Читать книгу Kimberley Chambers 3-Book Collection: The Schemer, The Trap, Payback - Kimberley Chambers - Страница 22

Stephanie said goodbye to Tammy outside the school gates then, hand in hand, walked home with Barry. Some of the other kids would snigger or make snide remarks over their obvious affection for each other, but Steph and Barry were in their own little bubble and really didn’t care what people said.

‘So, why weren’t Jacko at school today? Do you think he’s still hung-over from yesterday?’ Steph asked her boyfriend.

‘Nah. He told me he weren’t coming in. He’s gone to visit his old man in prison. Wait there, while I use this phone box. I’m gonna ring one of me dad’s mates. I wanna find out if he’s been sentenced yet.’

Stephanie stared at Barry through the glass panels on the big red door. She couldn’t work out by the expression on his face whether the news he was being told was good or bad. ‘Well?’ she asked, as he finally opened the door.

‘Four years he got.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry, Bal,’ Stephanie said, putting her arms around her boyfriend to give him a comforting hug.

‘It ain’t as bad as it sounds. He’ll be out in two if he behaves himself. I used to really like living with him though, Steph. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I moved to Dagenham else I would never have met you, but I hate living with me muvver and sister. They both treat me like I’m their slave. Me sister used to be all right years ago but, since she’s been with her bloke, she’s got even worse.’

‘Surely the council should give your sister a place now she’s pregnant? My mum reckons a lot of these young girls get pregnant on purpose these days, just so they can jump the housing queue,’ Stephanie said.

‘They ain’t allowed to give her a place until she’s sixteen, I don’t think. Her birthday’s the beginning of December, so hopefully she’ll move out then. Oh shit, me muvver’s home already,’ Barry said as they turned the corner.

Stephanie immediately let go of Barry’s hand as she spotted Marlene. She was wearing a short mauve skintight Lycra dress and had a big straw hat on her head. Her sandals were white and they had the biggest stiletto heel on them that Steph had ever seen.

‘Barry!’ Marlene exclaimed, opening her arms and running towards her son.

‘I’d better get indoors,’ Steph said, bluntly. She didn’t want to face the wrath of her mother if she was caught talking to Marlene.

‘I’ll knock for you later,’ Barry said understandingly, as his mum stumbled towards him in her high heels and fell into his arms.

‘Gissa cuddle. I ain’t ’arf missed you, boy. Me and Jake had a wonderful time. We bought you back some bottled sangria and I got you two hundred fags. That girl you were walking along with ain’t your bit of fluff, is she? Can’t stand her fat fucker of a mother. She always looks down her nose at me,’ Marlene said as she clocked where Steph went.

Barry stared at his mother in utter disbelief. He could never remember her cuddling him before, not even when he was a small child – and her saying she had missed him, that was a first as well. As for her buying him presents, she never treated him to sod all and had even forgotten his birthday for the past two years running. Ignoring Marlene’s question about Stephanie, Barry stared her straight in the eyes. ‘I ain’t no div, Mum. Something’s going on, so best you tell me what. Are you getting married? Are you pregnant? Just spit it out, I’m a big boy now.’

Marlene burst out laughing. She hated children, didn’t even like the two she’d given birth to very much. ‘Don’t be so silly. I’d rather sew me fanny up than have any more kids. Got enough on me plate with you and your bleedin’ sister, ain’t I? Where is Chantelle, by the way?’

‘Out with Ajay somewhere. So, are you getting married or what?’

Marlene linked arms with her only son. ‘No, it’s much more exciting than that. Let’s go and open that sangria. We’ll discuss it indoors.’

Pam and Cathy were stuck to the living-room window like two tubes of superglue.

‘Will yous two come away from that window. I don’t want Barry to see you spying on him. It’s embarrassing,’ Stephanie said, annoyed.

Pam watched Marlene tottering up the path in her ridiculously high heels, then turned to face Steph. ‘I really don’t think it’s a good idea that Barry comes over here now his mum’s home, love. You can still see him and that, but don’t bring him indoors and don’t you dare go over there.’

Stephanie looked at her mother in total dismay. ‘But why not? Barry enjoys coming over here. What am I meant to say to him, Mum?’

Pam shrugged. Barry had done nothing wrong, but there was no way he was stepping foot over her threshold now his mother was back home. Say Marlene saw him and came and knocked on the door? Or, even worse, say she expected an invite herself?

‘Please don’t stop Barry from coming round, Mum,’ Stephanie begged.

‘I’m sorry, Steph, but I told you when the boy first came round here that he was only allowed to have dinner and pop in until his mother came back. I will not have my name darkened by being involved with that old slapper, so I’m sorry but the answer’s no. Now, that’s the end of the matter.’

Devastated by her mother’s callousness, Stephanie grabbed her school bag off the sofa and ran up the stairs, sobbing.

Barry pulled a face as he sipped the drink that his mother had given him. He had never drunk sangria before, and in his opinion it tasted vulgar – a bit like sweet vinegar.

‘Don’t you like it, boy? Wanna shot of JD with me instead?’ Jake the Snake asked.

Barry nodded his head. Both his mother and Jake the Snake kept smiling at him and he was becoming more perplexed by the second at their sickly niceness towards him. ‘So, what’s this big news, then?’

Marlene grinned. ‘Jake’s bought a bar in a really posh part of Spain. It’s beautiful, Bal, and it’s gonna be called Marlene’s.’

Barry was well chuffed. If his mother moved abroad and his sister moved out, he would have the whole house to himself. ‘That’s blinding news, Mum. So, when you going out there to live?’

‘Next week. I ain’t telling the authorities I’m living out there though, because I don’t wanna lose me social money or this house, so if anyone asks you, just say we’ve bought a holiday home and we’re flitting backwards and forwards. I can’t wait for you to see it, Barry. It’s top notch and we’re gonna sell all posh food in there as well. Jake’s hired a proper chef, ain’t you, babe?’ Marlene gushed, squeezing her sugar daddy’s hand.

‘Sounds ace. I’ll have to come out there for a holiday one day,’ Barry replied, chirpily.

Marlene burst out laughing. ‘You dopey sod! You’ll be moving out there with us. You’re gonna love it, Bal, and you wanna see the girls out there. You’ll have a field day, son.’

Barry looked at his mother in stupefied shock. ‘I don’t wanna move to Spain. I wanna stay ’ere. I don’t mind having holidays out there, but I like it in England.’

‘Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud. You’ll love it in Spain. What boy your age wouldn’t wanna be surrounded by the sun, sea and pretty girls. And you’ll be loaded. Jake’s gonna pay you well, ain’t you, Jake?’

‘How’s a hundred sovs a week sound?’ Jake asked, grinning.

‘I couldn’t give a shit if you were paying me a thousand sovs a week, I still wouldn’t wanna go to Spain. I like living in Dagenham. I like my job on the market and I ain’t leaving me girlfriend. I love her too much.’

‘Love! You’re fourteen years old, boy. You don’t know what bleedin’ love is at your age. Anyway, you’ll easily find another bird out in Spain. Tell him how pretty the girls are out there, Jake.’

When Jake began to speak, Barry was so infuriated, he stood up. ‘I ain’t fucking going and you can’t make me go if I don’t wanna,’ he screamed.

Marlene leapt off the sofa and grabbed her son by the shoulders. ‘Oh yes I can! I’m your mother, and now your father ain’t gonna be around to look after you, you have no choice but to live wherever I wanna live.’

‘But what about school? Can’t I finish me schooling and then come out there if you still want me to? I can look after meself, you know that. And what about Chantelle? She’ll be about to keep an eye on me, won’t she?’

‘Don’t give me all that old bollocks about school. You might be clued up and streetwise, but you’re hardly academically bright, are you? You’ve always said you couldn’t wait to leave bloody school and work full time. Well, now’s your fucking chance to make something of your life. Just think of how well off you’re gonna be, earning a ton a week at your age.’

Barry sat back down in the armchair and put his head in his hands. If he hadn’t already met Steph, he would have jumped at the chance of moving to Spain and earning a hundred quid a week, but he couldn’t bear to be parted from her. ‘I ain’t going, Mum. I’m sorry, but I just can’t leave me bird.’

‘You can and you will, boy. Jake needs you to help him run this bar, we both do, so like it or not, that’s what you’ll be doing,’ Marlene snapped back.

‘Can’t you just employ someone else to do it?’

Marlene’s earlier façade of being nice had now all but disappeared and she was becoming more irate by the second at her ungrateful son’s attitude. ‘No, we fucking well can’t! Now you listen to me, Barry. I don’t want you with me in Spain any more than you wanna be there, but we need your help. There’s a lot of heavy lifting and stuff to be done, and we need someone who can keep an eye on the place who we can trust. Jake ain’t as young and fit as you are, so you can do all the donkey work, while me and him run the actual gaff. There is no way we are employing any of them Spaniards, ’cause we can’t stand the greasy bastards, and if we employ a decent English bloke, he’s gonna cost us big bucks. So, like it or lump it, boy, you’re moving to Spain. Now, do yourself a favour and get that smacked-arse face of yours out of my sight before I give you what for, you selfish little fucker.’

Absolutely furious, Barry grabbed his door key and ran out of the house.

Stephanie was lying on her bed crying when Angela came into the room.

‘What’s up? Has Barry dumped you or something?’ Angela asked, hopefully.

‘No, it’s Mum,’ Steph replied, wiping her eyes with the cuff of her sleeve.

‘What’s she done?’

‘She won’t let Barry in the house no more because his mum’s back. It’s just so unfair when he ain’t done nothing wrong.’

‘Aah, that ain’t right, sis. Shall I have a word with her for you? See if I can get her to change her mind.’

Surprised by her sister’s unusual kindness, Stephanie nodded and hugged her. ‘I’m really glad we’re friends again. We musn’t argue no more in future. How did you get on yesterday when you bought Jason round? Did Mum like him?’

‘Yeah. Mum thought he was cool. His parents go to church and stuff and when Jase told her that she even let us sit up here in the bedroom.’

‘Did she?’ Stephanie asked, surprised. Her mother had forbidden her to sit upstairs with Barry. She had said it was unethical.

‘You stay here and I’ll go and have a chat with Mum now for you,’ Angela said, kindly.

Pam was in the kitchen peeling potatoes when Angela bounded down the stairs. ‘Don’t start driving me mad saying you’re hungry because dinner’s gonna be a good hour or so yet,’ Pam warned her daughter.

‘I wasn’t going to. Mum, you know that now Barry ain’t allowed in here no more, I can still bring Jase round, can’t I?’

‘Yes, providing you both behave yourself, you can.’

Grinning, Angela ran back up the stairs.

‘Well, what did she say?’ Steph asked her sister expectantly.

Angela sat down on her sister’s bed and squeezed her hand. ‘I asked her to change her mind, Steph, but I’m sorry, she still said no.’

Barry Franklin’s mind was all over the place as Wayne Jackman handed him another can of lager. ‘They can’t make you go if you don’t wanna go, Bazza. Ain’t you got an aunt and uncle you can live with or something? I would ask me nan and grandad if you could stop with us, but I know me nan will say we ain’t got enough room. She’s always moaning saying we need a bigger gaff as it is.’

‘My dad’s brother lives in Canvey Island, but he’s got four kids of his own. Anyway, you don’t know my mother as well as I do, Jacko. If she says I’m going to Spain, then I’m fucking going.’

‘You can always run away,’ Wayne suggested.

Barry rubbed his tired eyes. He could probably leave school and do some extra shifts with Steve, but he only got paid fifteen pound a day to keep look-out and that was hardly going to put a roof over his head and pay all the bills. ‘I can’t live on shirt buttons, Jacko. I think the only way out for me is to go to Spain, save the oner a week, then come back to Dagenham and get a place of me own.’

‘How long will you be away for? And what about Steph?’

‘There’s no point me coming back before I’m sixteen, mate. My muvver is a cunt, and if I scarper before that she will only come back to England and find me. If I toe the line and work hard, perhaps she will let me come back for holidays and stuff. I mean, a ton a week ain’t bad dosh, is it? I’ll be cakeo by the time I’m sixteen, if I’m careful with me earnings. Steph is bound to be pissed off, but I know she loves me and I’m sure she’ll wait for me. I’m fifteen next June, so she’s only gotta wait just over a year and a half and I’ll be back for good.’

‘A ton a week is proper money, mate, and if someone offered me that, I’d bite their hand off. Course Steph will wait for you and, while you’re gone, I’ll keep an eye on her and make sure she’s OK.’

Barry gave Wayne a manly hug. ‘Cheers, Jacko, you’re a diamond.’

Refusing to sit in the same room as her mother, Stephanie Crouch ate her plate of shepherd’s pie leaning over the kitchen top.

‘Why don’t you come and sit in ’ere with us? You can’t eat properly standing up,’ Pam shouted out.

About to throw a sarcastic reply her mother’s way, Stephanie was stopped from doing so by the shrill ring of the doorbell. Wondering if it might be Barry, she ran to answer it.

‘What’s a matter?’ she asked, as she clocked her boyfriend’s sad-eyed expression.

‘I need to speak to you, Steph. Not ’ere though. Can you come out for a bit? We’ll go for a walk somewhere quiet, where we can talk in private.’

Stephanie was immediately alarmed. Surely Barry wasn’t going to dump her? ‘Wait there while I get me key,’ she said. She didn’t want to have to tell him that her mother had barred him from setting foot across the threshold. He looked upset enough as it was.

‘You’d better have eaten that dinner, young lady, and you make sure you’re back ’ere by nine at the latest. You ain’t taking liberties like you did last week, coming in at half past on a bleedin’ school night.’

Ignoring her mother’s whingeing voice, Steph grabbed her door key and slammed the front door. She waited until she and Barry were a few minutes away from the house, then nervously asked the all-important question. ‘So, what do you wanna talk about?’

Saying nothing, Barry led Steph towards the park and was relieved to find it was relatively empty. ‘Do you wanna fag?’ he asked, as he gesticulated to her to sit down next to him on a bench.

Annoyed that Barry was keeping her in limbo, Stephanie snatched the fag out of his hand and glared at him. ‘Am I about to be dumped?’ she asked, bluntly.

With emotion seeping into his voice, Barry explained everything.

‘But you can’t go, Bal. What am I meant to do without you?’ Stephanie said, shocked to the core.

Barry held his distraught girlfriend tightly in his arms. This was even more heartbreaking than he thought it would be – he felt like blubbing himself. ‘It won’t be forever, babe. I promise you I will save every bit of dosh I earn and the day I turn sixteen I will fly straight back home. I can get a job then, on the market or something, and I’ll be able to afford me own place. If you like, you can even move in with me. You’ll be sixteen then an’ all, won’t ya?’

‘But that’s ages away. Please don’t go, Barry. Can’t you live back in Bethnal Green or with your sister and her bloke? I’m frightened if you go you’ll meet someone else and I’ll never see you again,’ Steph sobbed.

‘The only other option I’ve got is to run away, Steph, but apart from dossing on a mate’s sofa round ’ere or in Bethnal Green, I ain’t gonna be able to afford or get a proper place to live. My muvver can be a right bitch and I know she’ll tell social services I’ve done a runner. Then, I’ll get put in one of them fucking kids’ homes with all the waifs and strays of the world. Trust me, babe, if there was any other way out of this, I’d have thought of it by now. There ain’t, so I might as well save up the oner a week that Jake’s gonna pay me for our future together. Eighteen months ain’t the end of the world and I’ll be back before you know it. Look on the bright side, at least you can concentrate on your exams while I’m gone, eh?’ Barry said, kissing Steph lovingly on the forehead.

‘So, when will you be going?’

‘Next week, I think. I’ll write to you every single day and I can ring you at weekends and stuff. If I work hard, me mum might even let me come home to visit you as well. I’m sure Jacko can sort it so I can stay at his for a week or whatever at a time.’

Stephanie felt as though her heart had just been sliced in two. Barry was her first true love and now, after an extremely short but happy romance, he was about to be cruelly snatched away from her.

Barry tilted Steph’s chin towards him so he could look her in the eyes. ‘I need to ask you something and you must be truthful with me.’

Biting her lip to stop it wobbling like a distressed child’s, Stephanie nodded.

‘Swear on your life that you’ll wait for me, Steph.’

‘Cross my heart and hope to die, but you must swear to me that you’ll never go out with any other girls,’ Steph croaked.

Barry wasn’t the tearful type. His mother had brought him up to be tough; even from a very early age, he had forced himself not to cry because of the good hiding he received in return on the odd occasions he had. For once, though, Barry could not suppress his emotions. Staring at Steph, he wiped his tears away with the cuff of his jacket. ‘I swear to you, Steph, that I will wait for you. I love you, girl, and I always will.’