The singer turned away. Tony caught a glimpse of her face, like Mother when she couldn’t decide if she was angry or sympathetic.

Suddenly a waiter dropped to his knees, mopping-up dark vomit from Leanne’s chair. Another approached with a fresh tablecloth and covered most of Jamie and the chair. The singer started brushing bits of vomit off her front, now laughing angrily, unable to do much with more sick on her hands.

‘Aw, bloody hell kid,’ she said.

‘We’ll have this cleared up in a moment,’ one of the waiters announced.

Tony noticed one sleeve of his new suit had copped a spray of spew. Below it, Jamie’s face was staring up at him, imploring, so he knelt and started patting his cousin’s hand.

‘It’s alright, mate,’ Tony said, not wanting to look at his cousin.

There were bubbles at the corners of Jamie’s mouth, but he was looking past Tony with a gaze so compelling it made Tony turn and look too, straight into Leanne’s eyes.

Shit!

James tried to avoid all the hands pulling at him. When they held him, he tried telling them to just leave him alone, but the sound that tumbled out of his mouth was an insensible groan. The singer looked down at him sympathetically, but James noticed the way she frowned whenever she thought he wasn’t looking.

‘You’re going to be alright,’ Tony kept saying.

Leanne suddenly appeared in the row of faces above James, asking why he was here. Nobody gave her an answer, they all just started trying to lift him, but he felt that if they managed, worse would come out of his guts.

Deeper than that feeling was the realisation that if they took him away, Tony would be taken away too. After coming all this way he didn’t want to be separated, so James reached for his cousin’s shirt collar, twisted the red fabric into a knot, and held tight.

‘Alright love, you’re in good hands now,’ the singer said, patting his arm and checking her dress for more signs of spew. She signalled to the band and clicked her fingers to count them in. Just before the light hit her face, as she searched for the microphone at her feet, she lifted her features and encouraged applause.

‘Come on ladies and gents, give it up for the kid! He’s having his first big night out on the town!’.

The music swelled while Tony and one of the waiters lifted him, but James ached to be out of the way. Leanne trailed them into the darker foyer.

‘Stay here, love,’ Tony said to her, and she smiled sweetly as they carried James towards an open door from which light spilled.

James closed his eyes as Tony and the waiter dropped him roughly onto a vinyl-covered bed against the far wall of the narrow room.