Dysfunctional

Introductions

"George!" I shouted when i opened the door. I gave her a vice-like hug and looked up into her face. "Have i ever told you i love you?"

She took a deep breath, "I'd be flattered if i wasn't being choked to death right now. Let me go!"

I let her go and rolled my eyes. "Next time I'll just slam the door in your face."

She rolled her eyes back at me and made herself comfortable in my living room. "Is there some kind of emergency? There better be, I haven't had breakfast yet and I don't want to find out I missed out on pancakes for some get-together."

"I'm pretty sure Alex has a good reason for summoning everyone here." Theo said as he came down the stairs that led into living room, jumping the last one.

"Just shut up and wait till she's here." I said.

"Till who's here?"

"The tooth fairy." I said rolling my eyes. "It's a person duh."

It was at that precise moment that the doorbell rang and i ran to go get it.

"Jessica! You made it. Didn't run anyone over did you?" I said, looking out the door like i was gonna see a dead body lying in the middle of our street.

"Nah. I could only run over you. So this is your house huh?" She said stepping inside.

"Hey you wanna take off your helmet there...its must be hot in there." I said, closing the door behind me.

She didn't take her helmet off instead she turned and asked "You don't happen to have any jam do you? I'm really craving some right now, Strawberry would be fine."

"Check the kitchen." I said pointing her in the right direction.

Stepping into the living room I came face to face with George's signature raised eyebrow, "Who is that?!" She asked.

"That," I started "is the girl who almost killed me."

George's eyes bulged out of their sockets. "She almost killed you?! You should arrest her not offer her jam! Are you nuts?!"

"No I'm Alex.  Calm your titties, you don't even know what happened."

"She tried to knife you? She looks like the type."

"Hey!" said Jessica coming out of the kitchen with a jar of jam in her hand. "I may be a lot of things. A slob, reckless, some might go ahead and call me academically challenged. I'm not all that smart, I might be a little careless, forgetful, ignorant. I drink milk straight outta the carton and lick jam with my hands, I sleep a lot and I-" she paused "sorry where was i going with this?"

"You were getting to the part where you say you aren't a murderer." I said.

"Oh yeah! But I've got morals and principles and i don't knife people. See what happened with your friend here is..."

And she went to tell the story of how I ran out of the house and bummed into her, nearly got run over, decided it was ok to run off with someone i didn't know and attend a party with them...

"And i think she got all nervous because of this guy. Really cute guy, saw them outside. She seemed all flustered and all so i brought her back  here. And that, my friends is the story of how Alex almost died."

"Stop saying that!" said George.

"What? I'm just trying to make things interesting is all. She was the one who ran out of the house."

"Why did you run out of the house. Your mum isn't drinking again is she?" whispered George

"That is a phase in our lives we'd like to forget George. She's fine, absent when you need her, " i added bitterly more to myself than anyone else, "But fine." i said perking up.

"Then why-" the doorbell interrupted George. Theo went to get it and came back with Nick. I made a deliberate effort to ignore him even though he was obviously trying to get me to look at him.

"Hey guys," Nick said making himself comfortable in my living room. He spied Jessica still standing in the entrance way of the kitchen. "I saw you at the party the other night. I don't think i caught your name."

"I'm Jessica." she said simply.

"Nick," he responded.

Jessica nodded, "And you're George," she said smiling at the only other girl in the room. "Why do you bear a boy's name?"

"Because i hate the name Georgina and because i think anyone has the right to call themselves whatever they want. There's no law that says i can't be George and a boy can't be Georgina so i might as well call myself what I'm comfortable with," George said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah next time just say 'cause i like it' like a normal person, " Jessica said in a tone that meant she was saying it all in good nature. "Who's the other boy?" she said pointing at Theo.

"My twin brother Theo. I have five other brothers. Tyler, Tony, Toby, Tommy and Timmy." i said checking them off my fingers.

"So you have six brothers and all their names start with the letter 'T'?" Jessica said laughing a little. "Are y'all living in a storybook or a sitcom or something", she said, "Please don't tell me your name is Theresa or Thelma or something like that?"

When she saw me blush slightly she started laughing really hard. "Tyler, Tony. Toby, Theresa, Theo, Tommy and Timmy. Man, I'd like to shake the hands of the father who came up with that! Its priceless!" she said laughing.

"Ask him when you see him in the afterlife." i said quietly. 

Her laughter ceased immediately. "Oh." she said simply. "I'm sorry, i didn-" she started backtracking.

"Don't bother. You didn't know." i said quietly.

"Alex, what's all this about?" said George, probably looking to change the subject. "Why did you call us all here?"

"What? I can't have all my friends together in one place?" i said smiling slightly.  "Yes that includes you, Jessica." i said answering her silent question.

"You can. But then that's not what this is about, is it? Are you sure your mum isn't drinking again? Because my mum is always ready in case it happens again. She's got the old gang waiting in case she has a relapse." said George.

By old gang George means the men and women who attend Mum's AA meetings. She used to have a drinking problem a while after Dad died and so my older brothers introduced her to the people who attend those AA meetings. After a year of staying clean, she stopped attending. No one thought that was a good idea 'a relapse could come on at any moment and who would help her through it, definitely not her kids', they said. But Mum assured them she'd be fine. She is but then that doesn't mean no one should be alert just in case.

"Our mother is fine George. Stop bringing up a topic that's long forgotten."

George mouthed an 'I'm sorry' and kept silent.

Silence pervaded the room we were all sitted in. It made me feel the pressure to break it and that meant i had to have something to say. But what would i say? I didn't have any earth-shattering secret i wanted to share with them. I just felt like I needed to have my friends with me after that scene with Toby and so i could kill two burds with one stone i decided to introduce them all to Jessica. But i didn't have anything and i knew they were expecting something, well maybe not Jessica, but definitely Theo and the others.

The pressure to say something to break the tension increased and feeling like I'd burst if i didn't say something quickly I blurted out, "I need a job."

All heads turned my way and i immediately felt a different kind of pressure, this one in my right arm. It was the strong urge to face palm. What the heck was that?

Author's note: My apologies for not updating.  Apart from school, I've had a serious case of writers' block. i couldn't write anything for months not even school essays. Its been really bad, deleting and re-writing chapters to this book because none of them felt good enough. But I'm out of it now and ready to get back on the proverbial horse. Kindly show your support if you want this story to continue by leaving comments, voting and sharing as well. Feel free to pm me if you want to ask questions or anything. Thank you