He"d beaten me every other time. They were different; I hadn't wanted to win. Now I didn't care. He hurt me I"d hurt him. It didn't matter who won." After the fight his "friends" isolate him. "I had a limp and a was hungry. I had Kevin's blood on my trousers. I was on my own." When Paddy walks away from the fight he is pelted with stones from the spectators. This to him is a sure sign he has no friends. Kevin is evidently the "ring leader" and when Paddy and him were best friends Paddy had some of Kevin's power over the others. But when they fell out Paddy is left isolated. In a way you get the impression that isolation is what Paddy really wants but isn't sure once he gets it.
"The only bit I missed was the talking not having anyone to talk to. I liked talking. I didn't try to get any of them to talk to me. They all followed Kevin.".
A lot of Paddy's unhappiness comes from his parents constant arguing. Paddy doesn't understand why they are always fighting. Especially because his memories of his mother and father in the past had been happy ones. "They were fighting all the time now. They said nothing but it was a fight. The way he folded his paper and snapped it, he was saying something. I didn't understand. She was lovely. He was nice. They had four children. I was one of them, the oldest." Paddy begins to understand some of the behaviour that his parents display around him and his brothers and sisters. Especially his mother. "She held on to us or longer gripped us and looked over us at the floor or the ceiling. She didn't notice me trying to push away. I was too old for that. In front of Sinbad I still loved her smell. But she wasn't cuddling us; she was hanging on to us." At that point in the book the reader feels that Paddy understands, he understands what his parents are doing even though he doesn't understand why. He is starting to grow up, prematurely since none of his friends are.