man.’

‘Or what?’

‘I’m just saying, take it easy.’

Tom took another step forward. ‘You’ve been smoking dope in my house. I could smell it when I came in.’

‘Back off,’ Ellie told him. ‘It’s nothing to do with you.’

He waved a hand at her, standing there in her bra and skirt, turned back to Mikey. ‘Have you touched my sister?’

Mikey lunged forward and jabbed his fingers hard in Tom’s chest. ‘You want to stop accusing me of stuff?’

Tom slapped him away. ‘Don’t touch me.’

‘Why? What’re you going to do?’ Mikey shoved him with the flat of his palm.

‘I said don’t touch me!’

Mikey could feel the bastard’s heart slamming under his hand. Having him this close – the stink of his sweat, his hot breath in Mikey’s face – it all came crashing back. Ellie might have a plan, but so did he – destroy the bastard who hurt Karyn. It’s what he’d been chasing for weeks and it was finally here. He grabbed Tom Parker by his collar and rammed him into the wall behind.

‘No!’ Ellie said. ‘Leave him alone.’

Mikey pulled back his fist and smashed it into the soft skin of Tom’s mouth. His hand came away wet and blood dripped onto Tom’s white shirt.

Mikey laughed at the pale white face. ‘I’m going to kill you,’ he said. It sounded true. The adrenalin was fantastic. He punched him again, on his nose this time. Tom moaned, a soft sound, clutching his hands to his face. Blood leaked between his fingers.

‘That was from my sister,’ Mikey said. ‘That was from Karyn.’

Tom smeared blood from his nose with the back of his hand. ‘You’re Karyn’s brother?’

‘Like you didn’t know!’

Ellie pulled at Mikey’s jacket, but he shrugged her away. She’d set him up and it wasn’t working out – tough. He was invincible and Tom Parker was easier than he’d ever dreamed.

Mikey gave him another shove. ‘You wasted yet?’

Tom shook his head, steadying himself with a hand on the wall.

‘You are. You’re wasted. Come on, aren’t you supposed to win this? Wasn’t that the idea?’

Mikey was stirring up anger. He knew it and couldn’t stop. He felt a terrible thrill in his chest as Tom looked up, blood bubbling from his mouth.

‘Your sister’s a slut,’ Tom said.

Mikey pulled back his arm to whack him again, but Tom went for the gap, brought up his knee and smashed it into Mikey’s gut. He doubled over, gasping, his breath expelled in one shocking groan.

Tom yanked him up by his hair and belted a fist in his face – loud as a hammer, the bones of his knuckles burning into Mikey’s eye.

‘Outside,’ Tom spat. Like it was school, like any of this could be controlled. His voice spinning as he shoved Mikey down the stairs.

‘What are you doing?’ Ellie yelled. ‘Tom, don’t!’

Mikey half fell, half stumbled, his elbows and knees bouncing against the banister and the wall. In the hallway he went crashing down and suddenly Tom was on him, dragging him up by his jacket and propelling him through the front door.

The air changed everything. It had stopped raining and was hot and surprising outside. Mikey couldn’t see out of his eye and he was still winded, but he wasn’t leaving like this, being driven towards the gate, panting for oxygen. He twisted round, grabbed Tom Parker by his collar and forced him backwards. He felt like a magician, seeing victory turn to panic on his face.

‘You’re dead,’ Mikey told him. ‘You’re so dead.’

Mikey threw a straight punch. He aimed for the nose, keeping his shoulder to his jaw. He remembered it from all the playground fights he’d ever had. It came back like some old instinct. The sound of his fist hitting skin was amazing.

And then they were locked together. Tom scrabbled at him, tried to reach his back to pummel him, but Mikey shoved his hands under Tom’s armpits and clenched them behind his neck, so he couldn’t bring his arms down. There was a stink of fear and adrenalin.

This guy hurt Karyn, he kept thinking. This guy needs killing.

It was like dancing – they were both pushing, grunting, trying to kick each other’s feet away. Ellie hopped around them like a ref. She’d got a coat on now and was holding it around her and yelling at them to stop.

But Mikey wasn’t giving up. He was going to ram into this guy, unlock his arms, shove him backwards, then break his nose for good.

But before he could do any of that, Tom slammed his leg up and kneed Mikey in the balls. The pain was unreal, hot agony searing up from his groin to his gut as his legs buckled.

Tom stood towering over him as Mikey lay holding his balls on the grass. He curled into himself, was vaguely aware of Tom moving away, of Ellie running after him. He opened one eye. They were at the front door. Ellie was shouting at her brother as he scrabbled around in a green recycling box on the doorstep.

‘Don’t,’ she yelled.

But Tom shoved her off, and waved a wine bottle at Mikey.

‘Look what I got.’ He slapped it into his palm, flicked it backwards and forwards between his hands. ‘You scared now?’

Ellie screamed. ‘No, Tom, no!’

But he did it anyway. Bits of glass flew everywhere as he smashed the bottom off against the side of the house.

Mikey tried to struggle up as Tom strolled towards him. A broken bottle was like a knife. It was a whole different league. He wiped his eye with the back of his hand. ‘Put it down.’

‘Yeah, in your face.’

Tom was giving him psychotic eye contact as he got nearer, like he’d be in Mikey’s life for ever, would follow him wherever he went. Mikey kicked himself along the ground to get away, scrabbling upright, holding his bollocks, barely able to move, let alone run.

Tom was laughing, sauntering after him. ‘What’s the matter? Not so brave now, eh?’

Mikey made it as far as the gate, but he was an idiot, because it was shut and now all his strength was gone. Outside, Jacko’s car looked beautiful. In his pocket were the keys. Too late. He pressed himself against the gate, curled his arms round his head and waited for the pain.

But instead of the bottle, water slammed into him. It was freezing. The sudden cold spray of it drenched him immediately. Tom was next to him, both of them soaked, the bottle on the ground and Tom’s nose bleeding hard as he tried to slap the water away.

Ellie was standing on the lawn with a garden hose. Sun glittered on the water, making crazy rainbows in the air.

‘Turn it off,’ Tom spluttered. ‘What are you doing? Look at my nose!’

But Ellie trained the hose right in his face, forcing him away from the gate until he stood in the middle of the grass shaking his head, blood running from his mouth and nose in strings.

‘Get in the house,’ she said. ‘It’s finished.’

Mikey had a sudden longing to sit down, to lie down in fact. He was exhausted. It was like a car had crashed and flung them all over the fence and into the garden – glass and blood and water everywhere. But he couldn’t lie down because Ellie was by him now, pressing some secret button that slid the whole gate open.

‘Go home,’ she said. ‘Leave us alone.’

He pulled himself together enough to step through the gate. In the lane he turned to her. ‘You won,’ he said. ‘Congratulations.’

She looked at him with dark eyes as the gate shut. He had an idea she was trying to tell him something, squeezing her voice out in a whisper, but his ears were ringing and his eye was swollen shut.

And anyway, why would he be interested in anything she had to say?