Wish You Were Sober (Crime Boys)

The Father

~6 years later~

Tommy yawned as he came down to breakfast, with ruffled hair and an untucked shirt. He sat at the breakfast table and clumsily poured himself some milk and cereal.
"Do be careful, Tommy, you're splashing it all over the table!" Wilbur said, although it was in a loving tone.
"Sorry Wil!" Tommy tried to scoop up the fallen cereal with his hands, to no success, until Phil came over to help him.

Wilbur sighed as he went to go gather his schoolbooks. But he paused and glanced at his father.
"Dad... I- uh..." he stumbled over his words. "Umm... there's been some work that I'm struggling on and I wondered if you could... et... I mean- if you're busy..."
"You want help?" Phil sounded exasperated in his response. He's disappointed in me, Wilbur thought. But it was ridiculous. He was doing work harder than his age level all to impress his father, but it was never enough. Tommy, meanwhile, had Phil in thrall.

Despite his jealousy, it was impossible to hate Tommy. He had a mop of curly blond hair and although he called himself 'big man', he was very small. But even more than that, he had a cheeky nature, just the type that charms all adults and he could really get away with anything.

Wilbur, on the other hand, had curly hair like his brother's, but it was the exact dark brown as his mother's had been. He was tall, but the most capturing thing about him was his eyes. Deep brown but so alive, so piercing, it was almost frightening. He wasn't sociable; he was quite the opposite. Wilbur was a more quiet, passionate and anxious person.

As Tommy chattered away to no one in particular as he started his work, Wilbur couldn't help but think that life would be much easier if he was his brother instead. He just seemed so happy and carefree.

Wilbur waited and waited, but Phil didn't come to help him. He didn't come to check on Tommy either. Eventually he came to the conclusion that his father had gone out. Again.

There was not much he could do except make a sandwich for Tommy and himself, only to come to the unpleasant realisation that Phil hadn't been bothered to go to the shop to get anything. They had to make do with some stale biscuits and a previously opened pot of jam. Just great.

After lunch, (if you could even call it that) Wilbur gave up with work and took Tommy out to go make daisy chains. If his own father couldn't make any effort, then neither could he.

"Wil?" Tommy's voice interrupted Wilbur's thoughts. "You're crying! What's wrong!"
"Am I?" He hadn't even noticed what he was doing. "Just Dad's gone again, you know..."
Tommy paused for a second, and the words that he spoke next broke Wilbur's heart.

"I just wish he'd stay, Wil. We can be better, can't we? Maybe we just don't make him happy enough yet."