72

72
After using her not-very-sharp memory to find her way to Riley's street, Jenna found herself at a loss. She looked up and down at the pebble dashed houses and arid lawns, but they all looked the same.

'Why didn't I take a mental note of the number?' she asked herself. It was either 776 or 667 or something similar. 'It definitely had a 7 and a 6 or maybe a 9...'

'...well it definitely had numbers in it,' she mentally teased herself, rolling her eyes.

After wandering about for ten minutes she walked past a woman who looked vaguely familiar. It took a few moments for the memory to click since the woman was neither shouting nor waving a rolling pin this time around.

"Oh, erm," Jenna flagged the woman. "Do you know which number Riley lives at?"

"Yeah, it's 699," the woman told her. "Two doors down from Jimmy Carlson."

"Right." Jenna nodded as though she knew exactly who Jimmy Carlson was. "Thanks."

When she arrived at his house the front door was open. She raised a fist slowly and tapped at it, not that anyone would hear her knocking over the music blaring from the kitchen.

Shuffling her feet over the doorframe, she wondered if it was better to leave.

'Why am I even here in the first place?' she questioned.

Jenna was about to go when she looked up and saw Riley watching her from between the bannisters, head cocked in confusion.

"What are you doing here?" he mouthed, one eyebrow raised.

She filled her lungs, preparing to shout a reply over the bass-heavy beat, but decided it would be better to walk up the stairs and have a proper conversation.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," she said on reaching him. He was sitting just outside his room, painting over the holes his friend Mike had plastered.

Smiling faintly, Jenna wiped a blob of paint from his cheek.

"Heh." He shook his head. "I suck at painting. You could ask your boyfriend to give me a hand."

"Kai?" Jenna laughed. "He's not my boyfriend anymore. Plus... he's not a much better painter."

Riley wiped off the excess paint from the brush and placed it on top of the tin. "So... cup of tea?"

"Yes, please, thank you." Jenna smiled.

She followed him to the kitchen, back towards the sounds of drum and bass, and was grateful when he pulled the music player out of the wall.

Both his mother and the lad sitting opposite her turned to glare.

"Hey," the lad complained. 'We was listenin' to that."

"And now you ain't." Riley shrugged.

"It's my house, Riles," his mother interjected. "I'm allowed to listen to my music."

"It's the council's house," Riley huffed. As the kettle boiled, he turned to Jenna and whispered, "I fucking hate living here."

Flashing her most sympathetic smile, she wondered what her aunt would say if she brought him home. There was little chance of her aunty letting him stay there.

After he'd passed her the tea and the pair were out of earshot, she asked why he didn't move out.

"I could if that stupid bitch would write a letter to the council saying she'd thrown me out. But she won't because she has to sponge off me. Like she can afford to shove that much cocaine up her nose without me paying board to live in this shit hole." Riley looked like he was about to punch the wall again but managed to control himself. "I was going to move in with Aisha and the baby."

"I'm sorry." Jenna looked down. "What Felix did was shitty. I wanted to tell you as soon as we found out, but they wouldn't let me."

"You knew and you didn't tell me?!"

Jenna recoiled. "I, uh, I—I'm sorry."

His fists balled up at his sides and for a moment, Jenna thought he was going to punch her.

Then the loud music turned back up.

Riley flung himself down the stairs with the dark energy of a storm cloud. Jenna followed reluctantly but decided to hang back in the hallway as he burst into the kitchen and started smashing the place up with his bare fists.

When the lad tried to stop him, Riley punched him to the floor and kicked him a few times before continuing his rampage. He picked up the kettle by the handle and used it to smash the already broken music player to pieces, wielding it like a hammer.

"Stop it, stop it, Riley!" his mum cried, clinging to the back of his shirt with her small fist. "Please, please, please!"

But he wasn't listening and probably couldn't hear her over his incoherent shouting.

When a couple of neighbours burst in, one of them muttered something along the lines of, "here we go again." Four men grabbed him, taking an arm and a leg each, and struggled to the back door as he kicked and screamed.

Jenna followed, mouth hanging open as she tried to process the situation kicking off around her. He had gone from ordinary to tearing the place apart like a rabid, wild dog, almost as if someone had flipped a switch on his back.

"He does this all the time." His mum shrugged. "It ain't normal but he won't get help."

Jenna nodded and looked over at Riley. One of the older men was placating him, telling him to go off and come back when he'd calmed down. For whatever reason, this guy—possibly a friend or older relative—appeared to be getting through to Riley. He nodded, fixed his hair and sloped off down the street, leaving Jenna to run after him.

He didn't speak or even look at her as she trailed behind him, just puffed away on a cigarette and scrolled through his phone.

Eventually, he stopped walking and turned back to her. "I'm going to stop at Jack's house. You coming?"

"Erm." Jenna swallowed. "I—if he doesn't mind."

Riley scoffed. "Why would he mind?"

He rolled his eyes and turned his back to her, continuing with the silent walk.

"I—I really am sorry. Please don't hate me," she said.

"I don't hate you." Riley tutted. "If I hated you, you wouldn't be with me right now. I hate Felix."

"I'm with you on that one," Jenna agreed. Felix had orchestrated this whole debacle. He was the reason Angel was dead and Kai almost ended up in prison.

'Thank God Damien decided to help us in the end,' she thought, although she found it a little scary that her brother was a match for such a monster.

"Have you seen Felix since... you know?"

"Like he's going to dare show his face." Riley shook his head and flicked his second cigarette of the walk into a drain. "I heard he left the country."

Jenna couldn't help but feel relieved. As much as that evil prick deserved whatever Riley and the others did to him, she didn't want either Kai or Riley to end up in trouble for getting revenge.

"We were going to move to Devon," Riley said out of the blue. "Me and Aisha. She's got an aunt who runs a pub by the seafront. It's beautiful down there. Just hills and fields and those nice old buildings."

As Riley spoke, he stared out into the distance as if imagining the scenery in his mind's eye.

"It sounds lovely," Jenna said.

"A million times better than this shitty estate." Riley let out a wry laugh.

By the time they reached Jack's house the sun had started to set. When Riley walked into the house without knocking, Jenna followed, feeling awkward. An older man sat in front of the television, loading tobacco into a pipe.

He looked up at Riley and nodded. "They're in the shed, Lad,"

"Alright." He nodded back and walked through the house and garden to get to the shed. It was huge, and instead of tools, this shed was filled with chairs and a heater. The lads sat in a circle, passing a joint around. One other girl sat with them, balancing on the knee of a tall Asian lad.

They stood when Riley entered, greeting him with handshakes and hugs before shifting about to make room for him on one of the good seats. When Jack moaned about losing his seat, Riley punched him playfully a few times before sitting and taking the joint.

To say Jenna felt out of place was the understatement of the century. She literally wanted to slither out of her own skin to escape.

'Why did I come here?' she wondered, hovering in the corner of the drug den like a spare part.

Riley caught her eye and must have sensed her unease because he decided to take pity on her.

"Come here," he said with a grin. When she walked over to him, he grabbed her hand and pulled her forward, into his lap. "Best seat in the house."

"Naa, that's your face," Jack teased.

As Riley smoked and chatted to his mates, he kept one arm resting loosely around her waist. Though he largely ignored her, every so often he would squeeze or gently stroke her with his free hand.

By the time the others left, Jenna felt an odd mixture of giddy and relaxed.

"You guys can take my bed," Jack offered. "I'll get the pull-out."

"Cheers, Jack." Riley patted him on the shoulder. "Go get us a cup of tea, yeah?"

He started to pull off his clothes as soon as they got into Jack's room. Standing there in nothing but Boxer shorts, he turned to Jenna and put his hands on her hips.

"Your turn."