Did You Get What You Deserve?

“...Gig.”

“You what?”

“I got us a gig.”

“No way! Seriously?”

He nodded. We were all sitting there, staring at him in shock. He grinned, pleased at the effect his words had had.

After five seconds of silence, we all jumped up and started bouncing around the room in pure excitement. So great was the excitement that I hugged James without realising. Well, I knew I was hugging him, but I didn’t care and neither did he. After a minute of bouncing, Matt told us to sit down again. Sasha, her face bright, leaned forward.

“How’d you do it?”

“I know people.”

At that moment the door opened and Matt’s older brother, the one who almost knocked us over on the stairs, poked his head in.

“Can you keep it down in here please? I told you, Miriam has a headache.”

Matt nodded.

“Sorry, Gav.”

As the door closed, he turned back to us.

“That’s my big brother, Gavin.”

“How many siblings do you have, Matt?”

He laughed.

“Lots. Well, there’s Lloyd, Miriam and Gavin. They’re older than me. Lloyd doesn’t live at home any more. His flatmate got us the gig. And then there’s Michelle, Monica and Jade, who are younger than me. Jade’s five, Monica’s eight, Michelle’s eleven, Gav’s sixteen, Mim’s seventeen and Lloyd’s twenty. So I’m slap bang in the middle. I’d say out of all of my siblings, I’m closest to... Michelle.”

Lindsay stretched back on the bed next to me.

“Do any of them go to our school? I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of them.”

Matt nodded.

“Jade’s just started in the juniors. Gavin and Miriam go to a different school, and Monica and Michelle are homeschooled. Monica went to our school for a few years, but she wasn’t learning much so Mum pulled her out to keep Michelle company. They’re really different, but they get along really well. Michelle’s super smart. I’m talking genius here. She’s doing work at the same level I am. And Monica... well, she’s not retarded or anything, she just needs to learn everything a different way. Like if you tell her that eight plus seven is fifteen she won’t remember it. She needs to find it out for herself. So for maths like that, she uses beads. Counts them out and stuff. She’s smart in her own way.”

Lindsay nodded.

“Sounds fun.”

Matt shrugged.

“Mum gets worn out teaching them. And it’s hard without Dad...”

We looked at him quizzically. He hunched his shoulders, as though for protection.

“My parents are separated. Not divorced, just living apart. It’s because of Dad’s job. He moves around so much that now he just moves on his own and we stay here. He comes home sometimes... but not often. He used to visit every other weekend, but now he goes months at a time without even calling. He came home for Christmas though. But before that it was months...”

He turned and stared out the window while we all looked at each other. What do you say when someone tells you something like that? I’m sorry? Poor you? Cheer up? No. None of them work. So we were silent. After a moment, Matt looked back at us, his cheerful persona back and his eyes only slightly red.

“So, shall we do some practising?”

That was the first time he really opened up to us. It would be years before he did it again, but that brief glimpse of the real Matt helped me understand, just a bit, everything he was going through that he kept so secret.