Shelby Madness

Chapter 28,'Men and their cocks never cease to amaze me,'

7th November 1919, Small Heath, Birmingham.

The last six months had been tense to say the least, nobody in the Shelby family were speaking to each other and most of them were ignoring Tommy.

John had found out what Thomas had said to Libby after she came in drunk one night and accidently told him what had been said when they argued, John was furious and started a scene the next day in the offices and in a fit of temper had screamed and told Polly what he had said which resulted in Arthur hearing and James finding out, causing an even bigger resentment for his farther than he already had.

Polly was annoyed at Tommy for bridging trouble to their door and the way he was treating his kids and the fact that he had managed to drive his only sister away when she was pregnant.

Arthr was struggling with his mental health and to be honest Tommy was making it worse with the stress he was putting on Arthur.

Ada was with Freddie and they were happy, however when Freddie had told her that Libby was living with John because Tommy had told her to leave, it pushed her further away from her family than she already was.

It had been the twins' birthday in August, their first away from Newcastle and it had been good. The whole family was there, even Ada and Freddie had come for food with them. Everyone was there apart from the man that should have been.

Tommy had yet again failed to make an appearance, letting down his kids for what felt like the millionth time, only this time Polly didn't try to defend him or make excuses, he had knew what today was and what time to be at the restaurant, she had been reminding him all week he just simple hadn't shown up.

John muttered a few times throughout the dinner that Tommy had missed enough birthdays and still hadn't bothered to show up, and of course he was right, John was a father, he had four kids and Libby to look after. So he couldn't get his head around why Tommy wouldn't want to be there for his kids' birthday.

The only time John had ever missed his kids birthdays was when he was at war and even then he made sure to send them a letter home and make sure Polly or Ada bought them something nice to open when they woke up just like he had bought Libby gifts this morning for her to open when she woke up and Arthur had with james. Tommy hadn't even bothered to get his kids a card or bother to walk across the street to say hello to his kids.

Libby seemed to be the only one that wasn't mad at her father which was ironic really. No, she didn't hate him or even hold a small disliking towards him because that meant that she was thinking about him and was wasting her energy on someone who couldn't care less about her or her brother.

In Libby's eyes hate was an emotion and Tommy wasn't worth showing emotion about. Libby was used to disappointment and Tommy wasn't the first person to let her down nor would he be that last and if Libby thought about each person that had let her down and she should hold hatred against she would never stop thinking about people who had hurt her and people who quite frankly didn't care if she was alive or dead.

Libby's last six month had been fairly alright, her and Isaiah had become way closer but to Isaiah dismay they were still only best friends, a little too close for John's liking but he let it go because of how happy Libby was.

Hers and James friendship group had depleted quite a bit as well, it was only, Libby,  Emily (Who had a massive thing for James, but made Libby promise to not tell anyone), Charlotte, Alice, James (Who had a massive thing for Emily, but made Isaiah promise not to tell anyone), Isaiah, Frank and lastly Finn who had only just started to go around with them but it wasn't weird as Alice was the same age as him.

The other had either stopped speaking to them when Lewis was beaten by John or they had naturally drifted away and even though their circle was small it was still quite big really and it was never boring.