Page 81 of When We Are Old

“Ugh. That’s disgusting.” Hannah stomped into the room.

“We know. You’ve told us.” Ronnie grinned against my mouth.

“Well, can you stop?”

I relaxed my hold on Ronnie and turned to Hannah. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked. Ronnie tensed beside me, but I wasn’t scared of a stroppy fourteen-year-old yet.

“There was no hot water.”

“I told you, yesterday, the boiler is on the blink. If you come and tell me I can help you fix it.” I gestured to the boiler in the cupboard. “Would you like me to show you now?”

“Ugghhhh. No.” She threw herself down in the chair and then lowered her head onto the table. Ronnie started to back away, but I caught her hand and pulled her to my side.

“What’s the matter with you?” I asked.

Hannah lifted her head, her hair all over the place, blinking through strands of blonde and brown. “Nothing.”

Head back down.

Ronnie shook her head at me just as Ewan came back in through the kitchen. “Oh it’s the toilet hogger. Dad should start charging you extra if it takes you that long to poo.”

Hannah raised her head again and Ronnie physically cringed at my side. “Uggggh. I was not pooing. I was trying to shower in this stupid house without hot water.”

Whoa.

Seriously where did this come from? She was fine yesterday.

“Hannah.” Ronnie’s tone held a note of warning, but she just ignored her mother.

“No, seriously, it’s ridiculous.” She turned, her cheeks splotched with red to glare at Ronnie and me. “We should stay in a hotel; it would be better there.”

“Good.” Ewan retorted. “Then I’d be able to wee when I want and wouldn’t have to sleep with Jack to make room for you.”

“Hey, hey, hold on here.” I laid a hand on the table. “It’s just some adjusting, okay? None of us are used to sharing, and the house isn’t that big.” I turned to Ewan. “But you love this house, mate. You helped me choose it.”

“Yeah.” He glared at the floor. “When it was just us living here.”

Hannah rolled her eyes and it took everything in me not to say something. Until I couldn’t not.

“Hannah. Do you mind not being rude, please?”

She smacked her hands down on the table. “What? I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Hannah jabbed her finger at Ronnie. “She’s always rolling her eyes.”

I had to bite down on my lower lip as the need to laugh crept up my throat. “Maybe so, but it’s disrespectful for you to do it. And also, she’s not a she, she’s your mum.” I trod on a delicate path, I knew that, but I couldn’t have her talking to Ronnie like that in my own house, mainly because I didn’t want Ewan and Jack learning that shit.

“Uggghhhh.” She put her head back down on the kitchen table while I turned to Ronnie, my hands held in a helpless gesture, palms to the ceiling praying for some form of divine intervention.

“PMT,” she mouthed.

Oh good lord, crap no. I don’t need to be hearing those kinds of things. Shit, was that why she was in the bathroom so long?

I stood with my mouth hanging open, unsure how to proceed. My major concern was that my head would get ripped off if I spoke to her again.

Ronnie slid her arm around my waist and gave me a squeeze. “Sorry you had to pee outside, Ewan.”