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‘Don’t tell ME to calm down. What are you doing here? And where’s my cat? You’d better not have hurt her. If you touch my cat EVER AGAIN, I’ll bloody kill you. Get the FUCK out of our garden.’

She swung the bag at his head and her precious mobile flew out and landed on the lawn. She snatched it up.

‘I’m phoning my Dad, if you don’t go.’

Dylan’s eyes were so powerful that when he turned them to look at something, everyone else would look at it too. So TammyLee followed his stare, and saw me sitting majestically on the roof. I meowed at her.

‘The cat’s OK, see? I ain’t touched ’er,’ said Dylan.

TammyLee had her keys in her hand and I could see she was working out whether to run into the house and slam the door, or run away, or stay there. She stood glowering down at Dylan, her boots planted wide apart, her hair twinkling with skeins of tiny stars she had woven into it.

‘You know I do kick-boxing,’ she said, ‘and I don’t want to have to use it on you.’

‘Yeah. It don’t faze me, babe.’

‘And don’t call me “babe”.’

Dylan stretched out his hand to her.‘Will you sit down? Please, TammyLee. For five minutes? I didn’t come here to make trouble. I got something to say to you. Please?’

‘Why should I?’

‘Why shouldn’t you? Don’t worry, I ain’t gonna touch you, babe. I’m just asking you to listen. Please, TammyLee. I promise I’ll go away, if you will just hear what I have to say.’ He lowered his voice and it was barely audible.

‘Go closer,’ said my angel. ‘Be brave, Tallulah. TammyLee needs you.’

When I saw TammyLee sit down on the grass beside Dylan, I meowed, and made my way down the roof. There was a silence as both of them watched me make a scary jump onto the fence.

‘Tail up,’ said my angel, and I managed that as well. But I wasn’t going to jump down into the garden.

TammyLee got up and came to fetch me. I cuddled into her, purring and kissing her hot face, but I was tense with fear as she sat down next to Dylan.

‘Go on then … say it,’ she demanded.

‘Look … I’m sorry.’ Dylan’s eyes looked down at the ground. ‘I don’t know what got into me that day. I apologise, unreservedly, for what I did to the cat. I don’t suppose you’ll ever forgive me … but there you are, I’ve said sorry and it wasn’t easy.’

‘Hearts and flowers!’ said TammyLee, sarcastically. ‘Why don’t you say sorry to the cat? She’s called Tallulah, and she’s a rescue cat and she … she’s my best mate.’

Dylan nodded. He tried to make eye contact with me, but I refused it. He tried to touch my fur, but when I felt his finger, I tensed. My claws dug into TammyLee’s pink top. I stopped purring and growled like a dog.

‘She doesn’t trust you. Best leave her alone,’ said TammyLee, and she stroked me until I relaxed. ‘If you knew what she’s been through, you wouldn’t have been so cruel, Dylan. And look what you’ve lost … the love and friendship of a beautiful cat. That’s something precious to me.’

‘Yeah, I get it.’ Dylan tore a leaf from a nearby plant and began to shred it. ‘Pity you don’t feel the same about babies.’

TammyLee stiffened.‘What d’you mean by that? I love little children.’

Dylan raised his eyebrows. He was ominously silent for another painful minute. We all listened to my purring, and the chattering of sparrows. We watched a butterfly feeding on a rotten apple, its wings like jewels in the dappled sunlight. Under my paws, TammyLee’s heart began to thud at double its normal speed.

Then Dylan dropped his bombshell.

‘I want to know what happened, TammyLee. What happened to our baby?’

‘What baby?’ she fired, lifting her chin defiantly. I could feel the lies queuing up in her mind.

‘Don’t pretend you don’t know,’ Dylan insisted, his voice quiet.

‘Idon’t know.’

‘The baby we made together, that day we skived off the school harvest festival. Come on, TammyLee … you told me at the end of term that you were pregnant. Come on, admit it.’

TammyLee was holding me with one hand and ripping up blades of grass with the other. She pursed her lips and refused to look at Dylan.

‘Look, I know I did a stupid thing,’ he said, ‘when you said you were pregnant – I couldn’t get my head round it and I walked away. And you screamed after me. Remember? You said you never wanted to see me again.’

‘I was fourteen, and I didn’t want sex with you, Dylan.’

‘Oh, come on, yes, you did.’

‘I DID NOT. You just got me drunk with that bottle of stuff you said was only cider. Then you took advantage of me because you knew I hadn’t got a life ’cause I look after my mum. I could have reported you for rape, but I didn’t.’

‘No, you just dumped me, didn’t you?’ Dylan’s eyes darkened with pain. ‘One minute you were crazy about me, telling everyone I was hot, and the next minute you were acting like I never existed. It hurt. I know I act the hard man and stuff, but I do have feelings, and I actually did loveyou.’

‘Is that why you dropped my cat in the river?’

‘No … I s’pose I just wanted to hurt you back somehow.’