The Big Bust Up

Before you could say Jack Robinson, Juliet was back to her old tricks. She was testing me and testing Val. She started dressing like a right tart and was hanging around with an older crowd – a real bunch of delinquents – and she stopped coming home at night again. Or, if she did come back, she was either as pissed as a rat or fucking high on glue. I came home from the pub Christmas Eve and there she was snoggin' some bloke at the front gate. I couldn't even get passed them to get to my own front door. Juliet was snoggin' the face off this geezer. He had his hand up her mini skirt, and I'm feeling the rage rise in me. I want to slug the fellow and smack some fucking sense into her. But I started to get these other feelings too. I felt that this bloke had no right to be feeling her up; that if anyone had any claim to her, it was me. I'd put up with Juliet for years now, hadn't I? I kind of decided that night that I would be the one who was gonna get her first. Well, I hoped I'd be the first. I couldn't really be sure if she was still a virgin or not, even though she was only fourteen. She's a fucking whore, just like her mother, I muttered to myself as I headed down the alley to get through the back garden gate. She came in not that long after me, all innocent like nothing had been going on outside. I hit the bloody roof. I slapped her around the face and sent her spinning across the lounge. Val told me to stop. She said I was drunk and should go to bed, but I was sick of these two bitches bossing me about. I head-butted Val in the face and because I was drunk, I lost my balance and fell into the armchair. But I saw Val keel backwards and crack her head on the mantle piece. She slumped to the floor and a framed photo of us on our wedding day toppled off the mantle piece and smashed in the hearth. I then went for Juliet, but she fled upstairs and locked herself in her bedroom. I stumbled back down the stairs and into the living room to find Val hauling herself up onto the sofa. She was shaking and crying. "That's it, Johnny Jameson! That's the last time you ever lay a finger on me." I laughed at her. "I'm leaving you right now, tonight, you bastard," she screamed in my face.

"Yaaargh, fuck off then and stop wasting my time. And, take that fucking kid with you too." I went to the kitchen, cracked open a bottle of whiskey and took a slug from it. "Bitch! I'll be glad to see the back of you," I bawled, not caring whether I woke up Carol and Patrick or the neighbours. "You fat, ugly slag," I screamed. I could hear Val thumping around in our bedroom, pulling things from the wardrobe and the dresser. She was crying. I heard her go into Patrick's bedroom and then Carol's room. I could hear voices and crying, but I couldn't make out what was being said. Unsteadily, with my bottle scotch in hand, I started to make my way upstairs. Val was knocking on Juliet's door. "Take that cunt with you," I yelled. Juliet opened her bedroom door. She was crying and the anger and terror on her face excited me. Juliet and Val were yelling at each other.

"Mum, you can't leave me with him. It's not safe here."

"No, Juliet, I can't take you. I'm going to your Aunt Anne's. There's no room for you there. I'll be in touch as soon as I've found my own place."

"Mum, please, no." Juliet was clinging to Val's arm and pulling her towards her. "Don't leave me. I'm scared. I know he'll hurt me."

"I'll kill him if he touches one hair on your head. Just keep out of his way as much as you can."

I had just a few more steps to climb and then I'd be within arms length of Val. I was getting read to crack the whisky bottle over her head. Val saw me coming and pushed Juliet inside her room. "Ask Sarah if her parents will let you stay there. I love you darling, but I have to go now. I need to catch the last train."

The next thing I knew Val kicked me in the balls and sent me tumbling downstairs. She then hurled her suitcase down after me. The bitch legged it down the stairs and trampled over me in her panic to grab her suitcase and coat and flee out the front door. "Goodbye and good riddance to fucking rubbish!" I slurred towards the slammed front door. "You cunt, you fucking whore, that's all my whisky gone." I was drenched and bruised and exhausted. I burst into tears, pissed myself and then passed out. It was 11 a.m. when I came round the next day. A blanket had been thrown over me, but I was stiff with cold. I staggered into the living room and flopped out on the sofa. I had a blinding headache and was sore all over. I called out to see if I could get Carol to make me a pot of tea. She came down stairs all sheepish, Patrick trailing behind her. It broke my heart to see her terrified face. I drove them over to their nan's and we spent a few hours there. I was in a real mess though. I was shaking like a leaf. I was scared that Val might have suffered some fatal injury. The most horrific scenes span through my head, and so I gave Carol some money to call her mother.