Vampire Boy

X

With my knees drawn to my chest, I was watching the night sky when I noticed my mother's car pull into the driveway of our house. With a surprised face, she was frantically motioning for me to get back inside. She was clearly worried I would fall to my death or something. Doing as she said, I backed away from my window and decided to head downstairs since it wasn't often we crossed paths on one of her workdays. 

She was stood in the darkened kitchen, the microwave whirring being the only glow in the room. The bowl inside rotated slowly as she leaned against the counter, watching it go round. It was obvious to me that she was tired because she didn't even realise I was stood at the kitchen doorway until the microwave pinged, pulling her out of her own thoughts. 

She looked pleased to see me, all the same. 

"Thank you for saving me some dinner, sweetheart." She placed a soft kiss to the top of my messy hair, "You wouldn't believe the shift I've had tonight."

She kicked off her shoes and let her hair down, collapsing into the dining room chair with her now-warmed pasta bowl. She was young, only thirty five, but she looked aged. I suppose, in a way, she looked like me with her pale skin, dark eye bags and grey-speckled black hair. Or, rather, I looked like her. The twins, on the other hand, looked remarkably like Dad and I think that made it hard for her at times. Especially Andy, who even shared his same lopsided smile.

"Tell me about it." I began to make myself a mug of warm tea, brewing her one too.

"Well, this kid, just a little bit younger than the twins, ended up in accident and emergency because his mum found an empty packet of rat poison! She kept them under the kitchen sink and she found the empty packet shoved between the sofa cushions, so she rushed her son to the hospital, just in case." She explained, accepting her brew with a smile.

"Did he eat it?" 

"The kid thought the powder was like the sherbet you find in a dip and dab, so he was sticking a lollipop in and licking the rat poison off." My mum groaned, "It was a nightmare, but he's completely fine and being monitored tonight. Poor mother had the fright of her life."

I laughed at that. It sounded like something Angel would have done. My smile was quickly replaced by a frown.

"Andy has been acting..." My sentence trailed off as I was at a loss for words, "I'm concerned about him, is what I'm trying to say."

"His suspension? He hasn't been in trouble for a while, so I thought everything was okay." Mum creased her brow.

"It's not just that." I sighed, "He's been having a little bit of trouble with the other kids at school and it seems to be really taking an effect on him. He also asked me about me moving out, earlier, like he was scared I was going to leave or something."

I considered telling her about catching him fighting with Jimmy, but decided against it. Some things were just better kept between siblings; she would only get mad at his actions and lose sight of why he was acting out like this in the first place.

"I'm sorry that you've had to deal with this, sweetheart."

Ducking my head, I let the silence wash over us. Helping to raise my siblings had never bothered me and I had never resented her or anything for working so much, but I was slightly at a loss for what to do. Andy was very different to me and his reactions and emotions were just another thing that reminded me of our dad. He had that same craving for belonging mixed with bittersweet anguish towards the world. It was probably why Mum didn't know what to do with him, either. 

Mum had always appreciated the help and I loved looking after them, so I didn't mind trying to work through this with her. 

"I'm going to start taking them to football on a Saturday. Both of them." Mum hummed, "I think some time together will do them some good, outside of just in-school football with the same kids they see every day."