Unperfect
: Chapter 16

Mia

I was beginning to think that the streets would have been a less stressful option.

After staying with Max and Teddy for the last two days, I really wasn’t sure I could take much more tension. Teddy was not a pleasant human most of the time. And, despite his joy over me insulting Max’s décor, he was really not a happy teenager that I had invaded his home. I’d been in the kitchen yesterday when he got back from school, and had offered to make him a cup of tea. He’d look at me like I’d offered to inject heroine into his eyeballs and said:

“Er … no, seeing as the caffeine would, like, stunt my growth.”

I’d bit my lip to stop myself from commenting that perhaps his growth could do with a little stunting. He’d then looked me up and down and raised his eyebrows as if to say – See, shortarse? This is where caffeine gets you. I’d scuttled off to my room with inhuman speed as soon as my own growth-retardant poison was ready.

Luckily, I hadn’t been conscious an awful lot for the last two days. Pneumonia had definitely taken it out of me. I’d slept … and slept … and slept. In between bouts of sleeping, I’d been force-fed by Max. He gave me such a huge bowl of pasta yesterday I only managed about a third, which had earned me a hard stare and a grunt of disapproval. Both mornings he had presented me with a fry up. The only upside to this was that feeding bacon and sausage on the sly to Rodger seemed to have secured his undying devotion. At least one of the living beings in the house liked me. During all our meals ,Teddy bolted his food down whilst scowling at his stepfather and me, then stalked out of the kitchen to either go to school, up to his room, or out with mates – ignoring Max’s request of a time to expect him back. Max might be in control at the office, but it was clear that he was way out of his depth on the home front.

I’d offered to cook yesterday, but Max had told me I wasn’t strong enough. He had everything delivered and there was a truckload of food in the house (unsurprisingly, seeing as Max and Teddy consumed a massive amount between them) so there was no point in me going to the shops – not that I felt brave enough yet to go out on my own. Yesterday I’d started to clean the downstairs bathroom and nearly screamed the house down when a middle-aged lady interrupted me mid toilet scrub. She’d introduced herself as Mandy, Max’s cleaner, and told me Max had asked her to check on me and that I was not allowed to do anything around the house. So I went back to bed and slept.

Now it was late afternoon, and Roger’s insistent barks had woken me up. He’d been lying next to me on the bed when I went to sleep – something I doubted was allowed, judging by the furtive looks Roger had been giving me when he got up here – but there was no way I was ordering this 80-kilo dog around, and I was tired of sleeping in the wardrobe. Having Roger on the bed made me feel safe. But now I could hear barking from what sounded like outside.

Panic that I’d left a door open and let him out induced a mini coughing fit as I got out of bed. The barking continued, but with it I heard a thumping sound coming from the garden. Curious, I opened the slates of one of the blinds and peered through. There was Teddy in shorts and a t-shirt punching and kicking a large bag suspended from a hook on one of the trees. He had that teenage, long-limbed gangliness, but already I could see his musculature start to develop. His build was so similar to what I imagined a young Max’s would have been, and their mannerisms were so similar that it was sometimes hard to remember that they weren’t actually related. Teddy’s movements were fluid and fast, the impact he was making on the bag revealing the power behind his fists and feet. Rodger was loving it and gave a bark for every contact Teddy made with the bag.

For a moment I let myself imagine driving a fist into Nate’s face then kicking him in the balls with that amount of power. I felt a small smile tug at my lips before my mouth set into a grim line of determination. The blind fell back into place as I retrieved a hair band and shoved back my now shoulder-length hair.

*****

“C-can you teach me that?”

Teddy spun around at the sound of my voice. Roger, who’d been patiently watching his master in exchange for the occasional head stroke, trotted over to me and then sat on my feet. I scratched behind his ears. Teddy narrowed his eyes at us as if I was petting his dog with nefarious intent. He lowered his hands, which were raised in combat position, and stared at me.

“Teach you what? Taekwondo?”

“I … er, well. I really just want to be able to kick and punch like that.”

His brows drew together. “Lady, aren’t you like, sick or something? Why d’you wanna learn how to throw down now?’

“Look, you seem to know what you’re doing with this stuff.’

“County champion, so yeah.”

God, he was so arrogant. Again, just like Max.

“Okay, county champion. So you can teach me how to hurt someone, right?’

“Taekwondo is not just training to hurt people. It’s about developing character, personality, and positive moral and ethical traits. It’s about peace.”

Whoa. Who knew this teenager had hidden depths or that he could string so many words together at once?

“Okay, Mr Miyagi. I’m all about the peace. Believe me. But I need to know how to defend myself as well.” I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought about this before. Of course I had to learn self-defence. Nate was alive and well. I couldn’t hide forever. If he found me … “I have to be able to hurt somebody if … if I need to.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes. “Who d’you need to hurt?”

Ugh! He was a too-curious son of a bitch, yet another characteristic in common with Max. I closed my eyes for a moment before making a decision.

“Teddy, I don’t want to get into the details, but you’d honestly be doing me a massive favour if you just showed me a few things. Only a couple pointers that I can practise on my own. I … I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

“You’re small,” he said, and I blinked.

“I am aware of that.’

“If someone attacks you, you need to run away. Not fight them. You run away and you get help.”

“Teddy, I’m not an idiot. I would run.” All I seemed to do was run at the moment. “But if I’m cornered … it’s not … it’s not always easy to get away.”

“Get away from who?” he asked, some concern now threading through his words.

“Hypothetically, I mean. Get away from somebody hypothetically.”

“It doesn’t sound particularly hypothetical to me,” he said in a sceptical tone. “Perhaps Max should–”

“Max has enough sh – I mean stuff going on, Teddy. You’re the one who’s county champion, not him.”

A bit of ego stroking definitely helped. Teddy’s stood up a little straighter. But he was still hesitating.

“I’ll pay you.”

That did the job. When it came to teenagers, cash was really all it took in my experience. His eyes lit up and he gave me a short nod.

*****

“I think I may die,” I said as I fell back onto the grass for what must have been the eleventy billionth time. Turns out that high kicks are not as easy as they look – especially not high kicks with power behind them.

Teddy grinned at me and offered his hand, hauling me up to my feet again.

“I actually felt that one Daniel-son. Less of a slight tickle and more a nudge,” he told me, back to bouncing on the balls of his feet again. After some bag training he’d decided I should kick him in the ribs instead to see how much power I was putting behind them. Turns out, not a lot. He’d started calling me Daniel-son half an hour in. “You even have the same hair,” he’d joked.

“Hey, this self-defence thing is a blast. I’m used to Sensei Trenton ordering me about. It’s fun the other way around. Maybe I should suggest that Jenny and I–” He broke off and snapped his mouth shut. I smiled.

“Jenny, huh?” I said as I tried another kick, this time managing to stay upright for once. Annoyingly he didn’t even seem to notice the impact to his ribs at all, he was quite obviously more concerned about my newfound Jenny-knowledge. Seems I might have stumbled upon this kid’s Achilles’ heel. “Don’t stress yourself, Romeo. Your secrets are safe with me.”

“S’not a secret,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “She’s just a friend. She doesn’t want-” He broke off and his face went red.

“Okay, no more Jenny chat,” I reassured him. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you, Teddy.”

“I’m not embar-omph! Hey that wasn’t bad!”

I’d managed to get a kick in that he actually acknowledged. I smiled then felt a familiar catch in my throat before breaking into a coughing fit. It caught me off guard and was so violent that I had to double over with the force of it. Teddy, in an obvious panic, had hovered over me and given my back a couple of ineffectual slaps. I wiped my eyes and straightened up.

“Sorry about that,” I said, my voice hoarse.

“I don’t reckon this was the best idea, Daniel-son,” Teddy said, that concern back in his voice.

“I’m fine,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “But maybe that’s enough to be going on with.” I moved to my backpack, which I never let out of my sight. “Here you go,” I said as I pulled out a tenner and handed it over to him.

“Thanks,” Teddy said, his concern dissipating in the face of ready cash. I watched one of my last lifelines disappear into his back pocket.

“What did you just give him?” Max’s voice thundered as he ran out into the garden, ignoring Roger’s enthusiastic greeting.

“I–”

“You just handed my son something,” Max said, coming to a stop directly in front of me and cutting off my view of Teddy. “I want to know what it was.”

“Max, chill!” Teddy said, trying to move forward but Max’s large arm blocked his way. “I gave her a Taekwondo lesson and she just paid me. And I’m not your son.”

Max turned to Teddy and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Empty your pockets,” he ordered and I felt heat hit my cheeks. What did he think I’d given Teddy?

“Max!” Teddy snapped. “You’re being a major dick. She didn’t give me anything dodgy. What is your problem?”

“Empty. Your. Pockets.”

Max’s back was to me now so I took the opportunity to start sidling away towards the house.

“Stay,” Max said. Both Roger and I froze where we were.

Teddy rolled his eyes and then turned the pockets of his shorts inside out. The tenner I’d given him fell to the floor. Max picked it up and then looked around the area. He cleared his throat as he gave the money back to Teddy.

“You know I wouldn’t do drugs with my training schedule, Max,” Teddy said. “Anyway I thought Mia worked for you. What makes you think she’d be giving me something dodgy?” Teddy humpfed in disgust and stormed back into the house.

“Why would you think something like that?” I whispered. Roger came and sat next to me, leaning against my legs and I stroked his head.

Max groaned, running both his hands through his hair. “I saw you hand him something. He looked shifty as he took it. His behaviour lately … I just …”

“But why would you think I’d have anything to do with–”

“Mia, you’re underweight, you contracted pneumonia, you have financial problems, your behaviour can be erratic. In that moment, when I saw you handing something to Teddy it all seemed to …” He shrugged. “I’m sorry but I can’t take any chances with him. I’ve made too many mistakes already.”

“I have never taken drugs in my life,” I told him, shaking with anger. “Teddy did me a favour and I was paying him, that’s it.”

“Okay, I’m sorry. It’s just … it always feels like you’re hiding something, and I -” Max paused and then frowned down at me. “Why do you want to learn Taekwondo all of a sudden?”

I looked away from his piercing stare. My heart was still hammering with the adrenaline spike of my anger and I didn’t trust myself not to give anything away.

“Listen, I’ll stay away from Teddy from now on so you don’t have to worry.” I took a step back towards the house but he came after me, his large hand encasing my forearm to halt my retreat.

“Why Taekwondo, Mia?”

“It’s none of your business,” I yanked my arm out of his grasp and took another two steps away from him.

“Mia, I can help you if you’d–”

I had had enough.

“Nobody can help me,” I said, my voice hoarse with pent up anger. “You think you know what you’re talking about but you have no idea what I’m up against.”

“That’s because you won’t tell me.”

It would be so tempting to unload everything onto Max. But if he knew it all there was no way I’d be staying in his house. No way I would have a job in his company. If he knew everything I’d done he would want me as far away from him as possible and I needed this small piece of respite before I moved on.

I kept my mouth shut and fled back into the house.

It was only when I was in the safety of the wardrobe that I let myself cry.