Alerrie: His Son

Twenty-Five.

Jordie's POV:

I had football training after school and got home as the sky began to darken. Before I'd even got inside my house, my day had worsened as I'd seen Mike's car in the driveway. Slotting my key into the lock, I turned it and entered my house. Immediately, my mum came into the hallway.

"Get your boots off Jordie, I'm not cleaning up the mud they leave any more."

I complied and pulled off my studs and muddy socks.

"Mike's in the living room with your brothers and Amalia. I want you to go in there and be nice and polite, do you understand?"

I nodded and walked towards the room, but my mum moved into my way.

"Jordie, I'm not going to be so lenient with you today. Be polite or you'll be facing far worse consequences than just having your phone taken off of you. Do you understand me?!"

"Yeah." I mumbled and she let me pass. I shuffled into the living room to see Mike sat on an armchair, leaning forward and talking to my siblings, who were sat on the sofa opposite. Amalia and Cameron looked reasonably excited, whereas Ky looked bored out of his skull. They all looked up when I walked in.

"Ah Jordie, I was wondering when you'd join us." Mike smiled. There was food stuck in his teeth and I internally grimaced. "What have you been doing then? A bit of rugby?"

"Football." I mumbled.

"How interesting." He replied. "Your siblings and I were just talking about our favourite things to do, and I'm guessing football is one of yours."

"Yeah."

"Anything else you enjoy doing?"

"Sport in general, and I have a guitar so that too I guess."

"You play do you?"

"A bit, yeah."

"Are you good?"

"Um, I don't know. Maybe?"

"I'd like to see you play sometime. I think music's one of those things that only a few people really possess the talent for but countless others think they have." Smirked Mike. That irritated me a little - yeah sure, not everyone was a talented musician but that was what practice was for wasn't it? And anyway, since when did you have to be good at something to enjoy it? I brushed aside the comments that filled my brain, remembering my mum's earlier words, and instead smiled at Mike.

"Do you play an instrument then Mike? Or sing?" I asked, pretending to take an interest in his life.

"Oh no!" He laughed. "Music is not one of my many talents, I can assure you. I played a bit of trombone in my youth, however, and I do admit that I enjoyed that. I'm also quite partial to a bit of listening to music. Hearing a good vinyl is definitely one of life's greatest pleasures."

"Vinyls? Aren't they a bit before your time?"

"Vinyls are for everyone buddy. You should give them a try, they're much better than any of this rubbish that's popular these days."

And there it was - the unnecessarily rude comment that pushed my buttons no matter how hard I tried to stop myself from being annoyed at this complete idiot. He was irrelevant and what he said didn't matter so I shouldn't have given him the satisfaction. Despite every part of me urging me not to respond, I carried on the conversation.

"Why do you think music is rubbish these days?"

Mike laughed, which really pissed me off. "Where do I start? Half of the people can't sing, the songs they come out with are all the same, all songs are auto tuned and have awful lyrics and music and most of the artists are just pretty faces who let their looks carry them to success despite not actually having any talent to back that up."