Céline has finally crossed the road and looks at her sister from above, a hand on her hip to act cool. “Fuck, Jo, the nurse told social services. Dad’s going to lose it again.”

Jo doesn’t reply, but rocks forward to get up. She darts a nasty look at the little shits who are making their mopeds roar. “Is the bastard who did this to you among this lot?”

“For fuck’s sake, drop it, who gives a shit?”

Jo approaches Lucas, who’s still sniggering, his face turned towards his mates. A kick in the shin and his cockiness comes crashing down clumsily. He clings to his handlebars like an idiot and the scooter tumbles down with him in slow motion, right in front of an audience without pity. His backside on the asphalt, he stammers in rage: “You fucking crazy?”

“Yeah, I’m crazy. And I can do a lot worse. It’s not like you don’t know me.”

He can’t think of an answer, grimacing with pain because of his shin – the bitch kicked him really hard.

“It’s not as if you don’t know my sister either, right?”

The teenager gets up and wipes his hands on his jeans. He knows everyone’s looking at him. He can feel the audience’s eyes burning the back of his neck with curiosity. She’s a girl, so he can’t hit her, the audience wouldn’t like it: it would be in bad taste, a serious infringement of unspoken rules. But he really wishes he could, especially as he can’t find the right words to wash away the insult and restore his advantage. And he wants to have the advantage, for the crowd to stay on his side, no matter how he does it. Between the laughing young man of the funfair and the aggressive one who stands opposite Jo, there’s an abyss that smacks of crass stupidity.

“Yeah, I know her well. You, on the other hand, I’m not sure there’ll ever be a guy who wants to fuck you.”

Jo expected better than that; she smiles and, eyebrows arched with surprise, slowly whispers – to him alone, excluding the gaping mass – “Maybe you?”

She comes even closer, her face just a few inches from his, as though about to kiss or bite him. He’s uncomfortable but doesn’t want to step back – that would be too obvious a sign of weakness – but he hates this closeness and these odd, mocking eyes that are searching him. He’s known her for a long time, but right here and now it’s as if he’s seeing her for the first time. Céline grabs Jo by the wrist and pulls her back. “Leave it, Jo. Let’s go.”

“You sure?Just as he was about to kiss me.” She says it very loud, triggering a few giggles … the crowd could change sides. It makes Lucas’s eyes fill with tears of rage. Small pink blotches appear on his face, a sign that he’s panicking.

A car screeches to a stop next to them. Saïd flings open the door the way you draw a weapon.