Oliver shoved Wes off the cushions. Leon watched in mild horror as Oliver lunged, delivering three hard punches to the ribs and a kick in the thigh.

‘I’m on the Xbox,’ Oliver growled. ‘Get out before I give you real beats.’

Wes scrambled up and limped out the door past Leon. Oliver smiled until he saw that he was being watched.

‘You got a problem?’ Oliver asked.

Leon smiled like he was OK with what he’d seen. ‘What did he do to piss you off?’

‘Skinny weasel,’ Oliver explained, as he grabbed the controller off the floor. ‘I always give him beats. I don’t even wanna play. All the discs are scratched up so the games never work.’

‘I’ve got a PS4,’ Leon said. ‘Haven’t unpacked it yet, but it’ll only take half a minute to set it up.’

‘I had a PS4 and an Xbox One,’ Oliver said, putting a hand on his hip. ‘But I sold ’em. Needed the money for clothes and stuff.’

‘Really?’ Leon said, catching a whiff of bullshit stronger than the BO in Daniel’s room. ‘Got a bunch of games. You wanna play?’

‘Played most of ’em already, probably,’ Oliver said, shrugging. ‘But yeah, whatever. Got nothing else to do.’

Daniel was coming out of his room with some air freshener he’d blagged from the front office.

‘Gonna put the PS4 on,’ Leon told him.

‘That your brother?’ Oliver asked, as Daniel walked past. ‘Twins?’

‘Non-identical,’ Leon said. ‘I got the good looks.’

Daniel did a noisy false laugh. ‘Who are you kidding, bro? With your face like an ape’s backside.’

10. TALES

Leon set up the PS4. He played Call of Duty with Oli and Daniel before switching to FIFA16. An older teen called Wilfred joined in for a bit, and a girl called Rhea came in and started flirting with Leon. She looked about fifteen, with make-up trowelled on.

‘Smoking hot,’ Leon said, as his eyes followed her out of the room. ‘You think she was into me?’

Daniel was pissed off, because he reckoned he’d have got Rhea’s attention if he’d only chosen to sit by the door, rather than down on the floor in front of the PlayStation.

‘What room’s she in?’ Leon asked.

‘S-four,’ Oli said, then gasped as his shot on goal sailed over the bar. ‘Aww, come on, bitch!’

‘S?’ Leon asked.

Oli glanced at Leon like he was dumb. ‘S for psycho,’ he said.

‘What did she do?’

‘I heard Rhea and her brothers went around mugging people,’ Oli explained. ‘She’d lure some guy, then her brothers would mug them and beat the crap out of them. Brothers are in young offenders for cracking some guy’s skull.’

‘Really?’ Daniel asked, smiling. ‘Looks like you’ve hitched your wagon to another winner there, brother.’

Leon shrugged and smiled. ‘She’s got a great ass, so I can live with a few tiny imperfections.’