Chapter five - Billy

My dad is so predictable, all Carrie had to do was bat her eyelids his way and whisper a few compliments and he was hooked. Lining her up to be his next fling, while the current one was busy trying to play his wife.

I tell the girls to hang around in the kitchen and flirt with my dad, right in view of where I'm standing by his car, waiting for the whore.

"Billy, are you coming shopping?" Her voice is laced with venom and I smile, knowing she's annoyed, whether by my behaviour last night or because the girls were downstairs at breakfast, I'm not sure, but whatever the reason, the reaction is just what I want.

"No, just thought I'd help you out with something." I nod towards the kitchen window where my dad is now talking to the girls, a massive grin on his face. She follows my gaze and her lips press into a thin line.

"Oh Billy, I think your girlfriends have got a crush on your dad. Maybe you should try a different sort of girl next time." She says icily, her eyes narrowing on the window as my dad brushes Carrie's hair off her shoulder. 

"How long do you think it took for him to cheat on my mum?" I ask, watching her closely. "Oh you poor bitch, did you think you were the only one he fucked? I doubt he even considers it cheating. Not on you anyway, he's still married to my mum after all."

"Ah, so that's your plan. I knew there was one. It's fairly simple, but I guess that's all you're capable of." She sneers at me, all pretence of friendliness gone.

"Plan? What plan? I'm just looking out for you." I nod my head back towards my dad where Alison catches my eye and disappears below the window. I know she's sitting on the sofa, but I'm hoping the whore beside me thinks something else is going on, especially when Carrie reaches over and starts playing with Alison's hair, which is conveniently positioned at my father's waist level. My dad's eyes light up with the attention of two pretty girls and I see a hint of doubt flash across the whore's face.

These girls are so good at this, they should be employed by one of those honey trap agencies.

"I'm honestly just trying to help you out." I make my voice sound genuinely sympathetic. "I may not be happy with the set up, but I know my dad, he hurt my mum a lot over the years. Told her he was working overtime. How many of those times do you know he was with you instead?" 

Her face pales and she swallows hard, watching the scene in the kitchen play out. 

"Exactly." I lower my voice, speaking close to her ear and wrapping my arm around her shoulders, keeping her view on the window in front of us. Carrie grabs my dad's hand and says something to him, he turns and leads her out of the room, Alison hurrying behind the both of them, letting her top down so we can see the bare skin on her shoulders just as she leaves the room.

The whore tenses beside me, her eyes not leaving the window.

"Mum? Are you alright?" Elsie walks through the front door and hurries towards her mum.

"Carly honey, I thought you'd have been long gone already." My dad appears at the door. Shifting his attention to me, he jabs his thumb behind him. "Bill, the girls asked to see my old record collection. Can you go in and supervise, I need to shower and get going and I don't want them scratched."

"Sure dad." I reply cheerily and he disappears back inside. Elsie looks about as excited with the idea of a day out clothes shopping as I would, which amuses me and I must be feeling good after the window show plan because I send her a wink. "Enjoy your shopping." 

"Uh… thanks?" She looks at me in complete confusion and I realise this is probably the first time I've been anything except horrible to her.

"Elsie, hurry up and get in the car so we can go." Her eyes flick between me and her daughter in panic. When Elsie's in the car she rounds on me, lowering her voice to an aggressive hiss. "Stay away from my daughter, you little reprobate."

"What's wrong? Don't you want me to bond with my new stepsister?" I grin at her. She might not be worried about my dad messing around on her, but apparently, she is very sensitive about anyone touching her precious little girl. "I was thinking of seeing what she was up to tonight, maybe tempt her to a movie night in my bedroom. I thought you'd be pleased, you were the one talking about acting like a family."

"Don't you dare touch my daughter you little shit." Her finger comes up to my face and she's so enraged she spits out the words.

"Mum?" Elsie opens her door and frowns at the both of us. "Are we going?"

"Yes baby, we're going right now." She glares at me as she slides into my dad's car.

"Bye, have a great time." I wave from the doorstep as they reverse out of the driveway. Elsie is frowning at her mum, who is glowering at me as she reverses out of the driveway. Now I know how to get to her, I just have to work out how to get into her daughter's pants.

"Thank you for making an effort lad." My dad claps me on the shoulder, smiling proudly at me. "I really do appreciate it."

"Of course dad, are you going out?" He slips past me and out towards one of his other cars. 

"Yes Bill, I've got work, see you later." 

"Bye dad." I watch him leave, knowing full well he doesn't work on a Saturday but the whore probably knows that too and doesn't seem to care. That would have bugged me earlier but I've got a different plan in mind now.

"Thanks for last night and this morning, it was fun." I say when I go inside and find the girls in my bedroom, already dressed and ready to leave.

"No problem, you're not going to split them up though, at least not for a while. Your dad really likes her." Carrie grabs her phone, slipping it into her handbag. 

"Hardly. He's already on his way to shag someone else." I roll my eyes, flopping down onto my bed, it dips as the two girls sit beside me.

"No, he's not, he's gone to organise a night away for the two of them. Apparently she likes musicals, he was asking us which ones are our favourites so he can surprise her." Alison tells me, a sympathetic smile on her face. "Maybe just find a way to accept it, your parents might be happier with other people. It's unlikely they'll get back together, even if you do manage to split them up."

"I don't want my mum back with him. He made her fucking miserable. It's just an insult to her that he's moved his whore in already, like mum meant nothing and he's not even bothered about her being gone, I'm not having that." My whole body tenses, my fist clenching and my jaw aching when I think about my poor mum and how she must be feeling. 

"He's not going to cheat on her though, at least for a while. He's like fully in love with her, I practically offered myself to him and he was very sweet, but very clear in his rejection." Carrie lies back on the other side of my bed, arms behind her head. "I'd leave it. Focus on something else."

"Oh definitely, I've got a new plan." They both twist to look at me, waiting for me to explain. "I'm going to fuck the daughter, that'll piss the whore off enough to move out. At least if I can't split them up, she won't be so quick to try and play happy families."

"No, you can't. That's not fair on Elsie, she's so sweet." Alison sits up and glares at me. "If you try anything, I'll tell her what you're up to. Messing with your dad and the woman he cheated is one thing, but Elsie's not part of that."

"It's the only way." I shout, making them both jump.

"Look Billy, I know you're angry, but this isn't you." Alison grabs my hand in both of hers, her eyes wide as she stares up at me, like she's begging me to reconsider or something. "You don't mess with people's feelings and Elsie's sweet, she keeps to herself at school, she doesn't sleep around. Don't do this, it won't end well, not to either of you."

"Ali, ease up, it's just sex. She probably won't even go for it, did you see how she was looking at us all last night?" Carrie adds and I laugh at the memory of the horror on her face when she saw us walk in together, I can only imagine how she would have reacted hearing us going at it so loudly. It was for my dad and the whore's benefit at the time, I'd not even thought about her.

"I need to go, I can't… I won't be a part of this." Alison gets up and grabs her coat, just before she walks out of my room she turns and looks right at me. "You've got a choice here Billy, you can focus on getting back at your dad, making him unhappy, or you can do what your mum's doing. Get on with your life and leave them to do whatever they're going to do."

Her words linger in my brain long after Carrie chases after her and I hear their car pull away.

I wander through the house, it's exactly the same but also somehow different, all traces of my mum have been wiped away, even photographs that she's in have been removed, replaced by photos of my dad and the whore and it hurts, deep inside my chest is an ache that won't go away and I want them to hurt like I am. 

I find myself standing outside Elsie's room, my hand gripping the door handle. Alison's right, this isn't me, but I press down, releasing the door to swing open and let me see her room. It's sparsely decorated, but that's to be expected since she's only been here a matter of hours, mostly books on every available surface, but on her bedside table is only one thing. 

A single picture of her with a man, both of them making stupid faces at the camera. There's so much joy coming from the photo, I find myself sitting down on the bed, holding it in my hands and wondering what happened to this man. Elsie looks young in this photo, but her adoration for her dad is clear, there's no way she'd have moved in with us if that man was still around.

She's been through enough, Alison's right, this would wreck both of us. I just need to get over it, I'll be gone in less than a year anyway.