Bad Blood

Part Three

 Chapter Three

Five days stuck in your parents home was more than any woman in her early thirties should be forced to tolerate. So the offer of a trip to the pub from Joe, her brother, was snapped up in a jiffy.

The pub was local to both him and her parents, was a proper community pub. Everyone knew everyone else's business, and most recognised her, or if not her, realised that she was Joe's sister. So she was swamped with questions about her time in Oz as she waited for him to arrive.

When he finally arrived, they headed to a booth in the corner, and she was glad to slump against the cushions and smile at him.

"Thanks for this. I was literally going insane."

He smiled, "yup, I can't imagine going back to live at home."

"They're not bad parents, but my mother, our mother..." She rolled her eyes and he laughed.

"Mother hen you mean?"

She laughed, "that is exactly it. She checks up on me every five minutes. It's driving me insane. And is it reasonable to expect me to be veggie?"

That made him laugh out loud, and he mimicked their mother's voice, "it's all 'but we feel so much healthier since we gave up meat.' All the while Dad is salivating at the cookery shows on TV missing bacon and steak."

That made her laugh again. "I got fried chicken takeaway last night, and he snuck down from bed hearing the rustling, and probably smelling the greasy goodness. Had three pieces..." When he looked at her surprised, she offered, "I bought a bargain bucket cos I knew he was starving. Poor thing."

She watched Joe take a drink, then smiled, he looked like their father, tall, broad and a swarthy complexion, he was a hard working man, and she was immensely proud of him. Luke her ex, he wasn't a patch on her big brother. That was for sure.

"So how's the job hunting going?"

A sore point. She was silent for a long moment.

"That good?"

She shrugged, "it's all different, and since I've been here...I can't bear the thought of being stuck in an office from nine to five. But I don't have much else to shout about."

"You can do anything, sis. You have always been so naturally resourceful."

"Really?" His praise shocked her.

He nodded, "you rushed off at almost eighteen, and made a life for yourself. You knew no one else where you were going, you had nothing. But you made it. I'm sorry it didn't work out, but Luke was a wet fucking rag, he was never enough for you."

She blushed, "and yet it was me that wasn't enough for him in the end."

Joe slammed his hand on the table in anger, "if I ever see him, I'd make his dentist very rich. How fucking dare he?"

She sighed, "I might have stuck it out, never knowing, if I hadn't caught him, so I suppose I have to be grateful."

She was contemplative as they drank their drinks, because she was in a bit of a hole, and it wasn't in her nature to be down, not like this. As the days passed, Josh's offer was plaguing her, and before she had chance to think about what she was saying, she blurted out.

"Josh has asked me to sing, with Mark Four. Album, tour. The lot."

Joe turned a deep shade of red, "is he fucking having a laugh?" When she shrugged, he shook his head, "that bastard still with them?"