I missed whatever conversation happened while I was letting Clare in, waiting for her to take her shoes off and faff about with a raincoat, but by the time she walked into the living room,Jonah was a ball of furious protest, sitting on the floor with both the kids pressed tightly against him.
‘They aren’t going.’
‘Jonah,’ Clare said calmly. ‘Believe me, I understand your concerns, but they’ll be closely supervised at our family centre. Warren won’t be there.’
‘You think that’ll make any difference? Isn’t the whole point of being taken into care so she can’t ruin our lives even more?’
‘You’re welcome to come along and see for yourself.’
‘She tried to have me arrested for protecting my sister from that mutant she pretends is our dad. What part of that don’t you people get? If I see that witch the day I kill myself, it’ll be too soon.’
Ellis started to cry. Billy was like a baby ghost, peeping over the top of his brother’s elbow.
‘That’s your choice. But I’m sorry, you don’t get to choose whether Billy and Ellis spend time with their mother. Like I said, it’s in a supervised?—’
‘You can shove your supervised family centre?—’
‘Jonah,’ Mum said, gently. ‘Why don’t we go into the kitchen and talk about this properly?’
‘So she can sneak them out the door the second I’m out the room? I’m not going anywhere.’
His eyes were wild, his breathing heavy. I was used to seeing young people dysregulated, but this was clearly upsetting his siblings.
I walked up to them, crouching low enough to put a hand on Jonah’s shoulder. ‘You’re scaring Ellis and Billy,’ I whispered, my eyes flicking to where they were clutching onto him, then back to meet his again.
He glanced down, frowning when he realised how tightly he was gripping onto them.
Slowly, he dropped his arms, but the children still knelt there, pressed up against his waist until Mum came and took hold of their hands.
‘Let’s find a snack while Clare talks to your brother.’
But before Clare could say anything, Jonah had barged past her, thundering up the stairs and slamming his bedroom door.
‘I’ll talk to him once he’s calm enough to listen.’ Mum smiled as though this was all in a day’s work, which it often was.
While Ellis and Billy were putting on their shoes, she knocked on Jonah’s door and tried to persuade him to come and say goodbye, but he simply turned up the volume of his thrashy, angry music.
I waited ten minutes, until a softer, more depressing song came on, then made two mugs of coffee, placing them on the floor outside his door then tentatively tapping on it.
When he didn’t reply, I decided to be brave.
‘It’s Libby. I brought you a drink.’
The door opened while I was still bending down to retrieve the mugs.
‘I thought you might want some company.’
He stared at me, his expression impossible to interpret.
I nodded at my shorts. ‘There’s a Wagon Wheel in each pocket.’
‘You aren’t allowed in my room.’
‘Mum’s gone to pick up Nicky from her friend’s in Middlebeck, so no one will know. But…’ I shocked myself by giving him a sidelong glance from beneath my lashes ‘…if you’re that much of a stickler for the rules we could sit on the landing.’
His mouth twitched as he stepped back to let me in.
‘Ooh, I like what you’ve done with the place.’ I waded into the absolute pit of mess while trying not to breathe in the stench of teenage boy and dried-up food.
