Human Conditioning (19 page)

 “I won’t, I promise,” she
replied breathlessly.

************

Roy was in the bathroom shaving when Gina came home. As
she headed for her bedroom, he stepped out in front of her. “Where you been?”
he asked, his eyes taking in her short dress. He registered that she wasn’t
wearing a bra.

“A friend’s house...”

“Lying cow. You’ve been with
that Foster lad,” he sneered.

“Oh, leave it out, Dad,
please...”

She went to leave but he
stepped closer to her. “Does he touch them?” He pointed to her breasts.

Gina sighed and again tried to
pass. Their shoulders clashed. She had to force herself past him. “Does he put
his big cock in you?” Roy called after her as she slammed her bedroom door on
him.

Kate was just about to unlock the door to the flat when
Aiden swung it open from inside. He smiled when he saw her, but his lips pressed
into a hard line when he saw that a well-built lad of about his age was
standing behind her. Adam Draper had been in the year below Aiden at school,
but they didn’t know each other, although Adam was keen to finally meet the
person who had stirred up such a huge reputation.

“Who’s this?”

Aiden glared down at Kate’s
friend and Kate rolled her eyes. “Adam, this is Aiden, my
extremely
overprotective brother. Aiden, this is Adam Draper, my... boyfriend,” she
announced hesitantly, eyeing Aiden with an expression urging him to back off.
“Adam was just walking me home,” she added.

Aiden didn’t avert his glare
as Adam offered his hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Aiden...”

“I bet you have.” He didn’t
take his hand, and Adam lowered it bashfully.

“Aiden,” Kate warned.

He twisted his lips. He wasn’t
impressed at seeing his sister with a lad older than her who would definitely want
to get into her knickers. “How old is he?” he asked Kate, voicing his concern,
as if Adam were no longer present.

“Sixteen and a half.
Why
?”

Adam watched uneasily as Kate
and Aiden began to discuss the wheres, whys and whats of his and Kate’s
very
new
relationship as if he wasn’t even there. When Kate finally looked up at
him, he knew they had ceased their conversation and, it seemed, they were
awaiting his answer to a question he had not heard. “Sorry, what?” he
stuttered.

Aiden smirked and, stepping
out of the doorway, he strolled away without looking back. Kate smiled
apologetically up at Adam, her beautiful blue eyes beseeching him to forgive the
behaviour of her insufferable brother. Adam smiled and ran a hand through her
dark hair. “He likes me, then?”

Kate wrapped her arms around
his waist. She could tell that Adam was affronted by Aiden’s rebuff. Aiden was
someone you wanted as your ally, not your foe. She was aware of the reputation
her brother had and she understood Adam’s desire to get on the right side of
him. “It’s not personal. He just doesn’t want to admit that I’m growing up.”

“That you are, Kate,” Adam
replied ardently, pulling her against him. “I haven’t forgotten about our
arrangement tonight.”

Kate flushed. “Neither have
I.”

He kissed her then stepped
back. “I’ll see you at mine at 8pm.”

She nodded and watched him walk
away and disappear down the stone steps.

It was a heady feeling to know
that tonight was the night she would lose her innocence, and to a man who was
not only handsome, but also good-natured and caring. Kate grinned and went
inside, taking herself straight to the bathroom. She stared into the mirror and
surveyed the young woman staring back her.
Not a child
. Aiden’s
behaviour towards Adam niggled at her. She would need to talk to him about that
when she next saw him... depending on his mood.

She smiled and shook her head.
Her brother was a cantankerous fool. But even as she thought it, she justified
his behaviour, like she always had done. He was merely looking out for her,
like he always had. Despite the preferential treatment her mother gave her,
their parents had always been fucking useless, ever since she could remember,
and Aiden had had to step up on many occasions and look out for her, protect
her, and care for her. That he had a problem with her seeking independence
wasn’t all his own fault. He shouldn’t have ever been put in a position where
he worried so much about her. That was a parents’ prerogative, and something
both of their parents had spectacularly failed to do. 

Comparing the relationships of
her friends and their siblings, she had learned to accept that she and Aiden
had a very strange kind of affiliation. Remarkably close as children, they had
been so in tune with one another that they had once developed a private
language that only each other could understand. It had driven their father mad
and had forced their mother to communicate with her through Aiden, giving Aiden
full control. Kate pursed her lips at the memory.
Hmm... maybe too much
control
, she thought idly.

Taking one last look at herself,
she smiled. Despite having just turned fifteen, she looked so grown-up and,
tonight, she would finally become a woman.

When the phone rang, Roy initially decided to leave it,
but when it kept ringing and ringing, stopping, then ringing again, he picked
it up. “What?” he asked the caller irately.

“Where’s the money?” a gruff
voice replied.

Roy recognised the voice
immediately. He turned ashen and suddenly lost the ability to speak. “Look...
I’ll... I’ll get your money...”

“You’ve been saying that for
months. We heard about Billy. Seems like your big diamond bust didn’t come to
fruition.”

“I’m getting it some other
way. I swear. I just need a few more weeks.”

The phone line ran silent for
a long moment. Then the caller replied, “We explained before what we would do
to you, Roy. Your daughter’s gonna find your head in a fucking box, and that’s
not before the rest of your spineless body is found along the bank of the River
fucking Thames!”

Roy began to blubber.
“Please!”

“Watch your back, Roy. You’re
out of time.”

The line fell dead. Roy stood
blubbing down the receiver for a few seconds before he registered that the
conversation was over.

************

Duggie and Vivien were going out. Vivien knew it wouldn’t
be to anywhere special, but it was a rare thing Duggie taking her out, so she
was going to make the most of it. She trotted into the kitchen in high heels
and the black knee-length dress she wore on these rare occasions. It was one of
her best, from Dorothy Perkins. She looked as attractive as ever: her black bob
– not a hair out of place – and her cat-like grey eyes enhanced by an
application of green eye shadow and black eyeliner. 

“You two be good, now,” she
said to Aiden and Gina who were sitting at the kitchen table having a
cigarette. “And make sure your sister doesn’t bring that boy back,” she added
with a stiff index finger pointing directly at Aiden.

“Alright, Ma,” he grumbled,
impatiently. She had been giving him the same warning over and over for the
past hour.   

They all heard Duggie shouting
from the front door and Vivien stuffed a lipstick and keys into her handbag and
trotted out of the room, but not before turning back and saying, “No bloody
funny business!” as she stared a warning at them both. Then, finally, both she
and Duggie left.

Gina puffed a laugh when the
house fell silent. Aiden stubbed out his cigarette and walked into the lounge,
switched on the television and slumped down onto the sofa. Gina followed him in
and sat beside him. He was being distant, and it provoked a feeling of nervousness
inside her. She never quite knew what Aiden expected of her when he was in this
kind of mood.
Was she there for sex, a cuddle on the couch or was he going
to cause a row in order to get rid of her?
She never knew. She just had to
wait for Aiden to make up his mind then execute a plan of defence.

“G, do us a favour...” he said,
out of the silence.

Gina glanced at him warily,
his tone immediately setting her heart to quicken with panic. She gulped. “OK.”

“Don’t go talking to people
about my business.”

And there it was... the row
that would rid him of her.
Gina’s heart dropped. She hadn’t a clue what he
was talking about, but she knew she was in for a bollocking all the same. She
shook her head. “Aiden, I don’t...” she tailed off as he turned to face her,
his beautiful blue gaze cold and distant.

“Don’t give me all that. You’ve
been telling my sister’s best mate that I can supply her cocaine for her
fifteenth
birthday. I don’t sell to fucking kids, G!”

“It’s a house party. I thought
you’d appreciate the business,” Gina stammered in her defence.

It was coming back to her now.
She’d been pissed up outside the pub and had told young Jennifer Hardy that
Aiden was the man to go to if she wanted anything to liven up her party. 

Gina sighed as Aiden laid into
her. “I don’t need
your
fucking help, girl, and you bandying about that
I’m a dealer to kids is a bit fucking rich, don’t you think?” Gina frowned.
Everyone and their dog knew that he worked for Reggie and what the job
entailed. “And to my
sister’s
mates! Are you fucking stupid or
something?” He rose from the couch. “And what’s this party? Kate ain’t going to
no fucking party! And why the fuck didn’t you tell me about it, eh? On what
planet did you think that I’d be happy with my little sister going to some
party without me knowing where the fuck it is, who’s gonna be there and what
fucking drugs are being taken?”

Changing tack now, Gina
persisted, “I thought if Jennifer got
you
to deal to them then you’d
know what was going on! It ain’t my business to tell you what your sister’s
getting up to. You’re not being very fair, Aiden!”

“
Fucking fair
?” He
gripped Gina’s arm and dragged her to her feet. “Next time, you fucking tell me
or I’ll show you unfair, you silly bitch!”

Gina shrugged him off, astounded
and angered in equal measure by his complete overreaction. She yelled in
frustration, “
So it’s not about me telling people that you’re a dealer, it’s
about what your sister gets up to
?”

“
It’s both
!”

“Well, I don’t ever know with
you, do I, Aiden? It could be everything or nothing! You’re fucking
impossible!” She stormed into the kitchen and, a moment later, came back with
her bag over her shoulder.

“Where do you think you’re
going?”

“I’m going home!”

He watched her storm out of
the room. For a moment he was going to let her leave. The silly cow deserved
everything she got. She couldn’t go round talking about his business. If Reggie
got wind that some little tart was blabbing about things that could potentially
have him put down if the information were to fall into the wrong hands, then
he’d go fucking ballistic and that would be the end of
his
employment,
which up until now had been paying him a nice little wedge. What Gina needed to
learn was to keep her big trap shut. A typical woman, she drank too much then talked
utter shite, said things without thinking. Aiden hated that side of her. She
never had anything of substance to say. 

But what had really wound him
up was that there was a party that his sister had planned to go to and she
hadn’t told him about it. She had kept it from him and he did not like that at
all. He had always been close to his little sister; she told him everything. Or
so he thought.

He heard the front door open
and jogged into the hallway. “G, wait, will you?” As Gina swung the door open,
he closed it again before she could go anywhere. “Come back inside.”

Admittedly, she had longed for
him to chase after her, but she gave him a stern look anyway and proceeded to
list reasons why she shouldn’t give him the time of day, but even as she
grumbled, she was rapidly surrendering as his arms snaked around her waist and
his hands slowly moved downwards to caress her buttocks. “You’ve got a great
arse, G,” he whispered close to her ear, and the feel of his smile against the
flesh of her neck was her undoing.

Moving his hands around to her
stomach, he undid the button of her jeans and slowly pulled down the zip before
plunging his hand inside the front of her knickers. They groaned in unison as
he ran his fingers over the small triangular tuft of her pubic hair, his eyes locked
onto hers.

He had just tugged down her
jeans and dipped his fingers into her when they both heard the door unlock. It
was Kate, and they could hear her nattering with someone behind the glass. Gina
scrambled to dress herself and ran back into the living room. Aiden
mischievously sucked his fingers, savouring the salty taste of her before
composing himself, ready for the onslaught he was about to rain down on his
devious sibling. Kate was already in the shit and the fact that she had just
prevented him from getting his fill... well, things did not bode well for her this
evening.

To make matters worse for
Kate, she had brought Jennifer back with her. When Kate saw her brother
standing in the hallway, his cheeks flushed and his eyes scrutinising them as
she and Jennifer bustled in with shopping bags in their hands, she frowned.
“Alright?”

“Where’ve you been?” Aiden
asked, expressionless, hiding the storm building inside his mind.

“Shops. Why?” Kate put down
the bags and removed her coat. Jennifer did the same, copping a few lustful
glances in Aiden’s direction as she did so.