Wasting Time (Peaky Blinders)

Argument

(Sasha's P.O.V.)
With big steps I cross the street to go towards my home, that was located on Watery Lane. I take one last hit from my cigarette before flicking it away. I walked into the home and was immediatly greeted with Polly who had crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently "you're late. Again" she scolded me for missing dinner. "oh, I stayed late for study group, as usual" I replied shrugging my shoulders. This was a complete lie, I hadn't been to school for a few weeks now. And to not make my family suspicious of my absence at school, I had fellow classmates bring me assignements and tell me when we had an exam or test. Suddenly Arthur and John came rushing into the door, acting out one of those scenes of the moving pictures. Arthur was clearly portraying as a sherrif while John was supposed to be The Kid. But I notived a third person following them from the hallway. "Sasha" it was my classmate, Oliver. He carefully moved around my brothers "here is your assignment from class" he began and offered me the assignment. I quickly realized he was going to talk more than he was supposed to and I immediatly tried to get him to stop. But to no prevail as he continued yapping his mouth. "The professor said if you don't come to at least one class this semester, he's going to fail you" he told me out of breath. I could face palm myself when he outed my like that. Beside me, Polly crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at me, while both John and Arthur had stopped their child's-play to also look my direction. "Even if you get a 100% on the final... again" Oliver said, and finally stopped as he realized what he had done. "Uhm, I'll see you tomorrow" he quietly spoke handing me the papers before backing away to leave the house. There hung a terrible tense presence around us. "Alright, I can explain-" I began with a dismissive laugh and turned to look at Polly. But she wasn't going to listen to my explaination. Rightfully so, because often enough my words of apologies didn't have any meaning behind them. It was just to get me out of the situation I was in at that moment. "You've been skipping school?!" Polly said raising her voice, "what have you been doing all that time? Have you gone back to fight in that dreadfull ring?!". I dodged the wooden spoon which she tried to whack me with "Polly, listen-" I tried again but it was no use, "why would you do this? You could ruin your future!" She continued as she swung at me. "There goes that college degree" John snickered as my brothers watched on. I quickly looked at them "you're not helping!". I ran behind the table to shield myself from her attack with the wooden spoon. "Oh come on, Poll. I was doing a little job" I argued back, ducking for the spoon she threw at me, "a job?! You already have a job and that's school". "I have already done more years then any of you-" I told her getting annoyed, but I couldn't finish my entire sentence before she interupted me, "this isn't about us, Alexander" Polly said shaking her head and pointin between her and my brothers, "then why is it on me, huh? What, because I've done alright on some exams?!" I asked her loudly, "because I think if you have a couple more years at school, you'd have a real good shot at making better choices than your father did" Polly told me with a sigh, "better choices than any of us". "You know I'm getting pretty fucking tired of everybody telling me what to do with my life!". Polly face turns stone cold and with a cold voice tells me to get to my room. I am to angry to obey and challenge her "what happens if I don't?"

(Tommy's P.O.V.)
I walk towards the house. Puddles splash water over my dress shoes as I step into them. In front of me the front door opens and I see Sasha walk out. An angry expression on his face as he swings his coat on, stepping into the pouring rain. "Sasha?" I asked him wanting to know where he was going. But my brother gives me a cold look before walking away without saying a word. Clearly something happened and he wanted to blow of some steam. I don't call after him as he walks away onto the dark street of Watery Lane. I turn around and walk to the front door and inside the home. There I find an equally pissed Aunt Polly cleaning the kitchen after dinner. I watched her for a second, angrily wiping down the table and shaking her head as she was in deep thought. "He's smarter than all of us put together. But sometimes he talks like he's got a fifty-word vocabulary" she begins with a soft scoff. Clearly hating how careless Sasha can be regarding his future, "it's not like it'd kill him to use an adverb once a while". I chuckle at her describing my brother, albeit true. "He's 17, Poll" I said with a short laugh, "stubborn like a mule, he will refuse to admit that we mean well. But he will make mistakes and learn" I said shrugging my shoulders, not all that bothered that he doesn't attend school. He still got good grades and was an jonary student. "Thomas, he needs to attend his classes or they will fail him and no matter how good his grades are he will not graduate" Polly warns me. I sigh deeply and rub my temple before relling her I will talk with him when he gets home. But for many days, Sasha didn't return home. And whenever one of us saw him, he managed to dissapear from our sights. The sneaky bastards knows the Small Heath streets from the back of his hand and was like a magician dissapearing into thin air. Untill one evening when Polly and I once again stayed up late, in hopes of Sasha wondering back inside like a stray dog, the phone rang. It was Freddie Thorne and he urged us to come to the Garrison, because something had happened to Sasha.

Published: 19th of April 2024

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