Chapter 2-The Barbeque

　
Chapter 2-The barbeque

Rhi was the first to arrive at her fathers place.

“Where’s the boy?” asks Graham

“Nice to see you too Dad” she laughs as she gives him a hug “I dropped him off at Carls parents place, they are having an Australia day lunch and he wants to swim in the pool”

“I can put the pool out here” he says signalling behind him

“They have an in ground Dad, he‘s seven years old, he doesn’t want to play in an inflatable pool, he wants to swim. Besides that, there’s other kids there” she takes off her bag and puts the bread rolls on the bench

“What so I cant spend Australia day with my only grandson but they can have all 50 of theirs over? oh yeah that’s bloody right”

“Dad you can see him tonight, stop being such a fucking Martyr”
She wasn't really sure what that word meant

“I‘m just saying it‘d be nice if you‘d told me”

“Dad, why is it so important? You‘re Irish”

“I‘ve lived in this country for 39 years, I came here when I was 17 years old…this place is more home to me than Ireland”

“Fine Dad, I will make sure that Beau is here next year”

Her father turns and opens the freezer “next year” he groans




Dylan was the next to arrive, he hadn’t slept at all the night before, going straight form his work placement the previous day to uni then to his job at the bar, he’d only been home to shower.

“Hello” he yells out as he walks through the front door.

“In here” Rhi shouts as she rummages around in the fridge “Dad I thought you said you had eggplant”

“My long lost son” Graham chimes, ignoring his younger daughter

“Hey Dad, where’s your other son?” Dylan asks looking around

“In bed” laughs Rhi

“What the fuck? Why should he get to sleep in?” he asks

Kara sneaks in the front door “Boo!” she giggles

“I didn’t even hear you come in!” smiles Graham

“I had a lot of practice as a teenager sneaking in and out of this house without making any noise” she says winking at her brother.
Dylan laughs.
Even an outsider could see how close the two were just from that brief moment. Though Kara was closer in age to Rob and though Rhi was her long awaited little sister, she and Dylan always had some weird bond.

She gives her sister a kiss on the cheek as she continues to raid the fridge “Day off from Buzz?” she asks

 Rhi nods “He‘ll be here later”

“Now what’s this shit about Rob sleeping in? is he on the comedown?” she laughs

“Want to go wake him?” Dylan laughs

“What do you think?” she beams

Graham watches the two of them run down the hall like children and smiles

“Dad!” Rei trys to get her father attention.

“Yeah?”

“Eggplant!” She barks

“Oh maybe I don‘t, might have to nip down to the shop”

Dylan and Kara stand over Robs bed with their heads tilted. He is still in his clothes from the night before and his shoe is still drenched in blood.

“What the fuck happened to your shoe?” yells Kara

“What?” Rob moans through half opened eyes

“Are you bleeding?” she asks

“Nah its not mine” he says shaking his head and trying to sit up

“What? Rob, do you have someone else’s blood on your shoe?” she laughs

“Did you get in a fight?” Asks Dylan wide eyed

“Shrooooms” he moans “Fuckin' shrooms. I‘ve only done them once and I‘ll never do them again” he wipes his eyes “This is shit!”

"Shrooms are shit" Kara smiles, patting her brother on the head

“You‘re a vision Rob” laughs Dylan

“What’s with the paintings? Is he still doing that shit?” Kara asks “He needs help. Theres hundreds now. Its like a fuckin shrine”

Rob laughs “That’s what I said!”

Rhi walks in to the bedroom “Can you guys come out and keep Dad company? I need to go get eggplant” She looks at Rob “Have you been having marijuana?” Rhi asks

“No I have not been 'having' marijuana" Rob mocks

Kara and Dylan both burst into laughter

Rhi looks at the two of them in a concerned manner “What the hell is going on? Are you guys stoned?”

Dylan smiles “Yeah we‘ve been ‘having’ marijuana”

Kara can’t stop laughing now

“Oh piss off all of you!” Rhi yells slamming the door

Rob gets up slowly “I‘ll go with her”

“Are you going to wear that shoe?” Dylan giggles like a little girl

Rob waves him off in that go away style of his





Rob goes out to the kitchen, Rhiannon is searching through her bag on the table.

He comes up behind her and puts his hand on her shoulder “They were just mucking around Rhi” he says softly “You know what they‘re like”

“What’s happened?” yells Graham for out the back “Has Rhi got her knickers in a twist about the eggplant?”

“Nah Dad, don‘t worry” yells Rob

“I said I can get some” his father calls out

“Nah its fine dad, I‘m going to go with Rhi” Rob says smiling at her

“You‘re the one that started it” she turns around and points her finger in his face angrily “and you smell like beer”

He laughs at her index finger centimetres away from him nose “You are such a Mum right now, lets go let the fucking eggplant so we can get back here and I can smell even more like beer”

She made him change his shoes before they left. They didn’t talk in the car ride.

Rob felt bad for Rhi, she was younger than the rest of them but had to grow up so fast and the last few years had been particularly hard for her. She was a serious person before all that though.

The local grocer was open though everything else around was closed.

There were a few guys walking down the street wearing Australian flags as capes and chanting.

“Idiots” Rhi mumbled

“Ow harsh” Rob responded “They’re just having fun”

“They are offensive and loud, it's why I hate Australia day because of dicks like that” she says in a very matter of fact kind of way

They seemed harmless enough to him but he was too tired to argue.

“Oh!” yelled Rob “this place has the best sausages! I‘m going to get some”

“I just want to get eggplant”

“Fine but I‘m going to get sausages”

“Rob, I‘m a vegan” she says angrily

“So? It’s a barbeque”

“I don’t want meat in my car. Since I’ve stopped eating it, the smell of it makes me sick”

“But we‘re cooking meat today?” he speaks in more of a question than a statement

“And that’s fine but I don‘t want it in my car” she barks ,walking along with her back turned to him

Rob started to get really annoyed, it wasn‘t even about the sausages, it was about Rhi “you know what I‘m going to walk home” he says passively

She shuts her eyes and raises her hands out in front of her.

 Rhi believed that speaking quietly made her appear calm.
Rob felt that it made her sound insane

“You know what fine, get them, just make sure they double bag them because I don‘t want that smell in my car”

Rhi arrives back at the house alone in a huff.

Graham, Dylan and Kara are playing cards
.
“So we‘ll have two teachers in the family then?” Graham smiles

Kara shakes her head “Dad Dylan is studying social work not teaching and I work in a recording studio. I was a vocal coach to a couple of 12 year olds in the 90‘s, you need to stop telling people that I‘m a teacher” the three of them look up at Rhi “Where‘s Rob?” asks Kara

"Look what I found” Kara laughs walking in with her arm around Rob who’s wrapped in an Australian flag and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

Rhi hated the way that Kara always played the hero.

“I‘m back” Rob laughs

Graham shakes his head and goes back out to the yard. He’s been watching this show all month. Dylan follows suit.

Rob looks at Rhi who has her arms folded “Just so you know” he smiles “I forgive you!”

Rhi cant believe what she‘s hearing “Is that your attempt at a joke?” she shakes her head and walks away

 “Yeah great I didn’t want to give his new Aussie pride potential serial killer friends a lift to the pub but HE forgives ME yeah great”

Kara heads outside. She wants to say something but she trys not to

“Well Kara gave them a ride!” he yells

“Well why the hell wouldn‘t she?” Rhi shouts back

“Oh fuck off!” Kara yells back as she pulls out a chair, Rob follows and sits Rob down

Rhi flips her the bird and goes outside with their Dad



Lunch was awkward.

Apart from the fact they didn’t start it until 3 because they were waiting on their brother, Rob was now passed out at the inside dining room table wile the other four sat outside

“God he’s like a giant child” Dillon laughed looking at his brother “Why would anyone ever want a baby?”

“Maybe because they bring you a lot of joy” Rhi remarks “And my 7 year old is much more mature than that layabout”

“Oh chill out he was kidding” Kara says rolling her eyes

“Oh stop it girls” Graham interrupts “We never get together and when we do you‘re all at each other, lets just try and enjoy today”

“Yeah sorry Dad, I know I haven’t visited in ages” Dillon says patting his father back

“Ah you‘re busy son” his dad smiles as he cuts his beef

“Dylan isn’t the only one who‘s busy” Rhi can’t help herself

Kara is ready to jump across the table and tear off her little sisters bleached blonde bowl cut
“I‘m sorry are you a Mum Rhi? because I don’t think you‘ve mentioned it in about 8 fucking seconds” she laughs

Rhi throws her fork into her paper plate.

Its not as dramatic of a gesture as she‘d hoped.

She stands up and slams her hands onto the table

That’s better , everyone is paying attention now “Maybe you‘re pissed off because I have my life together”
Dillon sits in silence awaiting Karas’ response

Kara laughs at her sister.

Not because she really thinks that is such a crazy notion but more because she knows it will upset her “How exactly Rhi? Having a child is having your life together then is it? Just get pregnant and that’s it. Anyone can be a Mum, it just involves spreading your legs” she says before taking a sip of her drink
Graham yells over his daughters “ENOUGH!”

“What would you know about being a good mum? You’re a fucking dyke” Rhi yells back
Kara sits back in her chair and holds up her wine glass in one hand and raises her other arm in the air “Thankyou very much” she smiles
Graham throws his plate “I‘ve had it!” he stands up and goes inside to where Rob is sleeping, wrapped in the flag.

He grabs him by the arm and yells for him to get up “Wake up!” he yells “All you do is sleep!”

Rob looks up at his Dad “Chill out old man” he laughs as he slowly tries to find his feet

“Up! get up!” he yells again “Now! Up!”

The others have stopped talking, mesmerised by their fathers behaviour.

He pulls Rob by the arm out to the yard “One of you girls need to take him. I can‘t do this anymore”

Rob laughs “I‘m right here ya bastard”

Graham looks at his two daughters “You two need to sort it out”

Rob continues laughing “Dad said ‘fuck’ last night”

　
　
　

Chapter one- waking up

　
Rob
With his head over the gutter, trying to push out vomit, Rob felt like one giant cliché.

He looked down at his new chucks. The left one was as creamy as when he put them on but the right one was drenched in blood.

He let out a huge “Aaaaaourge” noise.

How the fuck did that happen?
He didn’t feel like he’d been bleeding but he couldn’t feel much at all.
All he wanted to do was sleep.
His friends were long gone.

Why am I in Newtown

“I fucking hate Newtown!” he yelled, using what seemed to be his last bit of energy as he plonked straight to the ground.

“Go home then” yelled a drunk man passing by.

The man and his girlfriend laughed loudly.

The girlfriend had a real cackle of a laugh.

It dwindled off into the distance but he wanted to shew her a way like a fly.

I fucking hate Newtown and Stevie is a bitch

Mandy
Amanda awoke in a haze and stared up at her roof. For a moment she’d forgotten that Kara was there. For a moment she’d forgotten all the angst she felt the previous night, wondering if she was fucking her right.

 She’d only ever slept with men and she knew that Kara, a woman significantly older than herself had slept with a tone of other women.

She flitted between thoughts of how she’d gotten her there and thoughts of how she could make her stay.

The previous night she’d run into her at a bar in the cross.

She saw Kara dancing, men hanging off her without a clue of what a raging lesbian she was. She was so charismatic that everyone she made eye contact with thought she was flirting with them.

Her long black hair was flying everywhere and she was smiling like a girl in a deodorant commercial, though she was 32, she looked playful and radiant enough to pass for 19.

It was that thought that gave Mandy the confidence to approach her. Maybe at the age of 21 she didn’t think she had the bravado seduce a worldly 32 year old but tonight Kara was 19.

She turned to Matt “I‘m going to do it”

Matt forced a smile and nodded “I‘m going to get us drinks”

It wasn’t that he didn’t like the idea of her running up and shoving her tongue down Karas’ throat. What guy doesn’t like that thought?
…but more that he’d heard it that many times and watched her wimp out at the last second with a lame “hey”.

Mandy stood there staring for a while longer than she’d realised, Matt was already back with drinks.

“I cant drink it” she pauses “My stomach is bubbling”

Matt shakes his head “can I do something?” he asks

“what?” she responds

As she does he pours his vodka lemonade onto her skin tight black dress

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” She yells

“Now you‘ll have something to open with” he laughs

“You dick!” she says shoving him

“Go tell her we had a fight and I poured drink on you and then I went home… then she‘ll stare at your chest and you‘ll make out and get married. I cant stay here and watch this train wreck”

“Are you mad at me?” she asks

“No I'm bored of this” he grabs her shoulders tightly “Now go, while your boobs are still wet”

“If you‘re going I'm going” she says shaking her head

“KARA!” he screams in his high pitched voice. Despite how loud the music is, she looks up, smiles and signals for them to come over.

“Thank me later” he says patting her on the shoulder


Dylan
There was a weight hanging over Dylan.

He knew it hadn’t always been there but he couldn’t pin when it came and planted itself on top of him making him feel like he couldn’t move, he just wanted it to piss off.

He sat there eating his frosties but he felt like he couldn’t taste the sugar.

He looked at them to check if they had the frosty part on them. They did. Why don’t they taste like frosties then? He thought.

Nicole, his housemate walked into the room. Everything about her annoyed him.

“Why do you eat that shit?” she asks.

And there it was.

Her annoying little voice.

I hate you.
Do you know I hate you?
“I don’t know” he said looking at her and looking back at them

“They don’t taste right today. They taste like cornflakes”

“Bullshit they are all sugar”she barks

“Taste them”

“I don’t want that shit in my fucking body” she says scrunching her nose

She swears too much

Nobody would fuck you
Nobody would ever fuck you
He looked at her long ratty hair thrown into a ponytail
Her lanky body reminded him of a 12 year old boy
Where are her tits?
She practically lived at the gym and ate healthy all the time but she always had yellow teeth.

Despite his love of sugar, Dylan took pride in his smile and whenever she spoke he couldn’t stop staring at her teeth.

He doubted she’d been kissed in years
 she never had anyone over.

He wondered if disgust was written all over his face

“Whatever” he says wiping his face

“Have an orange”

I WILL WHEN YOU BRUSH YOUR FUCKING TEETH

“Nah I‘m late for work”



Rhiannon
Rhiannon had sacrificed a lot having a child at 15 but as she carried him from the couch to bed while he pretended to be asleep she just thought about how much joy moments like this brought her.

Beau was 7 now but in many way he was so much younger.

She put him into bed and tucked him in.
She hoped he would sleep all the way through tonight
Not that it would make a difference to her own sleeping habits.

Those nightmares were as frequent for her as they were when he was barely 4 years old, when it all began.

“Mum” he cried out as she reached the door

“I knew you weren‘t asleep Buzz” she smiled “did you trick me again?”

A giant grin came over Beaus face
“I tricked you hey mum”
“You sure did” she laughed “Do you want me to stay for a bit?” she asks

“Nah” he says so cool “I‘m gonna sleep for real now”

She nods “Light on?”

“Nah”

“Ok goodnight”

She left his door ajar and went back out to the kitchen, thinking how brave her boy was.

She still slept with a lamp on and she’d often get up several times a night to check he was ok.
As she made herself a tea, her mind went back to Sally.
Not a day went by where she didn’t think of Sally and what that woman had done to her child.
 Though she’d heard she moved to Queensland last year with her husband, nothing ever put her mind to rest.

Rhi put her own relationship ending down to what Sally had done.

Carl, Beaus’ father moved out 3 years ago when they’d disagreed about pressing charges.
He said that Rhiannon had become obsessed.

He didn’t believe Sally was capable of it.

She remembered that fight they had before he went to the hotel “He’s fucking four Rhi! Four year olds make up stories sometimes”.

Sally told Carl that Beau was mad at her because she said he couldn’t have a second iceblock and she thought that’s why he’d made up that story

“You know I‘d never hurt you Beau- why are you saying these things?”

That evil woman. How could she talk to her son at all after what she’d done.
Rhi knew he wasn’t making it up.

She promised herself that no matter what, her son would know that his mother fought for him.

She looked down at her tea, it had been over brewed. She picked it up and tossed it in the sink.

Looking over her shoulder she noticed her sons Buzz Lightyear doll, she washed her hands and picked it up. He rarely slept without it, they started calling him Buzz when he was just a year old because he‘d call out for it.

The hall light was still on, she peered into his room and saw that he was fast asleep, for real now.


Graham

Graham was up early painting, with the sound of infomercials in the back ground.
 He painted a new picture of his wife every day.
One for each of the days that she’d been gone.

He heard the front door creak. It was his son.

He had moved back in with Graham a month back when he lost his job as a graphic designer and since shown no signs of looking for new work.

He thought having him around would make things less lonely but most nights he was out partying despite always claiming to be poor, he would often stumble in drunk and tonight was no exception.

Graham looked up and there was Robert

“Aaaarhg” he moaned as he stumbled into the room “Painting again”

“Yes Rob” he says looking at him over the top of his reading glasses “Drinking again?”

“Fuckin take em down” he yells and points around the room “It's like a fuckin' shrine in here, she’s not dead dad. She left you and she’s a fuckin' bitch”

“Don‘t talk about your mother that way!” He would always defend Kate

“Dad if she saw this, she‘d leave you …again” he laughed

His son had a sick sense of humour

Graham threw his brush on the floor

“Robert this is my house, have some fucking respect!”
Graham rarely swore

Rob laughs and shakes his head at the white paint on the carpet “better wash that” he looks him right in the eye “wouldn‘t want Mum to see it and get upset ay” he says holding his stomach as he laughs harder
Graham clenches his fist.

He has never wanted to hit his son more than right now.

“Robert Weight you‘re a disgrace” he says shaking his head and waving his fist

Rob walks a few steps backward “Robert Weight” he mimics his father in an over the top Irish accent and flails his arms about then turns and walks down the hall

Graham bends down and picks up the brush, still furious he yells out after his son “You‘d better be helping with the barbeque tomorrow!”

Robs door slams
Graham mumbles to himself “Maybe you can go live with one of your sisters and piss all over their carpet”