Forked Roads Back

70 - TESSA

A FEW HOURS LATER, I'm woken by the sound of the front door slamming.

Checking the clock on the wall, I see it's nearly one in the morning, and seeing as I hear the fridge door opening and closing, Jamie must finally be home.

He's home, and he's drunk.

Dad mumbles a few words but doesn't wake up as I unwrap myself from the blanket, so I leave him down here. If I stay, Jamie will come and find me, and I don't want to wake him up. I pick up another blanket from the box on my way out, wrapping it around my shoulders as I climb the stairs back up to the front room, preparing myself for drunk Jamie.

He stops in his tracks as I get to the top of the stairs, clearly having seen me. I'm most definitely seeing him. I can see how red his eyes are, and as I get closer, I can smell the stale beer on his breath. He's eating the leftovers, not even bothering to heat it up, and he's eating unattractively with his fingers, dropping taco all over the floor. It's the drunkest I had ever seen him.

"How come you're down here?" He asks, talking slowly to both munch on taco and make himself sound less drunk than he is.

The question sounds vaguely accusatory but I ignore that because it'll be because he's drunk.

"We fell asleep watching Suits, and please keep your voice down. Dad's asleep downstairs." I try not to sound condescending, but he picks up on it and scoffs.

"The door's closed," he snorts. "We're fine." He turns back to the fridge and grabs the milk bottle.

"Jamie!" I scold him. He turns into an uncontrollable four year old when he's drunk. I've worked out the only way to deal with him is to treat him like one if I want him to do anything helpful.

He turns and gives me apologetic eyes so I let it go, picking my battles. He sits down at the table with his tacos so I join him.

"You have a good night?" I ask, stroking back his fringe. "One drink?" I add with a smile.

He laughs. "Yeah. One plus ten more like."

I groan for his liver. "You want some water? Or some coffee?"

"Water please. Thank you."

I smile before standing, kissing his head before grabbing him a glass of water. He doesn't look like he's going to be sick but I grab him two anyway, just in case.

He gulps down half of the first one and then looks at me. "You're so beautiful."

I look up at him and smile. "What? Both of me?" I joke, giggling

I pull my chair closer to him and rest my head on his upper arm. He's really warm, and as I close my eyes, relieved he's home, his lips touch the top of my head.

"Have you had a good day?" He asks softly, now putting his arm around me before deciding to pull me into his lap.

I nod, "Yeah. A very productive day. Got two applications done, so I now have about twenty in across London." That wasn't even a joke.

"Twenty? Wow. Are they local ones?"

It always amazes me how coherent he is when he's been drinking. I suppose it's growing up with a whiskey empire, but I'm taking advantage of any spare moments I have with him.

"Yep. I've sent them in to a couple of schools up the road, and around this area. But I've found a couple that look good in Cambridge too, not far from Mum."

"That's amazing, Tess. Bet you're excited to finally get stuck in."

"Definitely." I still had my PGCE year to go next September, but I was hoping that whatever school took me would like me enough to keep me on permanently afterwards. "Less pottering around after drunken fiancés," I joke, looking up at him.