Portside by Elyan Smith

Author:Elyan Smith [Smith, Elyan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Riptide Publishing

Between bouts of rain, the wind took care to dry up the roads for a bit of a reprieve. Every gust sent drops off the leaves. Lyn was on her back on the bench, phone at her ear, booze in the plastic bag on the ground.

“Bum one,” Iwan said and fumbled the pack of cigarettes from Lyn’s pocket, then shoved her feet aside to sit on the bench. He stretched his legs out and listened to Lyn talk about shit that had gone down with one of her mates and a bloke.

Iwan opened a beer and sipped from it, watching the kids down the other end of the park having a smoke. This place felt small in comparison to London now, not even the porn at night offering quite the same thrill of immediate need.

“Saw your mum today,” Lyn said. She put the phone down on her stomach and angled for a beer. “She was in a bit of a tit.”

“Usually is. Rhys was an arse last night, I don’t know, I didn’t listen.” He’d gone up to his room and turned on the telly, studio laughter instantly cottoning him into a make-believe existence. He’d watched for five minutes, trying to lose himself in it, then had turned it off, laid back and thought about Jonah. Iwan finished the bummed cigarette and pulled out one of his own and had it, sucking on it.

“Nina’s seeing one of the Pethan blokes.”

“The ones out towards . . .” Iwan nodded in the approximate direction of it. “Right fuckers they are. Why’s she going with one of them?”

“Lonely.”

“For a shag?”

“You’ve to talk.” Lyn laughed. Her beer sloshed over the rim a little and drenched her shirt down the side. She slurped the rest of the liquid from the side of the can. “You’ll be down by the docks now?” she said after a pause and a smoke as she poked at her phone, texting or playing something.

Iwan leaned back, heart catching a little as he thought of Tommy and how fucking perfect he’d been. “Might,” he said. “You still off to that party tonight?”

“They got booze and some good shit, Tim says. Dafydd’s coming.”

“Fuck.” Iwan sipped his beer. “He’s tried it before?”

Lyn shrugged. “Mum’s livid but he’s thirteen. Shit’s not new round here, is it?”

A group of kids passed by in front of them, jeering and shoving one another, kicking right off down the path.

“I’ll see you at the job centre tomorrow?” Iwan asked as he stood and stretched.

Lyn nodded, thumb moving across the screen of her phone. Pink animals jumped about on it to the tune of incessant electronic music. “Got five quid on you?”

Iwan handed over the fiver and didn’t ask what for. He didn’t want to know either, just nodded good night and went on his way.

The clouds had mostly cleared away, leaving the moon bright at his back. He passed some lads outside the pub, a group of teenage girls at the bus stop dressed to the nines in skirts and tight tops.

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