CRAIG
CRAIG
My baby brother, Christopher, is a total dude and his laugh is my most favourite sound in the world. So, when I had to skip out on the Desperate For Aces gig with Alex last night to babysit him, I really didn’t mind. That gig was not a place I should have been anyway, and attending it carried a genuine risk of landing me in more strife. I’m well aware of just how little it’d take to knock me from this precarious edge I’m walking; Dad made that abundantly clear. A tame evening of singing nursery rhymes and crayoning in the playroom while my parents entertained Louis and Kathryn Tinwell downstairs suited me just fine.
But when I returned home from college this afternoon to be informed by Mum that she and Dad were ‘going out’, leaving me to watch Christopher again in their absence, I began to suspect that they were considering this as a convenient penalty for my misbehaviours. And that suspicion is having the intense effect of making me feel imprisoned, which in turn, makes me restless.
“Use this time to get ahead on your college assignments,” Dad advised me on his way out the door. Except, even if Christopher allowed me enough peace and quiet to study, it’s not a secret that my every sleepless night has me well on top of all my work.
“No guests in our absence,” Mum added, barely sparing me a glance.
Christopher started fussing the minute they’d gone like he too felt frustrated by our house arrest. I allowed only enough time for my parents to drive free of the estate before scrawling a brief message on the kitchen whiteboard, just in case, and retrieving the spare baby seat from the cupboard under the stairs. Surely, there’s minor issue that could be raised about an outing to the play park, right?
Roxy, my beautiful GT-R, has lulled Christopher almost to sleep in the twenty minutes it takes to drive across town. And now, I’m pulling into the curb alongside a neat, terraced row. We’re a three street walk away from our destination, but we have one stop to make first.
“Hey, buddy,” I gently rouse him as I park Roxy up behind a familiar Honda Civic and cut the engine. “Looks like someone’s home.” He whinges a little while I free him from the car, quick to settle when I snuggle him into my chest. “Should we see if our big brother fancies coming out to play?”
Usually, I would’ve just dropped Alex a call to let him know we’re here, check on his whereabouts. This time, though, I’m forced to knock, and our unannounced visit brings his mum to the door of their mid-terrace home.
Steel grey eyes take us in as Lorraine folds her arms over her chest, propping a shoulder against the door frame. “Well, isn’t this a surprise?”
Christopher lifts his head from my shoulder at the sound of her voice, turning in my arms to reach a pudgy hand out towards her. I don’t fail to notice that the warm smile she’s ever quick to flash him falls short of touching me. “Hey, Lorri.”
“Not dead in a ditch after all, huh?” She asks, staring pointedly at my black eye. “Not locked up? Not kidnapped for ransom?”
“Umm…”
“Haven’t been caught up in an illegal fighting ring or ran away to join a cult?”
“Nope,” I shrug, wincing. “But I appreciate your concern.”
I genuinely like Alex’s mum. More than that, I respect her. Smart and honest and witty, she makes it difficult not to. The pity of it is, I’m always too acutely aware that Lorraine is little more tolerant of me than my mum is of Alex.
She generally does a far better job of playing nice, though.
Unless…
Unless, yep:
“Your father’s obsession with pinning your every transgression on my son is the concern I have, Craig.”
That would do it. “Oh.”
“Oh, you say? Oh indeed! Thirteen times he called me the other night, blaming my parenting for your disappearing act. Does that man know what a mirror is?”
Because, of course, no one can get me on her shit-list swifter than the bastard who left her nothing but a bun in her oven seventeen years ago to start a fresh bake with his younger mistress.
“And you could certainly do with taking a good, hard look at yourself, too. The state you’re in,” she tuts. “It might encourage you to think before you act in the future.”
“Have you thought of maybe just blocking his number?” I make nothing better.
But, thankfully, I’m saved from her reply by the sound of footsteps descending the stairs behind her.
“This loser bothering you, Mum?” Alex appears.
Broader in build than I am, wheat-gold hair and eyes the blue of winter, his humour dry enough to burn; there’s serious credit due to the irony of fate, that the child Dad’s never wanted is the one he can least deny as his.
“Thought it was you I heard,” he says.
Christopher squirms in my arms, craning his neck to better see. I almost lose my hold. “Reckon he’s missed you.”
“Duh!” Practically shoving his mum out of the way, Alex wastes no time plucking him from me. “Hey, chunk.”
Lorraine tuts again. “I’ll leave you boys to it, then, should I?” She straightens up from the door frame and unfolds her arms. “Don’t you be leading either of these Lawton boys astray today, mind, Son.”
Not like I expected an invite inside or anything, but I still flinch when the door is promptly shut on us. “Damn, she’s pissed.”
“That she is.” Alex laughs, a short bark, as Christopher grabs hold of his nose and tugs. “I’ve been calling you, bro. What you been up to?”
“Nothing I shouldn’t be, your mum may rest assured.”
“Right, like your understanding of ‘shouldn’t’ would reassure anyone.”
“My hindsight is pretty sharp on it; I’ll have you know.”
The look he flicks me is not amused. “Not sharp enough for you to ever see the need for a ‘sorry’.”
“Doesn’t ever undo what’s done.” I move ahead toward the gate. “So, park? You up for it, yeah? Chrissy w—”
“Nope.”
“—What?” I stop and turn.
“Not cute.”
“What?”
“Chris- sy .” Making a point of covering Christopher’s ears, he grimaces, rolling his eyes. “Sissy-Chrissy. Come on, man, as if that name doesn’t suck dick.”
That barb lands, stinging, but his attention’s already shifted back with a grin to the kid on his hip. “Whatever.” I shove his shoulder as he passes, a playful bounce to his step. If Alex is still sour with me, I’ve nothing to gain by indulging it. “Knob.”
He swings on the gate as it squeals open, and his grin stretches all the wider when he spots Roxy at the curb. “Drop me off at Steph’s after the park?”
Seems little point in me answering. Alex doesn’t wait for it, sending Christopher into a fit of giggles as he dances along the street. “You want to be up on my shoulders, little man?” he’s saying. “Yeah, you do! Ready to giddy up?”
With a snort, I follow them onto the pavement, closing the gate behind me. They’re an entertaining duo to watch. Christopher is the only person I know who can bring out this sunnier side of Alex. And the pair spends little enough time together that every precious second of what they do counts. I don’t hurry to keep up.
It’s not until they reach the end of the street, about to turn the corner and disappear, that Alex spares me another thought. Christopher has now been hoisted to his shoulders and is gleefully cuffing him about the ears. “I’ve something to ask you, actually, while I remember.”
He’s stopped walking, so I do too. There’s a four-house space between us. “Okay?”
“About that guy, whatshisface…? The one who didn’t leave your sorry butt in the woods to die.”
“Oh. Kay?”
“Sebastian.” He clicks his fingers.
And I start my feet moving again as a scathing hazel glare springs unbidden to mind. “That’d be him.”
“Swear I recognise him from somewhere.”
“Well, he does live with Ash, so…”
His head shakes, a frown creasing his brow. “Feels like an itch I can’t scratch, and it’s doing my nut in.”
Christopher stretches out toward me as I close in alongside, and Alex swiftly rounds the corner, crossing into the next street, lest I try to snatch him back.
“I don’t hear a question there that you’ve not answered for yourself, Al.” I don’t at all know why I’m pointing that out. I’ve been tormented by whatshisface and that whole hideous experience plenty enough already these past couple of days, and I have no further insight to share.
Except…
Except.
“You know he was at your house yesterday?”
There’s that. “Yeah.” I break into a jog to catch him up. “He has my phone. But how do you know?”
Alex side-eyes me. “You weren’t picking up my calls, so I thought to drop by. Passed his truck heading out on my way in.” Then, because he misses nothing: “He has your phone?”
“He does indeed. Still.” And that is what’s doing my nut in.
I spied on Sebastian’s visit through the playroom window, drawn by the sounds of a commotion. Ashleigh was with him, looking on from the passenger seat of a shoddy pick-up as he kicked off at the gates. Dad didn’t take well to it, that’s for sure. I can only assume Alex took the brunt of it when he arrived in their wake. Yet, after coming all that way out, nothing was left behind for me when the truck rumbled away.
“Guess I’ll have to go collect it at some point,” I shrug.
“You guess?” A bemused look is sent up to the heavens. “Damn, bro. You’re not easy to reach at the best of times, but seriously?”
“Not like anyone ever tries beside you.”
“Right, and you don’t think I would’ve appreciated a heads-up that you were ditching me last night? We had plans, remember?”
“You know I’m not much of an Ace’s fan, Al,” I sigh. “As if you seriously expected me to turn up to their gig.”
“Because I should know better than to take you at your word?”
“Come off it. You were there with Steph anyway, so don’t pretend like it bothered you.”
“Steph stood me up, too, actually.”
“Ah.” Okay, now the sudden edge to his voice makes more sense. “What did you guys fall out about this time?”
“We didn’t. We’re good.”
Turning another corner, the play park comes into view, and I quicken my pace as Alex lengthens the distance between us.
“And you’re missing my point, in any case,” he goes on without a backward glance. “It’d just be great if you could answer my calls once in a while.”
“Is it really such an issue that I didn’t show?”
“No. It’s an issue that I had no way of making sure you wouldn’t.”
I’m definitely missing his point. “Say what, now?”
“Because it’s not like I can count on you to ever be predictable.”
“Did something happen at the gig?”
“Nothing that’s any of your concern.”
“So, what? You’re just determined to be pissy with me, then, are you?”
That gives him pause. Darting me a look, he manoeuvres Christopher down from his shoulders and then, with a shake of his head, finally eases his stride as I draw in close. “Okay, yeah,” he shoots a flippant smirk, his tone giving up its bite. “That’s exactly it.”
I really should stop underestimating how impossible my brother can be.
We arrive at the park gate. Thanks to the lousy weather, the place is empty, and my baby brother is finally relinquished back to me as big bro launches himself at the jungle gym, ever eager to show off.
I carry Christopher over to the swings. A giggle erupts from him as I awkwardly guide his chubby legs through the seat harness, and I’m glad that he, at least, is getting the desired enjoyment from this trip.
“Hey, Al. Here’s a thought.”
Alex’s reply isn’t immediate, and when it does come, it’s one strained word as he powers across the monkey bars. “Yeah?”
“If you were to go collect my phone for me, you could ask Sebastian how it is you know each other.”
Another long wait follows my suggestion, and I get the sense this one is an entirely deliberate delay. A glance over my shoulder finds him hanging one-handed from a bar, the middle finger of his free hand rudely pointed skyward.
“Like I said, just a thought.”
“Must all your thoughts inconvenience me?”
“It’s not an intentional effort.”
He grunts as he resumes his workout. “You should make that your motto.”
I take up position behind Christopher so that we’re both facing Alex’s acrobatic display, and I start his swing off with a gentle push. “Don’t hurry to grow up, Chrissy, please. I’m really not looking forward to becoming a disappointment to you, too.”