Down London Road

look overmy shoulder to see what she was bitching about. My blood heated when I saw she was glaring at Cole.
    ‘Mum …’ I warned.
    Her face scrunched up into a hateful, ugly expression. ‘Laughs like that fuckin useless bastard of a man.’
    I shot a look at Cole and a burst of pain exploded in my chest at his downcast expression. He stared at the rug, as if trying to block her words out.
    ‘He’ll turn out just like his dad. A piece of shit. Looks just like him. A piece of –’
    ‘Shut up,’ I snapped, twisting around to face her, my eyes flashing furiously. ‘You can either sit here and finish your dinner in total silence or go back to your bed and drown yourself in drink. Either way, you keep your nasty, gin-soaked thoughts to yourself.’
    Mum blustered incoherently and threw the plate on to our table, sending some errant chips flying. As she pushed herself up off the couch, she began muttering under her breath about ungrateful kids and no respect.
    As soon as she had disappeared into her room, I let out a sigh of relief. ‘Cole, ignore her. You’re nothing like Dad.’
    Cole shrugged, refusing to look at me, the colour on his cheeks high. ‘I wonder where he is.’
    I shuddered at the thought of ever finding out. ‘I don’t care, as long as he’s far away from here.’
    Later that night, after I’d cleaned up the flat, done the dishes and sprayed the sitting room and kitchen with air freshener to get rid of the fish-and-chips smell, I flopped down beside Cole on the couch. He’d finished his presentation and was now surrounded by pieces of a comic he was working on.
    I handed him a mug of hot chocolate as I squeezed on to the other end of the couch, skirting his drawings. I squinted at a piece of paper that was upside down, trying to make out the image. ‘What’s this one about?’
    Cole shrugged, his eyebrows drawn together. ‘Don’t know what’s happening with this one.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Jamie and Alan were helping me with it, but …’
    Uh-oh, the irritation in his voice did not sound good. ‘But … ?’ I frowned. Now that I thought about it, it had been a week since Cole had asked me if he could hang out at Jamie’s. ‘Have you two fallen out?’
    ‘Maybe.’ At least that’s what I thought his mumble translated into.
    Oh, boy. Cole was a laid-back guy and a fight with his friends rarely happened, so I didn’t even know if I wanted to be made aware of why they were fighting. But it was Cole … ‘What happened?’
    The blush on his cheeks made me even warier.
    Oh, crap, this better not be teenage-boy gross. ‘Cole?’
    He shrugged at me again.
    ‘That’s it. I’m getting you weights to wear on your shoulders so you can’t do that to me any more. I thought I told you shrugging does not equate to an answer. Neither does grunting.’
    My brother rolled his eyes at me.
    ‘Or that.’
    ‘It doesn’t matter, all right?’ he bit out, flopping back against the couch to sip at the hot chocolate, refusing to meet my eyes.
    ‘It matters to me.’
    His huge, long-suffering sigh could have filled up a hot-air balloon. ‘He just said something that pissed me off.’
    ‘Oi,’ I admonished. ‘Watch the language.’
    ‘He annoyed me.’
    ‘What did he say?’
    The muscle in Cole’s jaw flexed and for a moment I could see him older, a man. My God, where had the time gone? ‘He said something about you.’
    I winced. ‘Me?’
    ‘Yeah. Something sexual.’
    Oh, Christ
. I flinched. There were just some words you didn’t ever want to hear coming out of your baby brother’s mouth. ‘Sexual’ was definitely one of them. ‘Okay.’
    Cole looked up at me from under his lashes, his mouth twisted into a frustrated grimace. ‘All my mates fancy you, but Jamie went too far.’
    I did not want to know what that meant.
    Instead I thought about how close the two of them were. ‘Did Jamie apologize once he realized he’d gone too far?’
    ‘Yeah, but that’s not the point.’
    ‘It is the point.’ I leaned forward so I could catch his gaze, so he could see how much I meant what I was about to say. ‘Life is too short to hold on to silly grudges. Jamie was man enough to apologize. Be man enough and gracious enough to accept the apology.’
    For a moment he held my gaze, processing my advice. Finally he nodded. ‘Okay.’
    I smiled and sat back. ‘Good.’
    Once he’d turned his attention back to the comic, Ireached for my latest paperback, readying myself to escape