Love At Christmas, Actually. Jenny Oliver
and Megan sighed.
‘We came just at the right time then?’ Matty said, settling down on the sofa and sticking three biscuits in his mouth.
His wife watched in disdain, then turned to Megan. ‘Has it been difficult?’
‘Not so far, but God knows it will be at some point,’ she shrugged.
There was the heavy clang of the doorbell, and Megan heard the start of “Good King Wenceslas”.
‘It’s carol singers!’ she yelled to her mother.
‘There’s money on the side. It’s probably the school choir!’ Heather called back from the kitchen, and something about the exchange made Megan’s stomach flip, it was so…domestic. They could have had the same conversation ten years ago, her stomping around as a teenager, always yelling from room to room.
Matty dragged Claudia with him from the sofa, and they all went to the front door.
The choir were less angelic when you saw them, pimpled teens shivering as they sang, clutching styrofoam cups of hot chocolate, their braces flashing in the porch light every time they opened their mouths.
And standing behind them, of course, was Lucas Bright, grinning for all he was worth. Why? Why was he grinning, wearing that stupid Where’s Wally scarf and a hat that made him look like a child who wanted to be a pilot? He stared at Megan, eyes as bright as ever, and she couldn’t tell if it was the kind of smirk he’d have saved for her when she fell off the stage trying to crowd surf that time, or the kind of smirk he’d given her last night as he watched her from that same stage.
The teenagers stopped singing, and she, Matty and Claudia clapped.
‘That was wonderful,’ she told them, nodding insistently, not meeting Lucas’ eyes. She felt her brother bristle beside her, but ignored it, too busy focusing on ignoring Lucas.
‘What charity are you raising money for this year?’ Claudia asked, her head buried in her massive Prada purse, probably failing to find anything less than a twenty-pound note. That woman did not trifle with small change.
‘Garret Oaks… It’s a home for teenage mothers,’ Lucas said. There was a moment of silence.
‘Are you fucking kidding me, Bright?’ Matty roared and reached through the teenagers, who scattered, to grab Lucas and punch him square in the face. ‘You think that’s funny, you dickhead? After what you did to my sister?’
Matty was a big guy, and the force sent Lucas to the floor. He looked up at Matty from the damp cobblestones and held up his hands, ‘Okay, but…can I get the kids out of the way first?’
Matty took a deep breath and gave a short nod, his mouth a thin line.
‘Guys, carry on round to the next few houses, okay? Don’t go further than Parson Street, I’ll catch you up.’
‘You…you gonna be okay, sir?’ a small lad puffed himself up, his glasses misting from how wrapped up in scarves and woolly garments he was.
‘Yes, Andrew, thanks mate, go ahead.’ Lucas watched them leave, then stood up and tried to dust himself off. Which was impossible as the grey patchy snow left water marks. He shivered a little.
‘Matty, that really was the charity,’ he shrugged, ‘I wasn’t being funny, mate, honestly.’
‘Don’t call me your mate, after what you did.’
‘Um.’ Megan put up her hand. ‘What did he do exactly?’
They stared at her in silence, Matty’s eyes almost falling out of his head.
‘Knocked you up! Sent you away! Failed to be a father to that amazing kid you’ve got in there! Any of this ringing a bell?’ Matty huffed, hands all over the place. He looked just like their dad when faced with a crisis, all limbs and gravity, unsure of what to do.
Megan turned to Lucas, her head tilted slightly as she searched his eyes for the answer. He looked down at the cobbles, then back to her.
‘You let them think it was you?’ she asked him. ‘Why would you do that?’
‘No one really asked.’ He shrugged at the ground, and then grinned, that same old cavalier who the fuck cares look. ‘Besides, everyone knows I’m an arsehole who’d do something like that, so the story fits, right?’
No you wouldn’t, she thought. You didn’t.
‘It wasn’t Lucas?’ Matty said in disbelief.
‘No!’ Megan slapped his chest half-heartedly. ‘And you could have asked before beating the crap out of him!’
Matty’s face melted into apologies and guilt. ‘I’m so sorry, man.’ He grabbed Lucas’ hand and shook it. ‘You know I always liked you, it’s just…’ he gestured at Megan, ‘you know.’
‘Blaming me because you didn’t think to fact check?’ Megan rolled her eyes.
‘Well, it’s not the first time,’ Lucas grinned, touching his jaw,. ‘That one a couple of Christmases ago, down by the Nag’s, that one was a shiner. Thank goodness we were off school or the kids would have torn me down.’
‘He’s done this before? ’ Megan screeched.
‘Pretty much every time we’ve crossed paths,’ Matty admitted, hands in pocked, shoulders hunched.
‘I told him it was ridiculous,’ Claudia said, ‘but in his mind, his perfect little sister wouldn’t have slept around…’
Megan winced. ‘Well, as lovely as this has been–’
‘Yeah,’ Lucas added.
‘Uhuh,’ Matty complied.
A voice boomed from behind them, ‘What is he doing here?’
‘Oh crap,’ Megan sighed, ‘not you too.’
She watched as her father tried to puff himself up to his full size, which would have been intimidating if he didn’t look so uncomfortable about it all.
‘Mr McAllister…’ Lucas started, hands up.
‘Oh for fuck’s sake – HE DIDN’T KNOCK ME UP!’ Megan shouted.
Jonathan stopped, looking at his daughter. ‘He didn’t? Well who the bloody hell did?’
‘An idiot.’
‘Any more details you want to give us, Meg?’ Matty asked.
‘Yeah, I wouldn’t mind knowing either, seeing as I’ve been getting the guy’s share of beatings over the last ten years,’ Lucas added, arms crossed and thoroughly enjoying himself.
Megan felt like she was about to explode.
‘It doesn’t MATTER!’ she yelled.
‘What doesn’t matter?’ a small voice asked from behind her. Skye stood there, peering out at the scene where her grandfather had hulked out, her uncle was looking embarrassed, her aunt was bored, her mum was angry and there was some dark-haired guy looking like he was having way too good a time. Skye homed in on him.
‘Did you cause all this?’ she asked, sounding distinctly like she wanted to add a ‘young man’ to the end of that question. Way too many mini dramas for Skye, Megan thought to herself. But why not let him see what getting on the wrong side of a McAllister would do?
‘I have no idea what you mean, miss,’ he smirked, tipping his hat.
‘I’m pretty sure you do,’ Skye said sternly, ‘look at the evidence. All of these people were perfectly calm until you turned up. And now my mum’s shouting, and she never shouts.’
Lucas looked at Megan with surprise. ‘Is that true? Because when I knew her