Did You Get What You Deserve?

“Your stepbrother?”

Alec nodded grimly.

“I used to watch him sit in our back yard and tear the wings off butterflies. Then he would pretend they were flower petals and give them to my mum. Justin was the sweet one, Justin was the nice one, Justin could charm the pants off the president. And I was the one who took all the falls, all the blame, everything. If things went well, Justin was the mastermind behind it all. But if anything went wrong, I was to blame. ‘Take care of your little brother,’ she said, ‘he’s young, he’s innocent, he needs protection.’ The only person he needed protection from was himself. No wonder he’s in Guantanamo. It’s the best place for him, the little creep.”

Alec tossed the photo of Melanie and Justin into the box and walked out of the room. Melanie looked at me uncertainly. I shook my head. She had obviously never experienced Alec’s darker side, the one he kept in a locked box. When he was younger, it had come out through tears. Now, it came out through periods of angry moodiness.

“What do I do?” she whispered.

“Nothing,” I said. “Let him get it all out. One conquest at a time. Once this is over, the whole Justin saga will have come to a close, and if you never mention it, he will never mention it. Ever. One tip though: take all photos of Justin and lock them away where Alec will never find them.”

She nodded, and continued wrapping the photos in newspaper, putting aside any that contained her ex. Presently, Alec came back into the room and started helping her as cheerfully as he had been before, until he checked his watch and declared we should be getting home.

As we walked up the steps to the front door, Alec put his hands over my eyes.

“Now, we’re going to go straight through to your room, and you are not going to come out for anything until I come and get you, okay?”

I nodded. Alec steered me through the kitchen and down the hallway, depositing me in my room and closing the door. I sighed and picked up a book, but before I could open it there was a knock on the door.

“Come in!”

The door opened and I saw Danielle.

“Has anything changed in here?”

“No.”

“Good.”

She walked straight towards me, skipping over a book that was lying in the middle of the floor.

“You really need to clean your room,” she said. “There’s so much junk in here, like this.”

She reached out and grabbed an empty chip packet from my desk.

“You know,” I remarked, “you never cease to amaze me.”

She smiled wryly.

“One of the things about being blind is that your other senses sharpen. I could smell that packet from the door. I could hear the sound of my footsteps bouncing off the book on the floor. Alec, there’s a party tonight, and some of it is no doubt going to take place in your room. Now why don’t we tidy this up?”

She grabbed a jersey off my bed and held it up.

“Clean or dirty?”

“Dani!” I snatched it from her. “I’ll do this. You sort the books.”

She laughed.

“They better have embossed titles.”

“They do.”

She picked up the nearest book and ran her fingers over the title, then cleared a space on the bookshelf and started stacking books in alphabetical order.

“You’re so neat and tidy,” I sighed. She grinned.

“Think about it. If I had chaos, I would be perpetually falling over. It’s far easier to remember where things are when there’s some sort of logic to it.”

“True.”

The door opened quietly. Dani smiled, but I didn’t look round. I knew who it was. And sure enough, about a second later there was warm breath on my ear and fingertips creeping up my arms.

“Hey beautiful.”

“Hi James.”

“How about a quick shag before people get here?”

I elbowed him in the guts. He doubled over, laughing, while I shook my head.

“You should know by now, the answer is always going to be no. Now why don’t you go amuse yourself somewhere else?”

“But why should I, when I have you to amuse me?”

He grabbed me by the hand and pulled me down onto the floor, then rolled on top of me and lay there, keeping me pinned down.

“There,” he said, “isn’t this fun?”

I raised an eyebrow. He kissed me quickly and rolled off so I could get up.

“If you don’t mind,” said Dani, “I’m still standing right here.”

“Oh, are you?” said James, “what a surprise. Danielle, I can see up your skirt.”

“That’s nice,” she replied, “what colour are my undies?”

“Ew, Dani!” he cried, hiding his eyes, “that was crossing a line. What are you, some kind of porn star?”

Dani flicked her head in a motion that, for her, was the equivalent of rolling her eyes.

“You were the one who started it. James, this is three-year-old behaviour. Now stop perving on your little sister and do something with your pathetic life.”

James sneered at her. Dani raised her eyebrows at me.

“He’s sneering, isn’t he?”

“Yep.”

“Thought so. James, you better get out of the way, because I’m about to sit down and start arranging Alec’s video games.”

James hurried rolled out of her way, coming to a stop at my feet.

“Hi!” he said brightly.

“Hello,” I responded, instinctively stepping away from him. He pouted and turned away, folding his arms and looking sulky, until I sat down beside him, at which point I found myself instantly pinned to his side and with no way of escape.

“You’re my prisoner now,” he declared happily.

I rolled my eyes. This little game had been played many, many times.

“Nooo,” I said sarcastically, “let me go!”

He smiled and placed his finger on the tip of my nose.

“I don’t think so,” he said.

I crossed my eyes trying to look at his finger.

“Remove it in the next two seconds or I’ll bite it off.”

Laughing, he obliged, kissing me instead.

“I love you too,” he said.