The Broken Necklace & Other Stories

This is a new story about a pair of siblings raising themselves up under the less-than-watchful eye of an uncaring mother. Its initial concept is based on a throwaway line from a story I saw a long, long time ago in a galaxy very, very close to this one. And, no; Star Wars is not otherwise involved.

Jake really hated his little sister right now.

OK, that was unfair. He loved his little sister - usually, but she had that knack younger siblings often have of being a complete pain in the arse. And tonight, she was being a real royal pain.

Jessica - Jessie to her friends and Jess to Jake (and only Jake) - had turned eighteen about a month ago now. Jake, her older brother by just over fourteen months, had gone all out and bought her a really nice silver necklace with a rabbit-shaped pendant on it. Jess loved rabbits, though she'd never owned one.

Their mother, Louise, had been almost sober that day and had bought Jessica a white cup with a gold letter J on it. That evening, Louise had filled the cup with some clear (but potently alcoholic) liquid, knocked it back, lost her balance and had a decision to make. She could drop the cup or the bottle. Really, it was no decision at all.

Expertly avoiding any risk of damage to the bottle, Louise twisted around and smacked the cup on the kitchen worktop, snapping the handle off and sending the main part of the cup falling to the ground to shatter like a bomb. "Clean this fucking mess up, one of you," Louise had slurred before stumbling off to bed with the bottle. They hadn't seen her for two days after that.

Jess didn't give a flying fuck about the cup. It was quite childish and the sort of thing you bought for some distant relative when you remembered that their birthday was today and you'd not gotten them anything. But she loved the little necklace.

The necklace was thin, light and the rabbit was also silver, but had black glass eyes that stood out. It had cost Jake too much. Jake had been so happy when he'd given it to her. Jessica's eyes had lit up and she had grinned and squealed and hugged him and made him put it on for her. He had, and it had fitted perfectly and he was reminded just how much he really loved her.

And now the stupid little bitch had fucking lost it! The chain, thin and - apparently - quite fragile, had snapped and, although she'd saved it from falling on the floor and put it in her coat pocket, it was now nowhere to be found.

Jessie was almost in tears. She loved her big brother and the necklace had been so cute and adorable and now it was just...gone. What was worse, Jake was angry with her for losing it and she'd not dared to tell him when (and, more importantly, how) the little chain had gotten lost in the first place. If he knew, he might get really upset.

"What the fuck, Jess? I mean, really? What the fuck?"

Jess tried not to cry. "I don't know what to say, Jay," she said, hitching for breath. Just like Jake was the only one who could call her Jess, she was the only one who could call him Jay. It was odd that she could shorten a monosyllabic name, but she had and - ever since - it was her pet name for him. It never failed to make him smile.

Until now. Jake was, most definitely, not smiling.

"Do you know what that thing cost me? Do you?" Jess shook her head. "Well it was...never fucking mind how much it was. It was a lot, that's enough."

"I know, Jay," she replied. "And... and I'm really sorry."

"Sorry? Fucking sorry? You're not going to get around me with a fucking sorry!"

"I'm not trying to get around you," she said, the tears coming back now. "I'm just saying. I'm really sorry!"

"Where did you lose it?"

"If I knew that it wouldn't be lost," she replied and smiled through the tears. Her heart leapt a little when Jake smiled back for an instant.

"You know what I mean," he said, all business once again.

Jessica didn't answer. This was the third time he'd asked her this - or something similar. She wouldn't tell him. Not now. Not ever. It was far too embarrassing.

"No answer, huh? Well, it's not fucking good enough, Jess. What the fuck happened to it? That's all I want to know. Tell me! I won't get upset; I promise! I'll even stop going on about it." He sighed. "It's a fucking twat you losing the necklace, but shit happens. I get that. I just want to know why!"

Jess was still not speaking about this. Her heart almost broke when he gave her a long, sad look and shook his head. "Fuck off then," he swore and stormed off to his room.

On the way, he looked into his mother's room. Louise wasn't there. According to a badly written note on the windowsill, she was "at a meeting" which was Louise-speak for "at the pub getting thoroughly rat-arsed". The note also said that they shouldn't wait up for her, which was Louise-speak for "I'm going to find some guy and go home with him and fuck him and then forget his name. Again."

Jake noticed the pile of dirty, discarded, slightly faded clothes on the floor. It was a common occurrence. He went in and threw them in the hamper about a foot from where the pile had been. He quickly checked the bed and was slightly surprised not to see a new pile of puke to clean up. This was almost a good day.

Somewhat spoiled by the lost necklace and the steadfast refusal of his sister to explain why, of course.

Jake went into his room. He sat in the old, creaking chair and swivelled on it. The chair had been a gift from his mother a few years ago. Before the drinking had gotten too bad. Jake knew why his mother drank; she missed his father who had gotten himself killed in a multi-car pile-up on the motorway back when Jake was just thirteen. It just wasn't an excuse as far as he was concerned.

Now the chair was old and the back leaned over alarmingly if he pushed back on it. It would break soon, he knew, and then he'd have to sit on the floor or his mattress. He, like Jess, no longer owned a bed.

Jake put his head in his hands. What the fuck had happened? OK - the necklace had snapped. It was annoying, but understandable. What wasn't understandable was this uncomfortable, almost defiant silence from his sister. They'd always been able to talk. About anything. The silence on this - what was a relatively minor thing, really - was disquieting. Jake didn't like it.

Back in the main room, Jessica was internalising. She wanted to tell Jake what had happened and yet she really, really didn't.

But she did want to tell him. Didn't she?

Yes.

No. Maybe?

Definitely.

Definitely not.

I don't think?

I don't know!

This had been going on for some time. What ultimately decided her was the memory of the look of disappointment on Jake's face as he left the room. She could deal with what had happened. (Just.) She was prepared to deal with the shit that would hit the fan when the truth was out. (She hoped.) But she could not deal with that look on her big brother's face.

Decided, she headed to his room before she could convince herself to change her mind again.

Jess knocked on the door. There was no answer. Jake might have been asleep - he'd had enough time, especially as he had the uncanny knack of falling asleep in a moment when the opportunity arose, but Jess thought this unlikely. Jake might fall asleep quicker than blinking, but he slept lightly - always listening out for the tell-tale signs of the drunk bitch down the hall throwing up or choking on something she'd not swallowed properly before passing out.

Jess almost - almost - wanted her mother to die and put herself out of Jessica's misery. It was a nasty thought, but her mother was a nasty piece of work who got pissed for fun and who then got fucked by guys she knew neither the names nor the descriptions of, before coming home to throw up on the floor (which was tile, so was easy to clean) or the bed (which could be changed) or the sofa (which could only be cleaned as best as possible and then smothered in half a bottle of Febreze).

Then Louise would pass out and she might come around within a day or, then again, she might not. Her record of unconsciousness was around a hundred hours. Jess had truly thought that was it for her mother, but God clearly didn't want Louise back just yet because she'd woken up, found a bottle somewhere, and started the whole, pathetic cycle once again.

Jess knocked again.

After a few more moments of silence, a voice came through the door; "it's open." Jake had a bolt on his door for modesty purposes; it allowed him to do whatever he wanted to do in private. Jessica had one, too, for much the same reason. Louise did not have one. The risk of choking to death whilst her kids were stuck on the other side of the door, unable to get in, was all too real and, even in her booze-filled brain she understood this. Louise might be a piss-head, but she wasn't suicidal. Yet.

Jess took a deep breath and opened the door. She had barely stepped inside when Jake whirled around on his rickety, creaking chair and faced her. "Unless you've come to explain things, properly, don't bother coming any closer."

Jess nodded. "I have," she said. "But, I'm warning you, you won't like it."

"Maybe not. As long as it's the truth, though."

"It will be. I promise - if you promise me something."

"What?"

Jess looked, pleadingly, at her big brother. "Promise me you won't hate me. I don't care if you get mad, just...just don't hate me. I couldn't deal with that!"

Jake wondered precisely what the fuck could be so bad that Jess might think he'd hate her. He nodded to her. "I promise," he said.

Jess smiled. "Can I come in, then," she asked. Jake simply nodded in reply.

Jess walked over to the mattress lying on the bare floor. Jake had once had a proper bed, a bit like she had. But it was Louise - of course it had been Louise - who had broken it, stumbling whilst pissed out of her mind one night and crashing into it. One of the legs had buckled and that had been the end of Jake's bed. They didn't have the money for a new one.

Jess sat on the mattress. It was not as soft as hers. Jess had gotten rid of her own bed a few days after they'd thrown Jake's away, a choice she didn't really regret. It had been a nice bed, but Louise being Louise meant that nice things didn't last, so she'd sold it for a small amount of money. Louise had found the money the following day whilst Jessica was at school and had drunk most of it away before Jess had gotten home. Quelle surprise as the French might say.

Silence filled the room. Jake knew his sister well enough not to disturb her. She would speak in her own time.

"I... well, I guess I should go back to leaving college early," Jess said.

"Go on."

Jess put her thoughts into place. "You know that Polish guy at Uni, Andrzej Kawałko," she asked.

Jake nodded. "Yeah."

"And you know he has a younger brother, Janus?"

Jake nodded again. "Yeah. Calls himself 'Janus the horse'. Complete tosser," was Jake's considered opinion. "Big skin-head, round face, always wears that tatty leather jacket like some 80's throwback?"

Jess nodded back. "That's him, yeah," she said.

"What about him? Don't tell me he broke your chain?"

Jess looked at Jake, thoughtfully. "I'll get to that in time," she said. "Meanwhile, it's enough that you know who he is."

"OK."

"Well, Janus and I share a computing class. Honestly, Jay, he's the best fucking programmer I've ever met! He can throw up a program in about half the time it takes me and I thought I was quick! Fuck; at school I was quick - the quickest. But Janus has me beat all ends up. Not that I mind, you understand. I don't."

"Right?" Jake drew this word out to make it clear that he wasn't exactly interested in the programming speed of Janus "the horse" Kawałko.

Jess got the point. "Whatever," she continued. "Janus and I finished computing about 10:30 today. I'd never really spoken to him before, so when he came up to me as we were leaving and started talking to me I was a bit surprised."

"Talking about what?" Jake was interested, despite himself.

"Nothing. Anything. Whatever. He started by complimenting my hair."

"Your hair?" Jake was mildly surprised. Of all his sister's impressive traits, her long, flowing, dirty blonde hair was...a little way down the list.

"Yeah," Jess answered. "I had it back, like this," she grabbed the back of her hair into a ponytail for a moment before letting it drop freely back over her back and shoulders again. "He said he'd not seen me with a ponytail before and that it suited me."

"Uh-huh," Jake said in a non-committal fashion. His sisters' hair still wasn't doing it for him, up or down. Though, if pressed, he might have conceded that it looked slightly better in the ponytail. It gave her a youthful, almost vulnerable look.

"I know," Jess said, "I didn't get it either. But whatever, you know? Then he starts talking to me about all sorts of random shit. Anything from the weather, to my political opinions, to climate change and then to my family life. Like he was interested, you know?" Jake nodded. "I didn't see the harm, so we talked. He told me about him and I told him about me."

"You're getting off the point," Jake said.

"Sorry," Jess said. "But I'm not. Not really." She saw the impatient look on Jake's face. "But, I'll skip to the important bits," she finished.

"Thank you," Jake said.

"So," Jess paused for a moment, skipping the memory ahead a few minutes in her mind. "He asked if I had another class and I said I had maths, but not until 2. 'What are you doing until then?' he asked me and I just shrugged. I've always hated Thursdays for that big gap between classes. No point in coming home because I'd get here just in time to go back again. I told him I'd probably go to the library like usual."

"'Don't do that' he says to me. 'I only live about five minutes away. You can come and spend some time with me if you like.'" Jess looked at Jake. "I didn't know what to say. I thought about saying 'no', but thought that was maybe a bit rude. I didn't have anything else to do, so I thought about it for a moment and he says 'you don't have to if you don't want. I understand.' And he looked so downcast - so beaten down - that I just felt sorry for him! So I agreed to go."

"Are you stupid," Jake asked. "You don't know what he planned to do! What if he planned to rape you? What if he planned for him and several of his mates to rape you?"

"I'm a big girl now, big brother," Jess replied. "I know a few martial arts moves."

"Really? Six lessons of tae-kwon-do and all of a sudden you're an expert?"

"It was eight lessons, and no, I'm not that stupid," Jess replied, slightly annoyed. "But I can handle things if I need to."

"Still," Jake said.

"Yeah, OK. Maybe I didn't think that through," she answered him. "But anyway, it was a nice offer so I went. We got in his car and he drove us to his house."

"Oh, yeah," Jake said. "The yellow Mustang. That's a nice car, I'll give him that!" Jay loved cars. He was on a motor-sport course at Uni and hoped to move into car mechanics as a career. His dream was to pit crew in F1 one day, but any job tinkering with cars would probably make him happier than a pig in shit.

"It's nicer inside," Jess countered. "Black leather interior, racing seats, the works." Jess liked cars, but not with a fraction of the adoration of her brother. "And the engine! Fuck! It's noisy outside, yeah?" Jake nodded; you could hear Janus's Mustang coming long before you could see it. "But inside it was really quiet. I thought I'd have to shout over the noise, but it's really not too bad."

Jake just nodded and wound his finger around to show he wanted her to get on with the story.

"Anyway, we got to his house - and it's more like a farm. They've got a shop that sells farm stuff; eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, all the rest of it. Nice place. Big."

Jake did the finger thing again.

"Okay, okay! I'm getting there." She took a deep breath. This was going to be the difficult bit. "He took me inside the house and we had a drink - lemonade, that was all (at least in mine), and something to eat and he led me to his room."

"Really?" Jake raised an eyebrow like Spock in Star Trek. "And this didn't give you any warnings at all?"

Jess looked at Jake. "Of course it did, I'm not a complete moron," she replied. "I kind of guessed where this was going."

"So why didn't you leave? Or didn't he let you?"

Jess sighed. "I...don't know."

"Bullshit."

Jess nodded. "Yeah. Bullshit. OK." She looked at him again. "I... I wanted him to... you know?"

"To...? What?"

"You know!"

Jake feigned innocence. "No, what?"

"To..." she turned it to a whisper, "to fuck me."

Jake placed his hand on his chest and pretended to be aghast. "What? Heavens, but did my sweet, innocent baby sister use that word? Heaven forfend!"

"Oh, shut up, you moron," Jess giggled, no longer whispering. "I wanted him to fuck me, OK?"

Jake gaped. "But... had you...? Were you...? You know?"

Now it was Jessie's turn to feign ignorance. "Was I...what?"

"A..." Jake gulped and said the word he'd never used outside of relating to Jesus' mother, "a virgin?"

Jess stared at Jake for a moment. "I don't know if I should answer that."

"Why not?"

"Because I would have thought that, if I was no longer a virgin, I would have told you earlier. We always talked about things. You told me when you lost your v-card with that skank." Jess had never liked Vicky Taylor, who had been the recipient of said virginity and had never hidden the fact.

"So you were a virgin this morning," Jake said. "I take it you're not any more?"

Jess grinned. "Nope," she said. "Fucked and ready to do it again. No more hymen in my way!" She smiled as a thought hit her. "I must try my dildo out again now it's gone. See if it's any better!"

"Jesus, Jess! I don't want to know that!"

Jess smirked. "Oh, I think you do," she said. "I think the idea of me rubbing my toy across my pussy makes you so hard you can't think straight!"

"It most certainly does not," Jake answered, glad that the room was only dimly lit and his baggy tracksuit trousers could hide his lies.

"It's true, though," Jess countered. "Nice and hard, right? A big stiffy growing under those pants!"

"No," Jake replied, a little too forcefully.

"I call bullshit again," Jess said. Without warning, she leaned over and put her hand in his crotch. The truth was laid bare (in a manner of speaking). "Very nice, big brother," she said. "I bet you get a lot of compliments!"

"No-one's complained so far," Jake replied before shaking his head to clear it. "But we're not talking about that!"

"What? What do you want to hear? Tell me," Jess demanded.

"We were talking about your necklace. I take it you lost it whilst being ravaged by Janus "the horse" Kawałko?"

Jess slumped back down on the mattress. "Not exactly," she said.

"Go on."

Jess flung herself backwards onto the mattress. She put one arm over her eyes. This was the really bad bit.

"It was fucking awful," she said.

"What was?"

"The sex, you dickhead," Jess answered. "I... I didn't know what I was doing and so I did nothing. I just lay there." She moved her arm to look at him again.

"Um...." Jake left it a few moments, hoping his sister would get to the fucking point. He wasn't sure what Jess was expecting him to say.

To be fair, Jess also wasn't sure what she expected him to say. Something. Anything. When it became clear he wasn't going to, she carried on. "It hurt," she said. "A bit, anyway. At first. Then it started to feel...good, you know? I was starting to feel good and beginning to enjoy myself and then...it was all over."