Xander answered Kate’s knock at the door. Curly haired like Kate, he stood a foot taller, but with an awkward stoop like he hadn’t quite mastered his gawky frame yet.
‘You okay?’ she asked.
Xander shrugged and closed the door behind her. Kate walked through into the lounge in search of her mother. The room was messy, but vacant. ‘Where is she?’
‘In her room.’
Kate jogged up the stairs and paused outside her mother’s door. The same fear she’d felt over the phone coiled up her throat. She opened the door and switched on the light.
The limp figure of her mother lay fully clothed across the bed, snoring softly. Relief that she was alive swiftly turned to anger. Kate walked over and shook her by the shoulder. Val Creswell didn’t stir.
‘She’s out cold,’ said Xander from the doorway. ‘Been this way since I got home.’
Kate moved around the bed and kicked over a wine bottle half-hidden by the bed’s frilly base. It spun across the laminate floors into the wall. Another half jack of gin stood empty on the bedside table.
She gave her mother another shake to no avail. Leaning close to her ear and trying not to breathe in the toxic BO, Kate yelled at her mother to wake up.
Val groaned and lifted a limp hand over her face to shield the light from her eyes. ‘Turn th’light off,’ she mumbled. She tried to roll onto her side and Kate grimaced at the state of her hair.
‘Xander, turn the light off,’ Val said again.
Xander reached for the switch, but Kate held up her hand. ‘No, leave it on. Mum, wake up. We need to talk.’
Val appeared to have fallen asleep again with her arm resting over her eyes. Kate’s patience evaporated and she snatched up the gin bottle and emptied the last inch over her mother’s face. Val sat up, coughing and yelling. She glared at Kate through bloodshot slits. ‘What the hell are you doing?’
Kate folded her arms and stood over her mother. ‘I can tell you what I was doing. I was on a date with a really nice guy when I got a call from Xander saying that you were so drunk he couldn’t wake you up. I thought I was going to find you dead!’
‘Exaggerating,’ Val mumbled, using her duvet to blot the gin from her eyes. She staggered to her feet and pushed past both Kate and Xander to go to the bathroom. Kate cast a look around her mother’s bedroom as they waited. Apart from the two bottles she’d already spotted, she couldn’t see any other signs of alcohol.
‘How often do you have to cook for yourself?’
Xander shrugged. ‘Paul’s mum lets me stay over with them sometimes.’
Val reappeared from the bathroom. She’d splashed some water on her face and looked surprisingly alert.
‘Mum, this has got to stop,’ Kate said.
Val ignored her and rootled through the jumble of accessories on her dressing table to find a hairbrush and sat down on the stool with a bump.
‘Mum, listen to me. Your drinking is out of control.’
Val gave her a thunderous look in the mirror’s reflection. ‘Just because I like a tipple does not mean I am out of control.’
‘Look at yourself though. Look at Xander—’
‘What’s wrong with me?’ said Xander.
‘Nothing’s wrong with you,’ replied Kate. ‘I mean for her to look at what she’s not doing. It’s not right that you should go to Paul’s to get a decent meal. Mum, you need help.’
Val turned round to face Kate and held up her hairbrush in a threatening manner. ‘I do not need help. I never needed it before, and I don’t need it now.’
‘But your drinking—’
‘Keep your nose out of my business!’ snapped Val. ‘I know what I can handle.’ She turned back and tugged her hairbrush through her greasy hair.
‘Mum, I just found you passed out on your bed. Is that what you call handling it?’
‘I was having a snooze. I’m allowed to do that, aren’t I?’
‘You were drunk.’
‘Do I look drunk to you?’
Kate had to admit that, apart from her mother’s physical appearance, she didn’t actually seem that intoxicated. Her speech wasn’t slurred, her balance seemed rock solid and her eyes, bloodshot though they were, appeared focused. But the sallowness of her skin, the dullness of her hair, the reddening of her nose all pointed to the same thing.
‘Maybe not now,’ Kate relented. ‘But a drunk is what you’re turning into.’
Val’s lips curled back in a snarl, but she couldn’t hold Kate’s gaze. ‘I’m not a drunk. How dare you call me that?’
So infuriating was Val’s denial that Kate wanted to scream. She clutched her head and turned away. ‘Dammit, Mum! How can you be so blind? So stubborn? You need to get help. Go to an AA meeting. Something!’
Val threw her hairbrush down, scattering the items on the dressing table. Kate and Xander both jumped. Val swivelled round on her stool and fixed Kate with a furious glare.
‘I am not an alcoholic,’ she spat. ‘If all you’ve come round for is to insult me then you can piss off again. I don’t want to hear your self-righteous bullshit.’
Kate’s throat tightened and she swallowed hard. She tried to keep calm, to remain rational, but her breath came out in a shuddering stream of hurt. ‘Fine, if that’s the way you want it to be, then fine. Xander and I are going out for dinner.’ She looked at her brother for his consent.
Xander’s dubious expression told her he wasn’t going to risk making any decisions.
Kate took his wrist and marched him to the door. ‘Just don’t expect him to bring home a doggy bag for you.’