Читать книгу Fuse - Sally Partridge - Страница 10

Justin’s room was the polar opposite to his brother’s. While Kendall’s room was his dark sanctuary where everything had a special significance, Justin’s room was glorious in its chaos.

It resembled an ordinary teenager’s room with a small television set (borrowed from an ex-girlfriend who in all likelihood would never get it back), a PlayStation console for which he had saved up and various other electronic gadgets he had to have, but hardly ever used.

Kendall picked a pair of his brother’s jeans off the bed and put it over a chair so he could sit down.

Justin was looking at his reflection in a mirror on the wall between numerous band posters. Various photographs of friends and party pamphlets had been stuck to the glass at odd angles to create a colourful collage.

“Do you think my fringe is getting too long?” he asked, turning his face back and forth.

“Don’t listen to Dad,” Kendall replied, switching on the PlayStation console.

The sound of Gregory Mullins’s raised voice could still be heard echoing from the next room. “Lock that door, Kenny, before he comes in here.”

Kendall got up to turn the key in the lock just as the all too familiar sound of his father’s fist hitting a cupboard door reverberated through the house.

“He’s really angry tonight. Maybe we should just sit and wait it out and not make a noise,” Kendall said, staring at the locked door with a worried expression.

“No way, screw him. Let’s play something. Come and sit down, before you stare a hole in that door.”

Justin flopped down in front of the console and rifled through the games on the floor. Kendall took a seat behind him on the bed. His expression became glassy as he stared into the air in front of him, twisting his ponytail nervously.

“You okay, Kenny?” his brother asked, tapping him on the leg.

Kendall blinked and managed a smile to cover up his embarrassment. “I was quite scared when Dad asked for the scissors,” he admitted, “I don’t know what I’d do if he cut my hair, you know?”

“Don’t think about it. As long as I’m under this roof, I will make sure Dad doesn’t touch our hair. I mean seriously, have you seen his? It’s practically a mullet and not the cool kind either. The man is still living in the eighties. Here, take this.” Justin pushed a game controller into Kendall’s hand and took a seat on the floor at the foot of the bed. “Need for Speed will take your mind off it.”

The game interface flashed on the screen and the brothers pushed their long hair out of their faces simultaneously.

“You know what gets me, though?” Justin said as their cars pulled onto the track.

“What?”

“Our mother. I don’t understand how she can take his abuse. She just stands there like a zombie while he treats us like crap.”

“It’s her way of coping, I guess.”

“She’s supposed to protect us, but she’s just as bad. ‘Will you still be needing the scissors, dear?’ ”

Kendall didn’t have an answer to that. He had his brother to protect him. His mother had no one to protect her.

“Do you hate her?” he asked.

“Don’t you?” Justin replied, surprised.

“I honestly don’t know. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have met you. I might still have been in that home. The kids at school are nothing compared to that lot.”

“I hate them both,” Justin said through his teeth as his fingers squeezed the controls.