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As Jake trudged through the front door of his home, the weight of the world seemed to press down on his shoulders, his steps heavy with the burden of his own turmoil. The familiar surroundings offered little solace as his mind continued to swirl with confusion and regret, the memory of his kiss with Rachel haunting his every thought.
What the fuck had he done?
He forced a strained smile as he greeted his mum, his heart heavy with the knowledge of the mess he had made. Making his way into the currently empty living room, he slumped down onto the settee. His head fell into his hands and he ran his fingers through his hair.
A few seconds later, Karen bounded into the living room – still in her school uniform, but with one sock off and knotted into her hair – and sat down next to her brother. "I have some very sad news," she stated sombrely.
Removing his head from his hands, Jake turned to look at her. His mind was still consumed by thoughts of Natalia and the rift he had inadvertently caused between them, but he didn't want to make his own misery transfer to Karen by ignoring her.
"Oh gosh. What happened?"
"Mummy murdered a mouse today."
Now, this did surprise Jake. "She what?"
Before Karen could respond, Ben bounded into the room and catapulted himself at Jake, body-slamming him onto the floor.
From under the weight of his brother, a muffled response from Jake came: "Ben, what the f-"
Interrupting him, Ben eloquently explained how in class today, him and Ibrahim had been learning about medieval trebuchets and had been terrorising the girls in the playground at break. Ben had wanted to discover whether it would be harder to bulldoze down a bunch of girls or Jake. He informed Jake, "I thought you'd be more difficult to pummel into the floor, but actually you're quite stick-like, so you just sort of fell over like a domino."
"Right. Cheers for that flattering description, Ben."
"You're welcome!" he replied cheerily – not registering the sarcasm – before launching himself at Karen, who fell over with a scream.
Worriedly, Sue ran into the room – expecting Karen to be hurt – but now, it appeared that she should be more concerned by the state of Ben, who – being repeatedly thwacked on the head by Karen's hard, pointy, plastic fairy wand – was looking vaguely concussed.
"Karen!" Sue exclaimed, pulling the little girl off of her brother. "I've told you a thousand times not to kill Ben."
Karen appeared to look repentant for a second, before she jabbed her wand into Ben's arm, causing him to yelp and jump in alarm, stating, "Actually, you've only told me not to kill him thirty-two times, because I counted, and it's important to count because Lord Sugar says... well, actually I forgot what he says, but I am very good at counting. That's what Miss Braybrook always tells me."
