“She needs to come home, Dumb ass. My sister’s on her own.” His brows raised at my insult.
“Oh, yeah?” His face twisted, amusement bleeding into a threat as his eyes locked onto me. “How ‘bout you go home and let the adults finish what they started?”
I moved closer to him.
What the fuck was I thinking?
All it would take is one punch, and I’d be a pile on the floor. Before I knew it his chest puffed out, his hand coming fast, open-palmed to my chest, knocking me back a step. “Don’t play tough little man.”
I clenched my fists, heart pounding so hard I could barely think. I wasn’t strong, but I wasn’t leaving her either. Not with him.
“She’s coming with me,” gritting my teeth as anger built up within.
He leaned forward, laughing at me. A mean and hollow sound. “Or what?”
My heated gaze never left his, tipping him over the edge as he then swung at me. His knuckles connected with my cheek, fire blooming under the skin. I stumbled, tasting metal in my mouth. But I stayed up.
“Mum!” I shouted, blood now decorating my teeth, my eyes on her, pleading. “Please!”
She just stood there, frozen. It was as if she didn’t know whose side she was on. That hurt more than the punch, but I also wasn’t surprised. It ignited something within me, a rage I hadn’t felt before, radiating through my veins like molten lava. I grabbed a loose brick from the ground where someone must have smashed the window earlier and held it out like I meant it.
“Touch me again prick!” I spat, my voice shaking but loud. “See what happens.”
For a second, he hesitated. Maybe he saw something in me, or perhaps just a kid too desperate to bluff. Then he spat on the ground next to me, shook his head, and backed off.
“Not fuckin’ worth it,” he muttered. “Take this streak of piss out of my sight and fuck off.” Pushing my mum from his side.
I didn’t wait for her to protest. I grabbed Mum’s arm firmly and led her away. She didn’t resist at first, just followed, stumbling behind my quickened pace. We didn’t speak for a while; only when we reached the other side of the bridge did she yank her arm out of my grip.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” She snapped, her eyes wild and glassy. “You think you’re some kind of saviour?”
I stopped, turning to her. “You didn’t come home.”
“I was busy Screech!” she shouted. “Christ, I had a good thing going. Forty, fifty quid for twenty minutes, and you come storming in like you’re the bloody police!” Huffing a disbelieving laugh.
I scoffed, pointing back down the street. “You call that a good thing? He was grabbing you like a rag doll. You’re off your face and laughing like it’s funny.” She chuckled, struggling to light a cigarette with trembling hands. I snatched the lighter from her, catching the flame on the cigarette held between her lips.
“I’ve had worse, alright? He wasn’t gonna hurt me. Not really. You just ruined the one decent chance I had to make some actual money tonight.”
Anger bloomed in me once again. “Yeah? And that money was gonna go where, exactly? Toward food? Or straight up your nose? Or into Danny’s greasy hands as soon as you walk through the door?”
Her face twisted, venomous. “You ungrateful little shit.”
“I’m not stupid Mum, neither is Squeeks. We see it. You come home with your eyes half shut and pockets full, and suddenly Danny’s got cash to burn and pills to sell.”
She exhaled hard, smoke flaring from her nostrils like a warning. “I’m doing what I have to do. You think this life gives a toss about us? About you two?”
“You don’t give a fuck about us! You don’t even look at Squeeks anymore. She asks where you are every night, and I have to make up some fucked-up story, so she doesn’t think you’re dead in a skip somewhere.”
“Aww, poor little Screech,” she mocked, leaning forward. “Playing house while Mummy’s out being a whore!—”
“You said it, not me.” I wanted to hurt her, not physically, but in a way that might make her realise. But I knew it wouldn’t work. It never did. She wouldn’t admit it, but she loved this life too much to walk away. She got to live without responsibility. Apart from sleeping around and answering to Danny, she got to do what the hell she liked.
Her face froze for a second, blank, then suddenly alight with rage. “You think you’re better than me, don’t you?” She spat.“You’re a dirty little thief who’ll end up just like Danny. Or worse. You ain’t gonna save your sister from any of this, so stop trying.”
I stared at her, my chest heaving, my jaw clenched so hard it hurt. “Over my dead body will Squeeks ever turn out like you!”
For a moment, the only sound between us was the wind. She laughed, a bitter and broken sound, then turned from me, stumbling up the path toward the house.
