Result! Good guys 1, Eastburgh Estate 0.

We did it! Tareq's not moving to the Eastburgh Estate!

I went round to Tareq's place this evening, and we had this very serious grown-up meeting with him and his parents and his phone-finding girlfriend - she asked me to only call her Agent X on the blog, so Agent X was there too. She lives on the Eastburgh Estate and it turns out she knows it backwards.

So we talk for about an hour and show her the video I shot two weeks ago, of that flat being vandalised, and then Agent X pulls out photos of racist graffiti that's totally out of order and broken windows, and she's talking about all these cases of non-whites being driven off the estate by gangs of teenagers, and she was really impressive, like a lawyer off CSI or something. It was like being in court: People vs Eastburgh Estate. You could tell Tareq's parents were totally blown out at the end of it. His dad said, "Well," and his mum said, "That's given us a lot to think about, hasn't it?" and if you know Tareq's folks you know that means they're taking it in a really major way. An hour later they've decided: they're not moving. Which is great. After Julie went, I don't think I could stand someone else going away. I know that Eastburgh's only half a mile, but it feels like another country. One where there's a war going on.

Agent X: totally cool girl. I can see what Tareq sees in her. And she asked me if I wanted to help her with finding out what's really going on around Eastburgh, and I said well, maybe. There are boundaries with girls – especially your best friend’s girl – I’m not stepping over that line for anyone.