Here is Home • The Pack

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Preston had been staying at Jerome's for almost five days.

He'd had to make a few risky trips back to his dad's house while he was out and grab some of his stuff, but luckily he hadn't yet had the misfortune to run into him.

In five days he'd become pretty familiar with everyone living in the house.

Lachlan was rarely ever home, and when he was, he was either exhausted or busy. Jerome was home more often, but was generally stressed about something, and if he was it was because he hadn't slept in two days and was running purely off caffeine and stubbornness. Vik was a really sweet, but he talked a lot. Rob seemed to get into trouble with the police almost every day but it was usually for small stuff, like littering or drinking in public, which was very much illegal but the cops around here seemed pretty used to it. Jess was the sweetheart of the family; she was always offering to help out. Alfie was a silent genius- he didn't talk much, but when he did it was not something to be ignored. And Ruby, the baby, was actually really well-behaved; she rarely ever cried, and as Preston was almost always at the house with her so he grew to appreciate that.

Five days was also long enough to recognize the routine the strange family he was staying with followed from during school time.

At 8:00am every morning, Lachlan would go from bedroom door to bedroom door with a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth, waking everyone up. If Lachlan was unconscious, either from being beaten half to death at the club or just from pure exhaustion, Jerome took his place. Either way, the rest of the family was woken up at 8 on the dot.

There was only one shower, so everybody had to take turns. Lachlan and Jerome always took theirs before the others were awake. Vik's turn was at 8:05; Rob's was 8:15, although he usually skipped it. Jess sometimes went in Rob's place, but when she didn't her turn was at 8:25. Alfie's turn was at 8:35 but, like Rob, he preferred to shower in the evening, and usually just cheated by running his head under the tap. Preston knew Lachlan noticed the slight smirk on his face each morning, but chose to let it slide.

By the time everyone was dressed and showered, Lachlan had already made breakfast. Sometimes it was toast, sometimes cereal, but more often than not it was a leftover pizza or lasagna or something, anything that could be found in the fridge. If it was a Bill Day they'd pass around the shoebox and fill it with any money they'd made, or often stolen.

Rob was always eating a lollipop or some other candy at this point, and Lachlan had given up on telling him that it would rot his teeth because hell, it was better than smoking.

Jerome told Preston that Lachlan had tried to get everyone on a health kick a few months back, but that it had backfired so badly that he'd given up within a week.

After breakfast it was always someone's turn to take out the trash, someone else's turn to feed Ruby, the toddler, and another person, usually Jerome, to make sure that everyone's backpacks were beside the counter where Lachlan put the lunches.

At 9:00 on the dot everyone had to be out of the house, because it was a good ten blocks to the bus stop and the bus came at 9:07 every morning. There was a bus stop opposite their front porch, but the driver never let them on for free, so the extra bike journey or skateboard was always worth it.

Once the four were out of the house, Lachlan would go upstairs and collapse into bed for another three hours. He'd hang a sign on his door that said in messy, scrawled black pen, "I'm sleeping, if nobody's dying and nothing's on fire then fuck off."

Jerome would take Ruby into the living room and put her in front of the TV for a few hours while he cleared the house up.

Then at 12:30 Lachlan would come downstairs and take Ruby with him to his day job, where apparently he worked in a café on the east side.