1401: Part 17

Sian had had trouble concentrating all day. She and her peers had noticed the inspectors milling around in the school, and they all knew that everyone had to pull together. The pressure had proven to be rather distracting; she hadn’t got into trouble, but several of her teachers had commented that she didn’t seem to have completed as much work as she usualy did.

Longmore had its share of disruptive kids, sure, but even the very worst-behaved students wouldn’t want to see their school close down after a poor inspection — though very few of them would actually admit that. Even Edward probably doesn’t want the school to close down, Sian thought to herself with a slight smile.

She’d found herself thinking about Edward quite a lot over the last few days. It wasn’t that she was developing romantic feelings for him — she’d never been in a proper relationship, and somehow felt that jumping into such an entanglement with someone as volatile as Edward probably wouldn’t be a good idea — but she did acknowledge that, in spite of everything, she cared about him and wanted to see him succeed, or at least not to fail.

She knew that Edward didn’t really have any friends. On the rare occasions when he was in school, he was always by himself; occasionally his peers would egg him on when he got into a rage, but this was more for their own amusement than offering him actual encouragement. In fact, more often than not such confrontations tended to end with Edward getting into trouble as his peers just laughed and jeered at him, and Sian always found herself pitying him when such incidents occurred.

She put up her hood against the chill wind that was blowing outside. She was waiting for Jasmine and Nicola, but had seen no sign of them as yet. Where could they be?

“Uh, Sian?” came a voice behind her. She instantly recognised it, and turned around to face the person who had addressed her.

“Edward,” she said with a smile. “How are you doing?”

“Not bad,” he said, a sullen expression on his face. “I nearly finished my music composition.”

“That’s great,” she said. “You got that done quickly.”

He looked a little embarrassed.

“I spent most of the day working on it,” he said. “Miss let me use the computer after I got kicked out of lessons in the morning. I got bollocked at lunchtime for wandering off, but I don’t really care.”

Sian smiled.

“Well, I’m glad you managed to get some work done,” she said. “I’ve nearly finished mine, too. I’ve been working on this one for ages, I’ll be glad to get it over and done with.”

Silence fell between them. Edward gazed at the floor. Sian wasn’t sure where to look.

“Uh,” he grunted after a moment. “Would you mind coming home with me again? I need to talk about some stuff.”

Sian raised her eyebrow quizzically, but didn’t object.

“Sure,” she said. “I was waiting for my friends, but they don’t seem to be coming. Are you ready to go now?”

“Yeah,” he said, and immediately started walking. Sian quickly caught up with him and walked alongside him.

“So what did you want to talk about?” she asked as they left the school gates and began walking up the road.

“It’s… sort of a bit weird and embarrassing,” he said. “But you’ve been nice to me, so I think I can talk to you about it. I need to talk to someone about it because it’s just been building up and building up inside my head and — augh! You know what happens when I get frustrated.”

Sian nodded grimly, but said nothing. The pair continued walking up the road in silence for a moment, the only sounds the crunching of their feet on the pavement and the distant sounds of their peers laughing and shouting.

“You mustn’t tell anyone about this,” he said eventually. “You mustn’t. Will you promise me?”

“Sure,” said Sian, though she already felt wary of what secret she was about to burden herself with.

“Okay,” he said. He took a deep breath, then began to speak.

“It’s my Dad,” he began. “Ever since my Mum left, he’s been a real mess. He doesn’t know how to deal with being by himself, and he doesn’t know how to deal with me or talk to me. He gets angry at me all the time and treats me like shit, and that’s what makes me angry. But because I get so angry, no-one believes me that it’s all because of him; they just think it’s me being an arsehole. And maybe I am. Everyone hates me, so I must be a complete dick, right?”

“No,” said Sian. “I don’t think you’re a dick. I wouldn’t be here right now if I did, would I?”

Edward contemplated this for a moment as the pair continued to walk up the road.

“No, I guess not,” he said. “Anyway, when he gets angry, he kind of takes it out on me a bit. He—” Edward paused here for a moment, apparently collecting himself. “He hurts me. He always makes sure never to leave a mark or do anything that people might notice, but sometimes he really hurts me. Some days I just can’t face coming into school, the pain’s so bad. I’m not just skiving — I mean, sometimes I am — but sometimes there’s just no way I can get out to school after he’s done a number on me.”

“I’d have thought you’d want to get out of the house if something like that happened,” said Sian, shocked at what she was hearing. “I’d want to run away.”

“I’ve got nowhere to go,” he said. “And besides, by the morning he’s either gone out to work, or he’s forgotten everything that happened the night before.”

“Forgotten?” said Sian. “How?”

“He drinks,” said Edward, looking at the ground as he walked. “He drinks a lot. He doesn’t know when to stop. He just comes home, chugs it back and then he gets angry and aggressive, and I can’t do anything. I’ve got nowhere to go and nothing I can do.”

“Haven’t you called the police or something?” Sian asked. “Surely they could help?”

“He’s my Dad,” said Edward. “He may treat me like shit but he’s all I’ve got. What kind of shit would I be if I dobbed in my own old man?”

Sian wasn’t sure what to say to that. It sounded like Edward was caught in a very difficult situation.

Presently, they arrived at Edward’s house. As before, no-one was at home, and Edward led Sian into the kitchen, pouring her a drink without asking.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I know I can’t keep doing this. I get so angry. I’m surprised I haven’t hurt anyone or got kicked out of school yet. I don’t know why they put up with me.”

“Edward,” said Sian. “It’s not your fault. Listen! It’s not your fault. Your Dad’s dealing badly with something in his own life, and that’s something he’s going to have to learn to deal with on his own — especially if he wants to keep you around. But you can’t keep just taking this. It’s not fair to you. I really think you should say something to someone.”

“They wouldn’t believe me,” he said.

“They have to listen,” said Sian. “You should really try it.”

“No!” said Edward forcefully, putting his glass down on the counter with a “bang”. Sian said nothing further.

“I’m sorry,” he said eventually. “I just don’t know how to deal with this. He’s been behaving really weirdly lately, particularly in the last week or so. He’s up to something. I don’t know what, but he is. He even locked me in my room a couple of times, and I could hear something going on downstairs, but I couldn’t hear what. I don’t know what he was doing.”

“He locked you in your room?” said Sian. “That’s…” But she held her tongue. Edward had made it clear that he didn’t want to tell anyone — except her, apparently — and so she didn’t push the matter.

“He’s going to be home soon,” he said, looking at his watch — a battered, retro-looking digital affair. “You should get out of here before he comes back.”

“Okay,” said Sian. “And Edward, if I can do anything to help, just let me know.”

She took out a pen and tore a strip from a notebook she had in her bag. She wrote her phone number down on the scrap of paper and handed it to him.

“I don’t have a mobile,” he said. “But thanks.”

Sian blinked, and there was an awkward silence for a moment. She was the one to break it.

“I’d better go,” she said. “I hope things aren’t too bad tonight.”

“I hope not,” he said. “See you tomorrow.”

Sian turned away from him and headed for the front door, smiling. That “see you tomorrow” was the most positive thing she’d ever heard him say.

 

*  *  *  *

When Sian eventually got home, she went straight up to her room to do her homework. It was mostly catch-up work today, and quite a bit of it due to the fact she had been distracted by the inspectors. Once she put on some music and got into a good groove with it, however, she found that most of it didn’t take long to complete at all.

Tossing her pen aside as she finished writing her answer to the last question, her thoughts turned back to her earlier conversation with Edward. Her stomach churned at the thought of his father abusing him, and in such a careful, calculated way as to hide the signs of abuse from prying eyes, too. The thought that people such as that existed in this world made her feel a little sick, and she noticed her hands were trembling at the thought.

She had to talk to someone about this. She knew she’d promised Edward she wouldn’t, but there was no way she could bottle this up inside.

She didn’t think Jasmine and Nicola would handle the situation with any degree of maturity, and she didn’t feel comfortable talking to her parents about it; she felt pretty sure they’d misunderstand the situation and assume she was in a relationship with Edward, which would lead to all sorts of what they thought were light-hearted mocking comments, but which Sian found intensely frustrating. It had happened before.

That left Kristina, really, and she didn’t know if she should share something like that with her teacher. Or her friend. What was she to Sian?

They’d agreed to be friends, with an implicit agreement that they’d help each other through tough times. Kristina had already opened up to Sian and shared her worried about her friend, so why shouldn’t she reciprocate? After all, Kristina was an adult, and might know what Sian should do, if anything.

Kristina, Sian typed, then stared at the screen for several minutes wondering what to say next. I’m sorry to bother you, but I need your help. She deleted the word “help” and replaced it with “advice”. Then she deleted the words “your advice” and replaced them with “to talk to you”.

I need to talk to you, she continued. Is it all right to share some stuff with you?

Vague enough, she thought. I don’t want to jump straight into it.

A few moments later, the response came through with a beep.

What’s up? it said.

Well… Sian paused before she continued, as if she was speaking the words aloud. I’ve been talking to Edward like I told you the other day, and he finally told me some… stuff.

She sent the message. She didn’t want to give away too much detail at once. She wanted to give Kristina the option to back out of this conversation if she wanted to.

What sort of stuff? came the response.

He’s having problems with his Dad, Sian wrote. Really bad problems, I think. It sounds like his Dad’s hurting him. I don’t know what to do or how to help him. Is there anything I can do?

Sian waited for the response. There was none for several minutes. Sian’s stomach was in knots.

I’m not sure, replied Kristina eventually. But we’ll figure something out, I promise.