Christmas is coming! Cartoon Network has been helping me count down the days. There are only nine days left! But school hasn't finished yet... stupid school. Don't they know Christmas is coming? We shouldn't have to do schoolwork this close to Santa's birthday.
When I get home from school, I kneel. The table to do my homework. "No need do that Max. I'll write you and Chris a note,"
"I don't have to do homework?"
"Nope," Dad grins. "John phoned. We're going out for dinner with your cousins,"
Awesome! John is Dad's brother and he has two kids. Alfie is seven and Keira is ten! I love my cousins. Alfie gets into trouble a lot, he's bad. I think Keira gets into trouble too. But John is REALLY strict. He's not like Dad.
"Chris!" Dad shouts up to him. "Go and get changed, wear your smart clothes!"
We get smart clothes every time we grow so we have them for Christmas and birthday parties. Dad comes up with me to help me dress in them.
"Isn't my school uniform smarter than that?" I ask. My school shirt has a tie and this outfit doesn't.
"Yeah, but you don't want to wear your school uniform! Your smart trousers are blue, that's your favourite colour,"
"I guess,"
Max
Once I'm dressed in my smart clothes, I go into Mum's room. She's doing her hair. She's wearing a dress, and I never see her wear dresses!
"Hi Max," she looks at herself in the mirror.
"Can you brush my hair next?" I sit beside her on the bed.
"Yeah Max. Can you talk to Roxie while I do this?"
She's sitting in her baby chair beside the bed. Why should I talk to her when she can't even talk back?
"Hi Roxie,"
She looks up at me, and she smiles. Playing with her toys, she's blindly ignoring me.
Mum brushes my hair next, then she starts on her makeup. I play with my action men while she does.
"Come on Sally," Dad checks his phone. "They're expecting us!"
"Oh it won't matter if we're late,"
"John will mention it! He always guilts me like that,"
"Why're you guilty Dad?" I ask him. He's always uncomfortable around his brother.
"Oh, when your Dad was your age-" Mum starts laughing.
"It's. It funny!"
"Yes it is! Anyhow, when your Dad was your age, John was making fun of him. So, he got a pool cue and stuck it in John's eye!"
"Woah!" I look at Dad. He's looking away. He's so guilty!
"He was being a right prick. He deserved that pool cue,"
I start laughing too. That is funny! "What happened next?"
"Oh, your grandmother tanned my arse with the belt. I'm lucky she didn't use the pool cue! But John never made fun of me again,"
"Now he just guilts him over it,"
We get to the restaurant, it's Italian. They sit us in a big family bay,"
"Hi Alfie," Alfie is beside me.
"Hi Max," he plays on his tablet. Why don't I get a tablet?
"Can I try?"
"No, you'll mess up my score,"
Not fair! "Can I play a different game then?"
"Okay!" He switches to Temple Run and lets me play.
Keira just sits on her phone. I remember her being more fun. Alfie starts playing music loud for a second then shutting it off.
"What're you doing?" he does it again.
"D'you wanna play bogie?" He giggles.
'Bogie' is a game where you and another person start whispering the word 'bogie'. You have to say it louder than the last person until someone realises what you're doing. The one who gets caught loses.
"Yeah, alright!"
"bogie..."
"bogie..."
"Bogie...!"
"Boys, stop that. What do you want to eat?"
"I want pasta!"
"I want chicken fingers!"
"Alright. I'll get some," Dad says. He tells John, "Max's pasta needs to be plain. He doesn't eat pasta sauce,"
"Alfie will eat anything,"
They're only talking about Alfie. Keira hasn't spoken yet.
"Can I get your phone?" Alfie asks her.
"No, you had it all day," Kellie keeps playing on her phone. "You've got the iPad,"
Alfie crawls under the table. "Give me it!" He hits her legs. She screams and kicks him. This is war! I jump in to defend my friend.
"Don't you think about-"
I'm under the table before Dad can finish. I snatch the phone out of her hand while she and Alfie fight. Then I crawl back to my seat and sit up.
"I've got it!"
"Thanks," Alfie comes back up.
"Mum!" Keira reaches across the table to get her phone back. Unfortunately, her hand hits right off the adults' glasses and spills their weird sparkly wine everywhere.
"That's it!" Alfie and Keira's mum, Jackie, stands up. "You get out here right now,"
I look down. I'll be in so much trouble. Alfie gets out his seat and then someone grabs my hand. I thought it was Dad but it's John.
"We were going to make it a surprise," Mum sighs. "You're staying over at your cousins',"
Oh no! That means I'll be in trouble with John instead of Dad!
"I don't want to stay over, can I come home with you?" I ask Mum and Dad.
"Sorry Max, we have plans for the night. We thought you'd be happy to stay over with Alfie,"
"But not when we're in trouble!"
"We're leaving Roxie with the neighbour. If you'd rather stay with them..."
No! Our neighbour sucks, their house smells weird. What's worse? Getting punished by my super stick-up-the-arse uncle or my neighbours house that smells like farts?
I don't get to make the choice, since the food comes. Eating is uneventful, I think Alfie is too scared to cause more trouble. I don't really care. John seems scary but my Dad was probably trying to scare me. He can't be that bad! Dad does seem really scared of him though.
We all get in John's car and drive to their house. They love twenty minutes from us but we don't see them much because Dad doesn't like John. I like my cousins though, I miss them.
When we get inside, John tells Alfie and me to pull out trousers down and lie over the couch.
"I can't believe your behaviour tonight!" He looks at Alfie. "Little bastard, your being naughty ruined the meal!"
Algeria starts crying. I glare at him. Nobody insults my cousin! Not even his dad.
"Leave him alone, it's your fault!"
"Excuse me?!"
SMACK
"Ow!" John is a lot bigger than Dad. His hand hits harder.
"Get over that couch, both of you. Now!"
His couch is really messy, there are lots of blankets and clothes all over it. It's really gross, but I bend over like Alfie does. And I hear John's bed slipping out his buckles.
"W-Wait!" I stand up quickly. "My dad doesn't spank me with the belt!"
"You're in my house, I don't care what your father does," he pushes me back down. II start crying I'm so scared. I've never been belted before! And it's so loud and it makes you scream and yell and cry. Chris says it burns. I don't want me bum to be set on fire!
There's a swish, and then -
SMACK!! SMACK!!
"AHHHIEEEE!" I scream and kick my legs up. He hit me and Alfie really quickly, and it hurts so much! The belt felt really heavy. Like the spoon, but worse! And harder. He can't spank us with this!
I start sobbing loud, and Alfie is crying too.
SMACK!! SMACK!!
He hits us both again. It doesn't hurt any less the second time!
"AHAH- OW!" I crash my face into the blanket while I cry.
SMACK!! SMACK!!
Those were the hardest yet! Chris was right, it does burn. The pain is unbearable, and I just keep crying. We hear the belt buckle click back into place. I thank whoever is listening that the belting is over, but it still hurts a lot.
"Stop being dramatic. Get upstairs to the bath/" John pulls us both us and sends us upstairs with a smack on the leg each. Thankfully, it wasn't hard.
"Your dad smacks you that hard???" I rub my bum over my suit trousers on the way to the bathroom.
"Yeah," Alfie huffs.
His mum helps us in the bath and we play with lots of plastic toys. He has a blue dog bath toy that I really want. Should I steal it? I think about it but I really don't want John to smack me again.
We go into Alfie's room. It's small but he has do many cool things! Like his electric drum kit and his PlayStation and his lava lamp. His room is really messy, like the couch downstairs was.
"Where am I sleeping?"
"Not in my bed!" he clutches one of the stuffed animals on his bed.
"Alright, keep your pants on," I'm not going to get his precious bed dirty. He sits in his gaming chair and starts to play, like Chris does. I guess he doesn't want to talk after getting belted. But that means I'm alone.
His Mum brings up a blow up bed and some blankets. I don't want to use them but they're al I have. I don't want to turn into an icicle! "You boys get to bed. Your dad isn't happy with you Alfie,"
"I want to play my game!" Alfie whines. What's he thinking?!
"No, you've played your game enough,"
"That's not fair... I want to play it more!"
"Alfie!" John's voice rooms from outside the room. "Get that game put away!"
He huffs and complains but he saves it and turns it off. We get into bed and Alfie starts reading one of his books. He doesn't want to talk to me and I think he'd shout at me if I tried to read one of his books. I love my cousins, but Alfie is boring sometimes. He doesn't want to do anything, or he'll ignore me, or he'll call me mean names. That's when I decide to talk to Keira instead.
I hear noises from with in her room. I go across the upstairs hall and press my ear to the door. It's a boy's voice!
"What's that?" I hear the boy's voice ask.
The door disappears! And I fall into her room. She's holding the door handle and she looks angry.
"Ugh, what are you doin?" she sneers.
"Alfie is boring," I sit up. "He won't let me read his books or play with his toys,"
"Aw, that's so sad man," the boy says, but he doesn't look sad. He looks like he's laughing. It's not funny!
"Go away Max," she tires to kick me away from the door.
I've never seen her room. It's really pink. There's a poster on the wall of a band that Chris used to make fun of. It's a really old band called One Direction. I point to the poster. "That's really gay!"
"Oh, get out!" she glares. "If Alfie's ignoring you then just ignore him,"
But then I'd still be alone. She isn't very smart. "Who's that?" I point to the boy.
"My boyfriend,"
"You have a boyfriend?!"
"Why are you so surprised?"
I shrug. "Chris has neve had a girlfriend,"
"Really?" she laughs a bit. I don't think I was supposed to say that. Chris might be really angry!
"I'm sooo bored!"
"Go away or I'll get Dad," Keira smiles, but it's an evil smile. Like Disney villains.
I don't want her to get him! I'm already up past bedtime. I don't wanna get hit again, especially with the belt, so I go back to Alfie's room. Her and the boyfriend burst out laughing. I can hear them all the way from here! It's not nice to laugh at people.
"Did you know your sister has a boyfriend?" I whisper to Alfie.
"Yeah. He's nice,"
"How?" he didn't seem very nice.
"He got me Roblox for my birthday,"
He might as well be a younger version of Chris. I don't get video games.
"Okay," the house is cold but the blankets smell and feel weird. I put them on anyway because I don't want to freeze. I don't have Bexley with me so I can't cuddle him. I miss him! I miss my bed.
The next morning, I wait in the living room for Mum and Dad to come and get me. I haven't had any breakfast and all the toys look dirty. Keira is on her tablet and Alfie is outside on the trampoline. I just want them to come and get me already!
The second Dad opens the door, I run over. "Dad! Save me!"
"Oof," I crash into him.
"Ready to get home?"
"John hit me with the belt!"
He looks up at Uncle John. "What?"
(Bill's POV)
I'm furious. But not as furious as my wife. Sally grab's Max's arm. "Go out to the car and wait for us,"
"A-Alright," he runs outside.
Sally strides forward. I've never been more impressed by her. And usually I'm the assertive one. She stands right in front of John, looking up at him. She doesn't fear his height.
"I don't care if my husband is scared of you. You never hit my son with a belt! A six year old boy?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"
I watch her square up to this giant man. And he looks so shocked. "This is my house. When your son is here, he-"
"I don't give a fuck about your house! If you ever do this to my son again or yours, I'll phone the police and I mean it!"
John's eyes widen. We all know why.
"That's right. And I'll tell them everything, John. I'll tell them about your pill factory, about all the shit with the debt, about-"
I gently guide my wife out of the house. I'm not looking to get any more abusive texts from my brother than the ones I know are already coming.
"I know you're scared of your brother Bill, but that's our son. You need to stand up for him," Sally says on the way to the car.
"I know. But I don't want to run their relationship with their cousins either,"
She opens the car door. "It won't," she shuts up since Max is listening.
"Did you fight with Uncle John?"
"We just told him he was wrong,"
"Does that mean I can't see my cousins anymore?"
"No, you can still see them. It's fine,"
"Just maybe without me," Sally laughs.
Or me, I'm not coming her without her!