Grant reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his son’s jacket to pull him away. Ethan snatched his arm back and then turned and trudged towards Mary and the house. She was still crying and she moved to the side and hung her head as her only son stomped past her.

Grant kept pace behind, determined to see Ethan off the property before he went back to comfort Mary. He followed his son through the house and out the front door. Ethan began moving towards his motorbike but at the last second he stopped dead as though having a sudden change of heart. Grant stopped too and felt himself tense up again. Ethan turned around.

‘Look, Dad, I need some money. Just a couple of hundred quid. I was going to sell my old things for it, but I can’t do that now, can I?’

‘Go, Ethan.’

‘You’re such an arsehole.’

‘Takes one to know one.’

Just then Mary pushed past Grant and went up to Ethan.

‘Here. Take it, then leave,’ she said. She grabbed Ethan’s hand and smacked a bundle of notes into his palm. Ethan didn’t even thank her; he just looked at Grant and gave him a knowing smile.

Grant couldn’t hold it together any longer. He went for his son. Leaping forwards, he balled his fist and swung back his arm and… never saw the punch from Ethan coming. Ethan’s fist crashed into the side of Grant’s head and before he knew it he was on his back, staring up at the blue sky.

‘No!’ Mary screamed, running over to her husband.

‘You two are both fucking mental,’ Ethan shouted.

Grant propped himself up on his elbow as Mary crouched down by his side. Ethan jumped onto his bike and fired up the engine. The raucous exhaust spat out a cloud of fuel vapour onto Mary and Grant, and Ethan tugged on the throttle, making the back wheel skid and kick up gravel as the bike lunged towards the front gates.

Only then, with Grant prone on the ground, did he notice his neighbour, Ed Francis, out across the street, doing a pretty bad job of pretending to prune a bush.

‘Fuck’s sake,’ Grant said, turning away from Francis in disgust. He and Mary were already the talk of the street because of the numerous ‘incidents’ caused by their son recently, when he’d still been living with them. Even now he had supposedly left, he was still causing embarrassment at every turn. But being embarrassed in front of the neighbours was the least concerning aspect of the situation. Their son was out of control and becoming a bigger problem by the day.

‘Are you ok?’ Grant asked Mary, when Ethan’s bike was out of sight.