Insincerely Yours

Chapter 5: Bad Moon Rising

Jed was sick of having to deal with Finn's overactive imagination. Despite it being obvious that he was still high on some pills that Jed had found in his suitcase and flushed down the toilet- he was still capturing the attention of everyone in the room with tales of his adventures.

                "You didn't really meet the queen- and tell her that she would look better with a nose ring?" Asked one of the kids in Finn's photography class, his body language was like every other kid in the room mouth open in fascination.

                "Well I had to find a way to charm the old bird. Her husband was leering at my date the whole evening". Finn said with a wicked grin.

                "I would hardly call Queen Therese old- nor is King James the leering type Finn". Jed said dryly standing at the back of the room

It didn't matter; hands were shooting up, wanting to ask questions about the royal family.

                "Have you ever met Princess Echo?" Came one question from a boy who looked like he was licking his lips in the back corner.

                "Yeah, I've been out with her a couple of times- the chick is dangerous". Finn said with a lopsided grin. That part was true, he had been around Echo a couple of times; she had been the one to convince him to shave his eyebrows off when he was eighteen.

                "She's such a babe". Came a call from the back of the room and Finn nodded in agreement.

                "Finn, don't you think you should be teaching and not corrupting minds?" Jed asked wryly and his brother nodded, a little too quickly- he must be high as a kite, Jed thought and disappointment wracked through him as it always did when Finn let him down.

It wasn't his fault though. It was their Mother's; if you could even call that woman Mother- she didn't have a maternal bone in her sleek glamorous body.

Finn was telling the story of how he nearly lost his leg while scuba diving in the Mediterranean when Jed's phone rang. Looking at the screen Jed felt a little shot of anger burst through him whenever he saw his older brother's name.

                "What?" Jed answered harshly, leaving the room and going onto the long porch that surrounded the room they were in.

                "Is that anyway to speak to your favourite brother?" Matty crooned in his diamond chiselling upper class accent that all the brothers had- though only on Matty did it seem snobbish and condescending though.

                "You're my least favourite family member, including Aunt Mildred". Jed replied dryly, Matty laughed at the reference to their Father's sister who was renowned for being mean and tight.

                "You're in a good mood, what's up sitting up all night thinking of a way to teach those idiots how to count?"  Matty asked and the sound of traffic surrounded his voice. He must be coming back from the gallery, Jed could imagine him walking through the crowded streets of London wearing his expensive suits and looking down his nose at homeless people.

                "Is there any reason you're ringing me? Other than to remind me of how much of a wanker you are?" Jed asked and Matty laughed condescendingly again.

                "Just to give you warning, Dad's told me to come up and check on Finn one of the days, and unless you want our darling brother to be sent away to rehab I would keep an eye on him if I were you". Matty answered and hung up.

Jed sighed and hit his head off the wooden frame of the building feeling his knock run through the whole frame. Matty hadn't rang to give a 'warning' as he had called it- he had called to make Jed nervous, to make him worried for his brother, Matty knew that when you depended on Finn to behave properly he went crazy. His graduation from secondary school was a fine example. Finn had worn nothing under the cloak they gave him and did a cartwheel across the stage, showing the headmistress exactly what talents Finn had kept secret.