Kimberley Chambers 3-Book Collection: The Schemer, The Trap, Payback. Kimberley Chambers

the council should give your sister a place now she’s pregnant? My mum reckons a lot of these young girls get pregnant on purpose these days, just so they can jump the housing queue,’ Stephanie said.

      ‘They ain’t allowed to give her a place until she’s sixteen, I don’t think. Her birthday’s the beginning of December, so hopefully she’ll move out then. Oh shit, me muvver’s home already,’ Barry said as they turned the corner.

      Stephanie immediately let go of Barry’s hand as she spotted Marlene. She was wearing a short mauve skintight Lycra dress and had a big straw hat on her head. Her sandals were white and they had the biggest stiletto heel on them that Steph had ever seen.

      ‘Barry!’ Marlene exclaimed, opening her arms and running towards her son.

      ‘I’d better get indoors,’ Steph said, bluntly. She didn’t want to face the wrath of her mother if she was caught talking to Marlene.

      ‘I’ll knock for you later,’ Barry said understandingly, as his mum stumbled towards him in her high heels and fell into his arms.

      ‘Gissa cuddle. I ain’t ’arf missed you, boy. Me and Jake had a wonderful time. We bought you back some bottled sangria and I got you two hundred fags. That girl you were walking along with ain’t your bit of fluff, is she? Can’t stand her fat fucker of a mother. She always looks down her nose at me,’ Marlene said as she clocked where Steph went.

      Barry stared at his mother in utter disbelief. He could never remember her cuddling him before, not even when he was a small child – and her saying she had missed him, that was a first as well. As for her buying him presents, she never treated him to sod all and had even forgotten his birthday for the past two years running. Ignoring Marlene’s question about Stephanie, Barry stared her straight in the eyes. ‘I ain’t no div, Mum. Something’s going on, so best you tell me what. Are you getting married? Are you pregnant? Just spit it out, I’m a big boy now.’

      Marlene burst out laughing. She hated children, didn’t even like the two she’d given birth to very much. ‘Don’t be so silly. I’d rather sew me fanny up than have any more kids. Got enough on me plate with you and your bleedin’ sister, ain’t I? Where is Chantelle, by the way?’

      ‘Out with Ajay somewhere. So, are you getting married or what?’

      Marlene linked arms with her only son. ‘No, it’s much more exciting than that. Let’s go and open that sangria. We’ll discuss it indoors.’

      Pam and Cathy were stuck to the living-room window like two tubes of superglue.

      ‘Will yous two come away from that window. I don’t want Barry to see you spying on him. It’s embarrassing,’ Stephanie said, annoyed.

      Pam watched Marlene tottering up the path in her ridiculously high heels, then turned to face Steph. ‘I really don’t think it’s a good idea that Barry comes over here now his mum’s home, love. You can still see him and that, but don’t bring him indoors and don’t you dare go over there.’

      Stephanie looked at her mother in total dismay. ‘But why not? Barry enjoys coming over here. What am I meant to say to him, Mum?’

      Pam shrugged. Barry had done nothing wrong, but there was no way he was stepping foot over her threshold now his mother was back home. Say Marlene saw him and came and knocked on the door? Or, even worse, say she expected an invite herself?

      ‘Please don’t stop Barry from coming round, Mum,’ Stephanie begged.

      ‘I’m sorry, Steph, but I told you when the boy first came round here that he was only allowed to have dinner and pop in until his mother came back. I will not have my name darkened by being involved with that old slapper, so I’m sorry but the answer’s no. Now, that’s the end of the matter.’

      Devastated by her mother’s callousness, Stephanie grabbed her school bag off the sofa and ran up the stairs, sobbing.

      Barry pulled a face as he sipped the drink that his mother had given him. He had never drunk sangria before, and in his opinion it tasted vulgar – a bit like sweet vinegar.

      ‘Don’t you like it, boy? Wanna shot of JD with me instead?’ Jake the Snake asked.

      Barry nodded his head. Both his mother and Jake the Snake kept smiling at him and he was becoming more perplexed by the second at their sickly niceness towards him. ‘So, what’s this big news, then?’

      Marlene grinned. ‘Jake’s bought a bar in a really posh part of Spain. It’s beautiful, Bal, and it’s gonna be called Marlene’s.’

      Barry was well chuffed. If his mother moved abroad and his sister moved out, he would have the whole house to himself. ‘That’s blinding news, Mum. So, when you going out there to live?’

      ‘Next week. I ain’t telling the authorities I’m living out there though, because I don’t wanna lose me social money or this house, so if anyone asks you, just say we’ve bought a holiday home and we’re flitting backwards and forwards. I can’t wait for you to see it, Barry. It’s top notch and we’re gonna sell all posh food in there as well. Jake’s hired a proper chef, ain’t you, babe?’ Marlene gushed, squeezing her sugar daddy’s hand.

      ‘Sounds ace. I’ll have to come out there for a holiday one day,’ Barry replied, chirpily.

      Marlene burst out laughing. ‘You dopey sod! You’ll be moving out there with us. You’re gonna love it, Bal, and you wanna see the girls out there. You’ll have a field day, son.’

      Barry looked at his mother in stupefied shock. ‘I don’t wanna move to Spain. I wanna stay ’ere. I don’t mind having holidays out there, but I like it in England.’

      ‘Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud. You’ll love it in Spain. What boy your age wouldn’t wanna be surrounded by the sun, sea and pretty girls. And you’ll be loaded. Jake’s gonna pay you well, ain’t you, Jake?’

      ‘How’s a hundred sovs a week sound?’ Jake asked, grinning.

      ‘I couldn’t give a shit if you were paying me a thousand sovs a week, I still wouldn’t wanna go to Spain. I like living in Dagenham. I like my job on the market and I ain’t leaving me girlfriend. I love her too much.’

      ‘Love! You’re fourteen years old, boy. You don’t know what bleedin’ love is at your age. Anyway, you’ll easily find another bird out in Spain. Tell him how pretty the girls are out there, Jake.’

      When Jake began to speak, Barry was so infuriated, he stood up. ‘I ain’t fucking going and you can’t make me go if I don’t wanna,’ he screamed.

      Marlene leapt off the sofa and grabbed her son by the shoulders. ‘Oh yes I can! I’m your mother, and now your father ain’t gonna be around to look after you, you have no choice but to live wherever I wanna live.’

      ‘But what about school? Can’t I finish me schooling and then come out there if you still want me to? I can look after meself, you know that. And what about Chantelle? She’ll be about to keep an eye on me, won’t she?’

      ‘Don’t give me all that old bollocks about school. You might be clued up and streetwise, but you’re hardly academically bright, are you? You’ve always said you couldn’t wait to leave bloody school and work full time. Well, now’s your fucking chance to make something of your life. Just think of how well off you’re gonna be, earning a ton a week at your age.’

      Barry sat back down in the armchair and put his head in his hands. If he hadn’t already met Steph, he would have jumped at the chance of moving to Spain and earning a hundred quid a week, but he couldn’t bear to be parted from her. ‘I ain’t going, Mum. I’m sorry, but I just can’t leave me bird.’

      ‘You can and you will, boy. Jake needs you to help him run this bar, we both do, so like it or not, that’s what you’ll be doing,’ Marlene snapped back.

      ‘Can’t you just employ someone else to do it?’