darker_london | It's for the snakes and the people they bite

Five months ago Hector had been living in a slowly falling apart two-bedroom flat with his mother and sister in Dagenham and on the verge of getting kicked out of his school there. In that house they could barely keep the shower running with its frequent issues: now they lived in a house with three bathrooms.

They all got their own bedrooms here. There was a backyard and a pool and if you were on one end of the house, you couldn't just call out to people at the other end. And they had a housekeeper who came in to clean it all up once a week. The biggest difference, Hector thought, was that his mum laughed now. Aadhya was always serious and tired and blank, but here she smiled and when she cooked them dinner she sang again. It had been a long time since she'd sung around the house, not since a dozen terrible jobs ago at least.

Funny what difference a few million pounds made.

They shopped a lot and Hector had more clothes than he could really wear. Brooklyn loved it though, delighted that she finally didn't have to have everything second hand and label-free, especially now they were being transferred to a public school.

Five months ago Aadhya had sat the two of them down and explained it all very calmly: she had won a lot of money in the lottery. (How much? he'd asked her. Enough, she'd said. From the amount of things they now had, Hector had to keep adding to the amount he'd thought enough had originally meant.) They were moving, Aadhya went on. They were going somewhere nice and it was going to be a fresh start, a new beginning. She'd looked at Hector especially when she said that and Hector got the feeling he was supposed to feel guilty about making her think it, but he didn't really.

London College was different, in that the kids were scum in different posh bastard ways and Hector felt out of place from minute one. Brooklyn did better, desperate to fit in, desperate to seek a new popularity to match her new wealth and happy to play whatever game that required.

But Hector didn't do well with games and he didn't do well with doing what he was told. It wasn't like he didn't try.

He sort of tried.

Kind of.

In his own way.

He hadn't been expelled yet, and he'd only been to the headmaster's office once. That was definitely an effort. But the people here were frustrating and special kinds of evil - the guys mocked him behind his back and the girls bitched. So, sure, some of his jokes were at their expense and it won him a few points with others, but it was sort of funny to see posh dicks fall on their faces.

Soon enough he was skipping classes though, heading out to wander around this new part of London. Hector never really got around to seeing much out of his own spaces and so all of this was new to him. It was interesting to explore and literally no one had tried to rob him. (So it had only been a few months, but that was still pretty good.) He didn't know any of the gangs around here, he didn't see tags on walls he knew, he didn't have to break anyone's jaw just to keep out of trouble. All in all it was a decent kind of change. (A bit boring maybe? Was it boring not to have to watch his back so hard? Not to have to worry that someone was going to burn his house down in the night?)

On Thursday afternoon he lazily made his way home from his city wanderings, the rumbling of the trains still under his skin, and threw down his school bag inside the front door.

That was when Aadhya suddenly appeared down the stairs, her long hair loose and eyes wide in relief. Hector was about to ask what was going on but he didn't get a chance, because suddenly his mother was right there in front of him and the slap across his face fucking hurt, especially because it came as such a surprise. Four inches shorter than him but damn if she couldn't put some weight behind that hand. Had one of her rings left a mark?

"You selfish little prick!" was what she spat at him and then, to further add to confusion, she yanked him into her arms and hugged him.

Hector bristled and squirmed. "What the fuck, ma??"

Aadhya broke the hug and she was glaring full swords at him. "You weren't at school and you know how I find this out? I find this out because the whole news is about how your school was closed down for gunmen running amok within! And I go down there so scared for my children and finally when they let you out I find Brooklyn but where is Hector?" Aadhya grabbed him by the ear and pulled him down further to her height. "Where was Hector?? Out gallivanting! But I didn't know this because I think he's been killed in his school! You selfish terrible child!"

Hector rolled his eyes and Aadhya shook him. "Don't be smart with me; I will destroy you!"

"Ma, ma, turn it down!" Hector yanked his ear free of her dangerous nails and said, "look, I'm sorry, 'kay? Happy with that? I'm real sorry I... didn't get shot, is that actually what you're upset about?"

Aadhya raised a hand to threaten him with another slap and Hector grabbed it between his own, slowly lowering it and giving her his most gentle and pleading expression, one that had won out many a time. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry."

Aadhya still looked angry, but she also looked tired. "You told me that it would be better from now on. There was a promise to me that you would try."

Hector sighed. "I am trying. Jesus, ma, I'm not expelled, yeah? I haven't started any fights or made them call you up or anything. Isn't that better?"

"But to be skipping your classes is not trying." She sighed and said, "Hector."

There was a certain way that Aadhya said his name that made Hector feel suddenly unresponsive and annoyed and not want to be there anymore. It was that way that said you're too difficult for me to handle and why are you always so disappointing?.

I don't know, ma, he thought, gritting his teeth, maybe you just fucked up.

"Go into your room please," was what she said to him after a few moments.

Glad to be given leave to go, Hector made for the stairs quickly, taking them each two at a time. At the landing he paused and looked back down at her, obscured from her view by the ridiculous and pointless palm in front of him. He watched her twist her hair in her shaking hand and sigh. She looked down at her hands in front of her before curling him into soft fists, burying them in the front of her blouse. She looked even smaller than she was from where Hector watched her.

I'm sorry, he thought, willing her to hear those words. I'm sorry I fucked up again.

He didn't say it out loud though. He left it in silence and continued up to his room.