DAY 10

 Lester hacks at his beard with a trimmer which trembles slowly on batteries taking their final breath. There are no more in the house. He can take a joke; he always could. But another month without work has frayed his nerves and he is a fragile thing. He grew a beard during the 1st lockdown and while he could not be arsed, this time around, he buckled under pressure in a WhatsApp stag do group which should have been terminated long ago. They called him a hipster and he wasn’t having it. So he’s growing another. Then Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire ripper died and his wife giggled as they announced it on the news, covered her mouth with her hand, looked at the TV mugshot with her mischievous eyes, then at Lester’s fuzzy head. The trimmer stops altogether. It’s her fault, so the family will go to the park and they will have to deal with the bald patches all over his head.

For the 3rd time today, Li passes the 7 builders on the ground floor, the 7 maskless apes, swinging their chins, scratching their balls. She accidently nudges one because her glasses have steamed up above her own expensive mask. What’s the fucking point? A tangled hair loop of abuse falls out of her mouth, abuse nobody but her can comprehend, sprayed at their ignorance and idiocy, their toxic masculinity. The builders smirk and wince, Carry On style.

Teenagers took a lot of blame during the 1st lockdown for walking around in their small to medium sized groups, wandering aimlessly, laughing and joking, as evil as that is. In reality, they are one of COVID-19’s biggest tragedies. Youth shoved back into the carton and forgotten about at the back of the fridge. Like the adults never enjoyed going out drinking, looking for love on the weekends.

Josh couldn’t get it up. It was the nerves.

Now, sat at home on Saturday night with his virginity cutting off his air supply, he cries quietly into his pillow, waiting for the blue tick to appear, signifying his girlfriend, Carly has read his plea to meet so he can explain. It’s all he has. It’s not like they can get pissed in different pubs, then kiss and make up with slurred apologies in some back corner of a shit nightclub. Her parents are onto their secret meet ups and now he knows that he will have to wait for the rest of this wretched time, knowing that she thinks it was something to do with her. Something she did. Or didn’t do.