I didn’t care and I told her not only that, but that I didn’t fucking care. I didn’t know what I was saying. My tongue was thick and heavy and my mouth was filled with chips, and bits of potato spat out of me. I didn’t fully realize what was happening to me.

I had always prided myself on my impeccable treatment of women, I was never unkind. I was brought up to be like that. I didn’t know what snapped in me. It was caused by a combination of things. My irritation that we had met Jerome. My feelings of drunken, irritable and unfulfilled lust for Jenny, and the fact that a group of lads were standing nearby giving me the distinct impression that they were saying something derogatory about her. I put my fingers to my chin and I licked the garlic mayonnaise off them and there was a salty aftertaste in my mouth. I went over to the lads and I asked them straight up what they were at, slagging my girlfriend. One of the guys gave me a push and a smack in the face. I could taste more saline in my mouth and I recognized that the metallic saltiness of blood and the fake garlic of the mayonnaise were indistinguishable.

I became deeply confused with myself. Sure, I had started a bit of an argument with Jenny about Jerome and I wasn’t doing myself any favours by getting involved with the lads, but how in the name of God had it come to this?

I dropped my chips on the footpath and I got stuck in. I pushed in against the lad and I could feel his arms around my chest, and it was as if he was giving me an embrace. My head felt heavy and I had it bent in, lowered into his chest. I was glad then that I had learnt to box as a teenager. I wasn’t going to use my skills proper on the street, but showing that I knew my moves was enough of a deterrent, or so I thought. I stayed in that position for a second or two, my head in his chest as though we were lovers. He brusquely pulled my head away from him and I stood up. I faced him directly. I gave him a good nudge in the shoulder and I said to Jenny that we had to get out of there. I pulled her by the arm, she didn’t seem keen to come with me but I didn’t leave her with a choice.

I was dead chuffed with myself that I had stood up for Jenny. What if they really had being saying inappropriate things about her? I had sorted them out pretty quick.