*** Sorry, I had to do two seperate post, who knew there was a word limit on posts?***
It Started with a ManBy Madcatta
It started with a man. At the age of 31, he grew tired of his life on the south coast of England. The rolling hills and sand dunes with splatterings of grass on them were really quite dull after a while, and the deep blue sea was just a sea? always there, always the same. And so he sold his house and moved far north, right up, past London, past Birmingham, past Manchester, finally settling in between Leeds and York. There he met a woman, 29, and fell in love. Greg married Molly two years later, in her family church in a small Yorkshire town.
And ten months later Molly gave birth to Amanda. 37 happy months passed and Molly became pregnant again, with her son Rupert born five weeks early. When Rupert was in a good enough condition to come home (there was a slight infection, but it was treated and he was fine) Greg and Molly looked for houses on the market, preferably at a more central and more urban point of England, and they hit some luck with an amazing house, surprisingly cheap too, on the outskirts of London.
Thirteen years later, Rupert was a happy and healthy if smaller than average thirteen-year-old. Then his sister left home, at seventeen, with a man who was twenty.
And then that's when it got interesting.
***
Rupert crossed the street with a mind full of fractions and algebra. And simultaneous equations. He wished they'd p*ss off, he really didn?t want to have them in his brain, but they wouldn?'leave! Maybe he could like, divide them and take stuff from each side to get rid of them, what was that thing? BODMAS? Yeah, that was right, had to do brackets first and then the O thing which was powers somehow and the division and was this right? This was for something else, surely, it didn't fit- ?
Oh, curse his brain!
And Amanda came back into his head. Man, he missed her. He wouldn?t admit it of course, but she was his sister! And she'd left their family ? and her education ? all for a guy. He wasn?t even that great Damien was just average. Nothing special. Nothing worth leaving her whole life for.
Since she'd gone, school had gotten very different. Ok, she was in sixth form and he was a Year Eleven, so they'd hardly crossed the same circles, but it wasn't her absence that was odd. No, more and more kids were being expelled and suspended for drug abuse, and drug usage on school property. The most famous example was the girl who drank vodka during her exams. After that, all water in lessons and exams was sniffed. And people were turning up to school with black eyes and split lips, even broken bones.
It was mostly the gang of kids with the many piercings, the dyed hair, the illegal tattoos, Mohicans and spiky hair. And Rupert had seen them smoking cigarettes in front of school, smoking weed at the back of the playground or bunking off to do worse.
And then a car door hit him in the back.
Jeez!
"Oi, Titch!" a voice hissed at him. Not many people called him that since he'd actually grown recently. He turned, seeing a silver BMW and a dark head a girl's head. His sister.
"Mandy!" he grinned at her. She grinned back and gestured to the back of the car.
"Get in!" Without hesitating, Rupert jumped in the backseat. The man in the driver's seat turned and smiled at him and drove off. Then Rupert realised, maybe jumping in the car with a stranger wasn?t a brilliant idea, even if the passenger was his sister.
***
Mandy turned around once they?d reached some traffic lights. She was grinning and her eyes were bright; she looked great.
"Titch, I missed you so much!" she said fondly. Ti-Rupert glanced at the man and back to Mandy, who understood. "Don't worry, Rupey, he's Damien."
The name meant little to Rupert. "Who?"
"Damien. The guy I've been with for the past nine months? the one I left home for?" Damien smiled into the rear-view mirror and gave a little wave. Arrogant berk. Stealing his sister.
For the rest of the short car journey, Mandy fired him with questions of their parents, his friends, his school life, school in general? and then the car slowed, outside of a relatively large, nice looking house. It had a lawn with flowers in it, a front door, garage, side door and shed.
Inside the house was clean, fresh, bright and, honestly, lovely. A vibrant orange kitchen with a yellow ceiling and bright wall tiles. The hallway was a pale wood, with deep purple walls and hangman and noughts & crosses were on the wall in white. The stairs began yellow and ended blue. Ok, the colours were a bit much but Rupert recognised his sister's handiwork.
Mandy came up from behind him and put her arms around him.
"Isn?t it amazing?" She said.
"Cup of tea?" offered Damien. They sat down on the blue chairs in the kitchen while Damien bustled about with a kettle and three mugs.
"Mandy? why'd you leave?" Rupert asked. Her grin faded slightly.
"It's complicated, but long story short, Mum didn?t like the idea of moving in with Damien and hated the idea of me doing nothing academic and focussing my time on art. Day said he'd support me in whatever I did and he's got money. So I helped him redecorate and then moved in! It's fabulous here; I love it. But I miss you all, but I've been seeing my friends of course. And now, you're invited whenever," she finished her tirade with a nervous smile, a glance at Damien who smiled back reassuringly and then engulfed her little brother in a tight hug. Of course, he squired away protesting with his age.
***
He didn't tell Mum and Dad anything. Just that Amanda had texted him and reassured him she was ok. She texted them not too long after reuniting with Rupert, after a lot of persuasion.
But there was something with Damien. Something nagged at Rupert, there was something about Damien he really didn't like. Rupert, Mandy and Damien met up about once a week, after the original meeting, and Rupert noticed little things, such as the unease Damien had in public, generally keeping his head down and wore his sunglasses most of the time.
And the drugs issue in school. Rupert was sure that every kid involved in drugs in his school had some kind of problem bruises, no lunch, crying during school and had overheard some things which really got Rupert suspicious.
"Yeah, I heard that too, J's getting a load of bull from people about payments, loads of people are getting beat up, I think I might one of the next?"
"Oh yeah, some dude ordered a load of weed and sold it all, load of money from it an everything, made a sweet life for 'imself not far away, 'cause it's still so low key?"
"And a chick! I swear there was a girl involved?"
"Man, some of his guys cornered my dealer the other day? ain't a pretty sight?"
"I know, they?ve raised the price by like, forty percent!"
Rupert wasn't jumping to conclusions, was he? It all fit? Damien? ok, he seemed the sort to NOT get involved in something as stupid as drugs. But hey, Rupert barely knew the guy. Could be an evil mastermind, for all he knew.
And Mandy was with him. Time to do some digging.
***
Rupert had been skulking near Damien-and-Amanda's house for a while now. His sister had just left. "Need some paint! Yeah yeah, I'll get some milk too?" so she'd be a good hour. It was rush hour, after all, and she had a car. Not clever.
Rupert knocked on the door nonchalantly, fifteen minutes after Mandy had left (roughly).
"Hey, Damien, Mandy about?" he asked casually, leaning against the doorframe. Inwardly he cursed himself; short of whistling, that was the most conspicuously suspicious thing he could do!
"Ah, no, sorry Rupert, you've just missed her, she's just gone out for paint and stuff." Well, at least he seemed apologetic. Almost sincere.
"Oh? that sucks," frowned Rupert. He rubbed his cheek in disappointment and turned as if to go when-
?"Hey, you want some tea or something?" Yes! Rupert was sure Damien wouldn't turn his girlfriend's brother away when the brother wasn't too fond of him anyway. Actually no, Rupert didn't know this, but he had a back up plan "Damien, I couldn't use your bathroom, could l?"
The kitchen was still pretty immaculate. By the amount of brushes in the sink, he guessed it wasn't Mandy doing the cleaning her room at home was hazardous it was so untidy, the guy had time on his hands. Damien bustled about with the kettle and two mugs, this time.
"So Rupert, how's school?"
"School's school. Always pretty dull. 'Ey, Damien, Mandy never said. How'd you get all this money?" The silence lasted a moment too long.
"My grandma was pretty rich and she passed away, leaving a lot to me," Damien said softly.
"Oh I'm sorry. What about your family?"
"Not around.The money was split between myself and my two siblings."
"What are their names?" Rupert asked quickly. Damien looked up, frowning slightly.
"My siblings? Er, well, there's Kathleen who's a few years older than me and Josh, a year older than her."
"Oh. Where do they live?"
"Erm, well, Kathy lives in Amsterdam with her boyfriend and Josh is in Birmingham with his wife and daughter." Damien was looking quite uneasy now, and Rupert was sensing some tension in the ar, so he nodded and drank some of his tea. It was really hot, and he spat it out, down himself. Damien leapt up and grabbed a kitchen towel.
"Ow!"
"You okay?!" Rupert shrugged him off.
"I'm gonna go clean myself up," he said, and made his way to the bathroom on the first floor.
Rupert left the tap running and tiptoed into Damien's room. The double bed had traces of his sister, the familiar pyjama top, the less familiar but obviously feminine underwear, and Rupert hid the thought. As quietly as he could, he pulled open drawers in search of drugs or weapons or something suspicious.
Jackpot.
In Damien's bedside chest, the bottom cabinet. There were a lot of clear polythene bags filled with small, white pills.
"Rupert? You okay up there?" Ahh, Damien!
"Yeah Damien, don't worry, I'm just coming down!" he yelled back, whilst creeping back to the bathroom and drying himself off quickly.
"Ta for the tea Damien, but I'd best be off. See ya!" Rupert near ran out of the house, leaving Damien ever so slightly confused.
***
"MUM!" Molly, having just come through the front door with a bag of shopping, was a little surprised to hear her son yelling for her.
"Rupe?What?"
"Mum, I know where Mandy is and her boyfriend is a drug dealer or something!" Rupert gabbled.
"What?!"
Rupert gave his mother a slightly condensed version of the actual events but it was more than enough. But Mum had made them wait for Dad to come home, told him the story and between them they decided to go round and check things out before the police were involved.
Mandy, laughing still, opened her front door to find her family. Her mother pulled her into a hug, her father rubbed her shoulder and her brother pushed straight past them all. Against both parent's arguments, he'd brought a cricket bat.
The five of them stood in the kitchen. The accusations had been made. The finger had been pointed. And the bat was raised.
"Jeez, Rupert, Damien has nothing to do with drugs!" Mandy protested, putting herself between her brother and her boyfriend.
"Oh yeah? Where's all this money from, then?" Rupert argued.
"Ok, let's settle this like the reasonable adults we all-"
"Rupert! Put the bat down!"
"Shut up! We all need to calm down," Mandy's dad shouted. It did the trick, and even Molly grew quiet.
"Day, love, would you make some tea?" Mandy asked him. Damien bustled about the kitchen with the kettle and five mugs. Rupert was impressed he could carry them all at once, especially with his hands shaking as badly as they were.
"Mum, Dad, Rupe, sit down. And we'll discuss this properly. Without the cricket bat, Rupert!" Rupert unwillingly put his bat down.
"I'd like to say first that I'm not a drug dealer. I'm not into drugs, not at all," Damien began, his voice cracking slightly.
"But at school, everyone's saying the big dealer behind the drugs just lost a load of money to someone, and now everyone's getting beaten up and made to pay more money," said Rupert defiantly. Silence followed this.
"You have drugs at school? That?s horrific-" Molly began.
"So?" Mandy asked incredulously at the same time.
"Well, he just happens to recently get a load of money?"
"Rupert, it takes a while to buy a house, he'd have needed to have the money for a while, not just for the past few weeks!" his father started. Rupert blushed; they didn't have to patronise him!
"I know that, but he could've gotten a loan or something."
"Why would that be me, anyway?" Damien asked, sounding pained.
"You're always so hidden outside, you wear sunglasses, head down, quiet?" And Damien blushed. Amanda smiled and took his hand.
"Damien's a bit... social-phobic. Very shy, aren't you ?" Damien smiled uneasily.
2But the completely fake story!" Damien looked up.
"It's not fake? look," Damien got up and rummaged in a drawer. He pulled out a fairly battered photo album.
"See, that's my grandma, my brother Josh, Kathy and I, when I was seven." The picture showed a smiling old lady with arms around a boy and a girl of about eleven and ten, respectively, and a younger boy of seven.
"My parents died when I was young and my grandmother brought us up. She'd had a lot of money anyway, from my parents and her husband, and she left it all to the three of us. She died last year and I knew she wouldn't have wanted for me to waste the money and my life on something I didn't want, so I bought a fantastic house and found a fantastic girl and I'm going to take my time in finding a new job." Rupert started to feel a bit bad from the grown man opposite him, leaning on his teenage sister for support. Then he remembered.
"Oh, yeah?" and raced up the stairs. He came down with a few bags of the white pills.
"What are these?" he demanded. Greg picked up a bag and examined it, Molly looked shocked, Damien confused and Mandy?
"God, you idiot!" She exclaimed, and hit Rupert around the head with a bag. "This is your evidence? It's The Pill."
"Huh?"
"The Pill? the contraceptive device?" Comprehension dawned, and Rupert wrinkled his nose. His mother did the same, obviously displeased with this information.
"Why do you have so many?" Molly asked. Mandy blushed faintly.
"Er, my friend got them in bulk in Mexico cheaply?" Molly sniffed.
"Anyway, my boyfriend isn't in anything illegal. Ok?"
"Ok. But we need to discuss these living arrangements," replied her father sternly. She pulled a face and an argument started.
Rupert watched Friends muted, having snuck out from the argument early. Damien entered the room, barely acknowledging Rupert. Rupert didn't blame him. Here was the time to be mature.
"Er, Damien," he said, voice squeaking, "I'm really sorry for everything I've said and done!"
Damien looked around to him. "Don?t worry about it, you were just looking out for Mandy." And suddenly, Rupert was in the clear! Ok, Mandy would make him pay somehow, and Mum and Dad wouldn't be impressed, but he would be ok.
Only, maybe a detective wasn't the best career path for him.
***
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