“Tell me, son, which university are you going to apply for?”

I chew slowly and swallow. “I don’t want to go.”

“What?” he whispers.

“Uni was your dream, Dad. Not mine.”

He walks away, plate only half-empty.

I look at Mum. “Sorry.”

Mum squeezes my hand. “He’ll come round. Promise.”

Laura Besley squeezes writing into the beginning and end of her day, when her young son is sleeping. She has been published in several anthologies and online. She recently moved back to the UK after ten years abroad.