“Eh Tom?”

“Yeah Jarrod.”

“Check it,” Jerrod continued. “’ole in one.” He was indicating at the trash he just threw into the bin, certifiably in one toss.

“Nice one bruv,” said Tom. “Hey how’d you go with that sheila last night? ‘nother ‘ole in one dere?”

‘’ole in two,” Jerrod replied in  the cheeky manner that only a cockney could pull off, only it didn’t make sense the way Jerrod thought it did.

“You wha?”

“You know bruv. ‘er other ‘ole.”

“Ho ho, good one guv’nah.”

They lightly punched each other and made crude pelvic thrusts with their tongues out as they reached the newsagent.

“A quickpick for tonight’s game, thanks chap,” Tom said to the lotto saleschap.

“What’s dis den?” Jerrod teased. “You still floatin’ the clouds from last ngiht?”

“It’s £150 million tonight man. You’d be daft not ta.”

They walked out of the shop and on to the footpath. “What are your chances though dude? 200 million to one?”

“150 million to one: me,” Tom snapped back. “Besides, someone’s gotta be ‘the one’ man. Gotta get a ticket to try.” He punctuated his point by holding his ticket erect and poking out his tongue at his mate while turning to flash it at him while continuing to walk. Directly into traffic.

He barely has time to scream “shit”, but you would not have been able to hear him over the blare of the car’s horn anyway. As the brakes slammed hard, the car drifted sideways in a seemingly uncontrollable slide.

If it’s life that flashes before your eyes in the moment before death, Tom’s life could be surmised as an unfathomable wave of panic and regret. The thought lingered with him long enough to realise that the car had miraculously steered itself away from his immediate demise and into the other lane.

Jerrod has been stopped stunned only a step behind. “Bruv!” he called as he stepped forward and yanked him off the road and in to a warm man embrace that neither wished to acknowledge was more than welcome, it was needed.

“What the fuck, man,” Tom could only mutter as he patted his friend on the back. “I didn’t even see it coming.”

“That’s cause you weren’t looking, dickhead,” Jerrod expressed, harsh way that men are only allowed to display their emotions.

Stepping back on to the footpath and away from immediate demise, Tom and Jerrod continued walking as close as two males could without being, ya know, queer.

Neither thought to check for the ticket, which was in Tom’s clutches as he faced death head on but now lay discarded on the road and would later be revealed to no one to be the 200 million to one ticket.