Read The Front for Free Online

certain now that this blag was bound to be an absolute disaster.
            As Ged silently cursed himself, Sam – looking even more troubled than usual – slumped down onto the battered couch and pulled his Rothmans and a pack of Rizla papers from his pocket. He was desperate for a calming spliff after yet another set-to with Wendy. She’d had a fit when he’d told her what he was doing tonight, and had screamed so long and loud that his ears were still ringing. If he didn’t need the money so badly, he wouldn’t have come. But he did need it – especially after totting up the damage Wendy had done to their savings today. With the monthly ‘mortgage’ for the new suite and carpet due next week, there was no way around it. He had to do this.
            After searching his pockets several times to no avail, it finally dawned on him that his draw was missing. The small wrap of coke he’d hidden in his change pocket was still there, but the draw was definitely gone. Realizing that Wendy must have lifted it when he was in the shower, he was filled with futile rage. Why didn’t she just rip his fucking heart out and be done, the selfish bitch!
            ‘What’s up with your mush?’ said Mal, his voice muffled by the wool of the mask. ‘Wendy give you a hard time, did she?’
            ‘Something like that,’ Sam muttered, and, lighting a straight instead, dropped his cheek onto his fist and sank deeper into the stained couch with an air of utter dejection.
            ‘You know your problem?’ Lee piped up. ‘You’re too soft on your Wendy. You wanna toughen up, man. Give her some licks – like Mal there,’ he thumbed towards Mal. ‘He’s got Suzie well under control. I’d like to see her give him lip the way your Wendy does. He’d knock her for six, innit, Mal?’
            Mal pulled the mask off and smoothed his hair back into place. ‘Too right. No bird’s gonna take the piss out of me and get away with it. Show ’em the back of yer hand before they get the idea they can open their mouths, that’s what I say.’
            He didn’t think it necessary to mention the beating he’d inflicted on Suzie earlier – or what an absolute shit he’d felt having to look at her face during dinner. He knew he had to sort himself out if he wanted to keep her, but it was hard. He seriously wondered sometimes if he was cracking up. But making himself out to be a sap in front of his mates wouldn’t help him get it sorted.
            ‘Wendy would knife me if I tried any of that shit on her,’ Sam said, flicking a crawling something off the arm of the couch with a shudder.
            ‘That’s ’cos you’re a wuss!’ Mal jeered, happy to shift the focus from himself. ‘A pussy-whipped wuss!’
            ‘Yeah, but she’s a babe, ain’t she?’ said Lee lustfully. ‘I wouldn’t mind being whipped by her . . . Phwoar! Eh?’
            ‘You want whipping full stop, you sad git!’ Mal quipped, heading for the health-hazard kitchenette in search of alcohol. ‘You wanna sort yourself out, or you’ll end up hanging round that school again and get yourself nicked!’
            Lee’s eyes glazed over at the thought of his last little sojourn to the local high school some months before. He’d had the red Celica then, and the girls had been well-impressed.
            ‘Them schoolgirls are a right load of ravers,’ he said. ‘Tits out here—’ he held his hands out in front of him ‘—all firm and ripe for the squeeze! Phwoar! What I wouldn’t give to—’
            ‘Jeezus wept!’ Sam pulled the wrap of coke out and threw it at Lee to shut him up. ‘They’re too young, man – no matter how big their boobs are.’
            ‘Tosh bollocks!’ Lee sneered. ‘They’re never too young!’
            Cracking his knuckles sharply, Ged said, ‘You’re a sick man, Lee.’
            ‘Get out of it!’ Lee snorted. ‘I wasn’t chasing