the ankle monitor fucking itched ---- late last night they bestowed it upon him with all-teeth smiles. a requirement for his release from the youth detention centre into a brand new, shiny supported housing and mentoring programme --- where he would remain until a parole officer decided his re-integration with society was complete. a bus dropped him and his garbage bag full of clothes off at the front door this morning. now, he was sitting in a communal cafeteria, gripping a mug of coffee and dutifully ignoring the other children screeching about.
toes curled inside his ragged shoes until they popped. jamie ross [ age seventeen, convicted of anti-social behaviour and minor aggravated assault following a dispute with a friend ] attempted to swallow the building rage. this was an opportunity, so the judge said, to straighten out his life. to return to normality; GCSEs, A levels, a job, a career, a family, a house, sunday night television, a fucking set of golf clubs, a cute hobby to distract from inevitable death, a shit flat to store all the shit things that people need to live.
fuck that fuck that fuck that fuck that and fuck that too. what he wanted was some peace and goddamn quiet --- and something to drink. this was mug number six of scalding hot coffee and it wasn’t cutting through the need of, well, his usual cocktail of gin and drugs. that was the point though, wasn’t it? the sooner his piss ran clear, the sooner he could get the fuck out of here.
he ran a tatted hand through his shaggy hair and ignored the caffeine jitters. his tired eyes locked onto a new adult --- tall, tattoos, muscled, frowning, a coiled energy that said he could be a threat but was choosing not to be --- and tracked him until said man sat across from him. jamie offered a blank stare and leaned back until his spine touched the cold, comforting concrete wall. teeth clenched, he said nothing.