How hard could it be? • LM / SS

Chapter 67

                       "Drinking shampain,
                        to forget yesterday."

Jade sighed, parking her car before running out. She turned a corner, looking around for the familiar brown hair that belonged to her brother. She prayed he wasn't lying dead in a ditch somewhere, which to be fair, she wouldn't be surprised if he was. It was 2am, and she'd had to drag herself out of the house to search for a drunk Max. It wasn't the first time, and it definitely wouldn't be the last.

"Jade!" he slurred, arms out wide as he stumbled in a zig zag towards her. He noticed that she looked really stern under the moonlight; her brows furrowed together, her arms folded across her chest and her lips set in a tight line.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Here he was, drowning his troubles in alcohol in a sketchy alleyway. She was sick of this, but she knew it wasn't his fault. He had an addiction. The next thing she needed to try and do was get him to realise he had a problem. It would be a step forward to getting him help. But if there was anything she knew about Max, it was that he never accepted help from anyone. It looked like she had a lot of work to do.

She grabbed onto the back of his jumper, holding him up as he nearly hit the ground. Glancing down to the floor, there was two bottles of red wine lying there, and another bottle in his hand. God, Melissa was going to kill someone when she realised it was gone. That shit was expensive!

"Where are we going?" he asked as Jade threw his arm around her shoulder.

"I'm taking you home so you can sleep off your hangover because we have school in 6 hours," she snatched the bottle off of him, smashing it onto the floor where it splintered into pieces.

He winced at the sound, his head feeling like someone was drilling a hole through his skull. "What was that for? And I don't want to go home."

"That was because, you, Max, are an alcoholic. And you are going home, because I don't exactly care what you want. I didn't particularly want to get myself out of bed at this stupid hour, yet here I am. Look, I'll get you some chocolate when we get in if you come with me."

He scoffed, tempted by the bribery, but deciding against it. He tried to get away from her grasp, but she held on tightly. She wasn't letting him do a runner on her and then have to spend the next hour finding him. "And you want to know what you are, Jade? A selfish, narcissistic bitch."

His words stung like a slap to the face, but she ignored him. He wasn't a happy drunk, that was for sure. When he was drunk he became mean and said horrible things, not what he was like when he was sober. She threw the back door to her car open, letting him settle himself in there.

"You know, I don't even know why you bother. I'm destined to be like this. Dad was an alcoholic for years, so am I. Dad was the disappointment of his family, so am I. But you, Jade. I envy you. You're exactly like mom. She was the golden witch, so are you. But do you want to know what the difference between you and her is? You'll never amount to half of what she did. Your worst fear will come true. You'll never be enough for anyone and everyone's gonna keep leaving. You're never going to get better because-"

Jade slammed the door in his face, narrowly missing catching his hands and refusing to listen to him any longer. She clenched her fists, breathing deeply before she would say something she'd regret. She was used to it by now, but it got more difficult to bite her tongue as time went on.

Ever since the guardians were returned home- which was around two weeks ago- Max had really started to go down hill. He was sneaking out nearly every night and he just wouldn't talk to anyone. Jade knew he was an alcoholic, but she didn't think anyone else did. Scott suspected something was up, but he didn't know what. Melissa knew her alcohol kept on going missing, but she had no idea where. At this point, Jade wouldn't be surprised if her aunt thought someone was hiding in their attic.