“Everything okay in there?” asked Christine. “What was that noise?”
Julian slung a shirt over the mirror, before opening the door and smiling at his mum. “I just dropped something, that’s all.” He studied his mum’s face. The lines were perhaps a fraction more deeply etched, the shadows perhaps a shade darker than when he’d first arrived home. “Listen, Mum, I realise I’ve been behaving in a pretty shitty way the last few days, but I want you to know, well, I…the thing is…” He faltered. He’d meant to lie to her, tell her there was no need to worry about him, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. The lie was too big for utterance, even if it was to protect her. She waited for him to go on, but he didn’t. He couldn’t lie, and neither could he tell the truth. All he could do was hide behind silence, staring awkwardly at the floor.
To Julian’s relief, the sound of the front door opening and then approaching footsteps attracted his mum’s attention. His relief dissolved into a fresh wave of apprehension as his dad burst out angrily from the living-room. “Julian, if you’re in, I want to talk to you.” Robert emerged into view flushed and frowning. “You’re a bloody liar. I phoned the university today, spoke to your personal tutor. There’s no study-break. You haven’t attended class for nearly a fortnight. You’ve been playing us for mugs.”
Julian glanced at his mum, then quickly back to his dad. Anger he could deal with, but not the disappointment he saw in her eyes. “What do you think you’re doing, checking up on me?”
“I’ve got every right to check up on you, Julian. It’s my money that pays for your studies.”
“I never asked for your money.”
“Only because you’ve never had to. You’ve never really had to ask for anything your whole life.” Robert nodded with a sardonic twist of his mouth, as if he’d hit upon some minor revelation. “Maybe that’s the problem here. Maybe if we hadn’t just given you everything you wanted, you wouldn’t think this kind of brattish behaviour was acceptable.”
“Yeah, and maybe if you showed some trust in me, I wouldn’t feel the need to behave this way.”
“Don’t try to turn this back on me. I’m not the one in the wrong here.”
Julian raised his eyebrows. “Oh no, you’ve never lied to anyone about anything, have you?”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Robert demanded to know, his anger flashing higher.
“You know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the-”
“Don’t change the subject, Julian,” Christine interjected. “Why did you lie to us? Why are you here and not at university?”
Julian hesitated to look at her. He knew his defensive indignation would crumble under her calm, forceful, yet gentle gaze. She repeated his name. He looked at her, eyes pleading understanding. “Because, well, because I don’t know if I want to be at university anymore.”
“I knew it, I bloody knew it,” exclaimed Robert. “Julian, there’s absolutely no way you’re dropping out of university. Do you hear? No sodding way.”
Streaks of red blotched Julian’s face and neck. “And here was me thinking it was my choice.”
“Not if you don’t have the maturity to make the right choice for your own good.”
“Who says it’s not the right choice?” retorted Julian, his face growing more alike to his dad’s the angrier he got.
“I bloody do.”
“You never even went to fucking university.”
“Calm down, both of you,” put in Christine. She looked searchingly at her son. “What’s brought this about, Julian? You seemed happy enough at university last week. What’s changed since then?”
Julian thought about Joanne Butcher, about her short, brutal life. “Nothing…except…” he began hesitantly, struggling to put his feelings into words.
“Except what?”
“Well, I guess I was happy enough just drifting along until now. It kind of didn’t matter that I wasn’t enjoying the course, as long as I could go out and have a laugh with my mates and stuff. But this thing with Joanne Butcher, it’s made me think, what’s the point?”
“The point is that you’re learning to live independently,” said Robert.
“No I’m not. Like you said, I’m just living off you in another place.”
“I don’t understand,” said Christine. “What’s Joanne Butcher got to do with anything?”
“Well, I suppose it’s made me realise that all I’m doing is wasting my time, delaying the inevitable.”
“So what’re you going to do instead?” asked Robert. “Because if you think you’re going to hang around here, sleeping all day and partying all night, then you can think again.”
“Oh, so you’d rather I did that at uni and flunked out at the end of the year, would you?”
“I’d rather you knuckled down to some hard study. You don’t seem to realise how lucky you are, Julian. My parents couldn’t afford to send me to university. When I was your age, I was working two jobs-”
Julian rolled his eyes, hissing out a breath. “Jesus, here we go again.”
Before Robert could shoot back another angry retort, Christine asked, “What do you mean, delaying the inevitable?”
“I mean that sooner or later, I’m going to end up working at the factory. So I was thinking I might as well start now.”
Robert let out a harsh, almost mocking laugh. “What makes you think I’d employ a university dropout?” He turned to Christine, hands spread. “You see. This is what I was talking about, he’s had it so easy he doesn’t think he’s got to work for anything.”
“But I am willing to work for it,” protested Julian. “I’ll work on the production line, sweep the floors, make cups of tea, whatever. I’ll do like you did, work my way up from the bottom.”
Robert wrinkled his nose as if he’d sniffed something nasty. “You’re studying so you don’t have to do like I did. Do you really think I’ve worked so hard all these years so I can watch my son struggle like I had to?”
“But you just said I’ve had it too easy.”
“Don’t twist my words to your purpose, Julian.”
“I’m not, I just want the chance to prove to you-”
“No.” Robert made a cutting motion in the air. “I’m not discussing this anymore. Tomorrow you’re going back to university and you’re going to buckle down to hard work, and that’s all there is to it.”
“And what if I refuse?”
“Don’t push me, Julian. I’m warning you.”
For a full thirty-seconds Julian faced his dad over the wheelchair, neither flinching from the other’s stare. Then he gave his mum an I’m sorry look and, keeping his head down, pushed his way past his dad. “Jul-” she started to say.
“Leave him, Christine,” Robert cut her off.
Julian didn’t get into his car. He needed to walk off the frustration that made him feel like pounding his fist into his face. Without thinking about it, his feet led him to the suburb where Mia lived. It was several miles’ walk to the semi-detached house, and he felt calmer by the time he got there, but anger bubbled not far beneath the surface of his mind. There was a car in drive and lights in the downstairs windows. He knocked and a tall man — presumably Mia’s foster father — came to the door. The man, Julian noted, looked nothing like Mr Ugly. Even so, there was something unpleasant about his face. A small brown moustache perched over a mouth pursed into firm, disapproving wrinkles. Pale, almost colourless eyes peered down at Julian as though he was an insect that needed removing.
“Is Mia in?” asked Julian.
“You’re the boy my daughter saw with Mia earlier today, aren’t you?” said the man.
Julian remained silent, suddenly put on his guard by the man’s demeanour.
“You do realise that statutory rape is a serious offence.”
Eyes widening, Julian held up his hand, palm forward. “Whoa, hold on, you’ve got totally the wrong idea.”