“When are you gunna forget that? It was ages ago.'Only last year, actually. Reggie was convinced he had cancer because he had a black pot on his tongue - he switched to tea bags after the doctor told him it was a tea leaf.”

“It's not a bit strange,' I tell her. 'Davey's thinking of taking up shooting as a hobby, so he wants to go check out the rifle range and he asked me if I'd like to go with him.'Kayla snorts. 'Are you kidding me? He should be checking you out - not the rifle range! No way is that a date.'I go to the one person I know I can depend on. 'It is a date, isn't it, Reggie?''S'pose it all depends on how it goes,' he says. 'If you have a good time, come home happy, then it's a date.''Okay.''But if he shoots yer, it wasn't a date - it was an ambush.''Reggie! That's mean!''You know I'm only kiddin', Tiffy. He puts his arms out and I gladly fall into them. 'Don't worry about what anyone says, luv. It's a date.”

“Reggie always wears the team jersey - and a pair of shorts - no matter how cold it gets.I'm betting he dreams about one day being called on to make a comeback.'We need five tries in the last three minutes. It's almost impossible, Reggie. That's why I'm asking you.''Piece of cake, Dusty. Here, mind me false teeth.' Dusty's been with the Gunners as long as I can remember. He's an institution - or he should be in one - it's one of the two.”

“I stroll into the kitchen. Bull's making lunch. He's actually no relation to me, though secretly I look on him as my big brother, sometimes even my dad. When I needed a father for parent-teacher nights, Bull was there; if I fell out of a tree he'd run to catch me. He usually dropped me, but at least he tried; he's my full time body guard and chauffer, and, when I was thirteen and feeling depressed after spending too long in front of a mirror, he was the one I asked - 'Do you think I'm pretty?''No, mate,' he said, 'I wouldn't call you pretty at all. No way. You're beautiful.'It's still near the top of one of my all-time favourite lies.”

“Bull stares into the hazy distance as though the right words are out there somewhere and all he has to do is claim them as his own. Sometimes it gets so quiet in Gungee you can hear conversations from a hundred years ago breathing on a gust of wind.”

“I smile at the phone, wishing Reggie could see me.'You're alright then, luv? No dramas?''Not a one.' I reach the kitchen. 'Thanks for thinking about me.''Gotta look after my girl. Only one I got.'My smile gets even bigger.”

“Tiff like in Breakfast at Tiffany's,' he says. 'Right?' I couldn't be more shocked. 'Um... yes, that's right - it's an old movie.''Is it? Don't watch that much TV. I've only heard of the book - got it at home. I bought it 'cause Truman Capote wrote it. I was stoked by In Cold Blood. He wrote that, too. You read it?''No.''Aw, you gotta. It rocks.'I look away as if I've been suddenly distracted by something out the window. It's my version of the pause button. There's a lot of information to process. Here's a boy my own age; he shakes my hand, he talks to me - not just to ask directions to the toilet - and he reads books.Heathcliff?”