Then he dug a tin of lighter fuel out of his duffle bag, squirted it on to the back seats and chucked a match in after it. I just stood there and watched as the car went up in flames. I’ve never sobered up so fast in my life. This was someone else’s car. They’d done nothing to us and yet here was Craig destroying it. I could feel Craig pulling at my sleeve and then we ran and soon we were lost in the black of the night. I felt so ashamed of what we’d done. I just wanted to crawl away and hide, but Craig was delighted and told anyone who would listen, including Stacey. And now Stacey was going to tell the whole pub and my new life would come crashing down around me.

But actually, I thought as I held my breath, it wasn’t my reputation that I was defending here. It was Poppy’s. She had done nothing wrong and I couldn’t stand by and let Stacey drag her through the mud in public when she had just been looking out for her little brother. And if that meant that I had to sacrifice my friendships with Clio and Marlon, then that’s what I’d do.

‘Get lost, Stacey,’ I said, taking a step closer to her so that we were virtually nose to nose. ‘Cindy is a spiteful little racist and she got what she deserved.’

This was too much for Stacey. I saw her hand pull back to punch me and I braced myself, ready to receive the inevitable blow, as I was now standing too close to her to avoid it.

Then someone else put a hand out and caught Stacey’s fist before it could make contact with my face.

‘We’ll not be having any of that kind of thing in here, thank you. I think you should leave now, don’t you?’

The punch didn’t land, and my body relaxed as I looked up to see who had intervened to stop it. It was Clio.

She slid into the space between me and Stacey and stood there, arms folded, looking like she meant business. The mood Stacey was in, she might well have clouted Clio instead of me, but Clio didn’t look even vaguely concerned. She just held her ground, narrowing her eyes at Stacey like she was deciding what punishment to inflict on her. After a couple of seconds of this face-off, Stacey’s mate pulled her back.

‘Come on, Stace,’ she said. ‘Stupid little bitch isn’t worth it.’

‘I think it’s time you two left, don’t you?’ repeated Clio so confidently that it was all I could do not to applaud her. ‘You can come back when you’ve stopped picking fights. Until then you’re not welcome.’