Troubled love

5

Danny

I look out the shed door as I hear a car pull up. I see my dads silver 1974 holdern hq come to a stop. I grab a rag and wipe my hands before heading in the back door. My mums setting the table and looks up as I enter.

"Hands." She says before the door even closes.

I sigh and trudge over to the sink. I grab the scrubbing brush and make sure to get under my nails. I dry them off as soon as my dad walks through the door.

"Hey honey how was your day?" He asks kissing my mums cheek.

"It was fine. Let's eat." She smiles.

My five siblings come rushing over from the couch and sit down at the table. I take my seat and make myself a hamburger.

"So, anything happen today?" Dad asks as we start eating.

"They want to take us to the city on-" Charlotte starts.

"Danny skipped school." Mum blurts out. Thomas and Jack stop fighting over the bacon and turn to look at me. Dad slowly raises his eyes and I sink back in my seat.

"You skipped school?" He asks putting his burger down. I sigh and drop my hands onto my lap.

"Yep."

"You do not just get to skip school because you feel like it." He growls. "We pay for you to receive a good education."

"Yeah well it's not that good." I mumble rolling my eyes.

"You ungrateful brat."

"Ungrateful? Did you really just call me ungrateful?" I ask standing up. "I work every spare minute to help you. All the money I make goes to you. So don't come in here calling me ungrateful."

"How dare you speak back to me." He hisses.

"Micheal." Mum says softly as she places a hand on dads arm.

"You are so self entitled." He continues.

"I'm fucking done with this shit." I comment walking towards the front door.

"Danny wait!" Mum calls out but I ignore her. "Danny!"

I get outside and kick over the stupid camp chairs. Rusty whimpers and moves away from me.

"Come here boy." I whisper sitting on the ground against the house.

He comes up to me and shortly after Dingo also waddles up to me. They sit either side of me and I pat them.

"It's not fair is it? No matter what you do it's not right." I sigh staring up at the star filled sky.

Dingo lays her head in my lap and I smile. I pull a pack of cigarettes from my pocket and grab on out. I stare at it for a few seconds before lighting it and placing it between my lips.

Is it healthy for me? No. Does it help? Probably not. I want to quit. But every time I try I fail. So instead I continue to slowly kill my body. Not just with cigarettes but also drinking and weed.

Once it turns to a stump I press it against the ground. I slowly stand up and head to the shed. I continue working until it hits 12am. I pack everything up and lock the shed.

I quietly enter the house and get changed. I collapse onto my bed and almost instantly pass out.

I wake up the next morning and am out of the house by 4am. I'm pretty much doing anything I can to avoid him. Him being my dad.

I lock up the shed and just work. At 5 I hear my dad leave. I open the shed and let the cool morning air flow in.

I finish fixing up the commodore I've been working on and grab the keys from the lock box. I also grab the keys for the Pajero.

I drive the holden off the hoist and park it beside the shed before moving the Pajero into the shed.

I manage to get a new set of tyres on it before Lucile comes out to get me.

"Danny!" She squeals charging at me at full speed.

"Woah!" I exclaim lifting her off the ground.

She giggles in my arms as we head back to the shack. I enter and place her on the ground. I wash my hands and head to my room. I quickly get changed into clean clothes.

"Danny can you take your siblings to school? And drop Tom at his apprenticeship." Mum asks as I enter the kitchen.

"How am I meant to take 5 of us in a three seater?" I ask.

"You can take the maverick." She says putting the twins food in their bags.

"Right. I forgot about that shit box." I mumble.

"Danny!" she scolds.

"What? I'm not lying. Every car we own is a piece of crap." I argue.

"They get us around and that's what matters." She huffs.

"Yeah yeah." I mumble grabbing the keys. "Let's just hope it starts."

"I use it everyday. It runs." She sighs. "Stop waisting time and get going."

I groan and trudge out the door with my siblings following. They pile into the car and I go to the toyota. I take my p plates off it and slap them onto the 1992 ford maverick.

I start the car and speed out of the driveway. By the time we get into town I have a throbbing headache from the amount of noise they produce. I first stop at the school and the three younger ones get out.

Silence engulfs the car as I take Tom to the construction site. I pull up and he jumps out of the car. I take a few seconds before I drive to school. I pull into the parking lot and see Noah walking up to me.

"How come you're driving this?" He asks jerking his head towards the maverick.

"I had to drop everyone of at school." I sigh slamming the door shut. I lock it and we head towards the school.

Noah, as always, starts talking about some chick he hooked up with. I pretty much ignore him as we enter the school. My eyes are drawn to Christian almost instantly.

Warmth floods my body as his eyes meet mine. I swallow and look away from his deep brown eyes.