Before Mum could reply, I stepped in. “That’s not fair, Nik. Mum’s given us everything.”
Irritation flared in Annika’s eyes as she turned her angry glare towards me. “This has nothing to do with you!”
“I’m fucking standing right here in the middle of it. I’d say it has something to do with me.”
“Zachary,” Mum chastised, “enough with the swearing, please.”
Annika barely allowed her a word in before launching a tirade at me. “I’m sick of you always butting in and trying to take over. You’re not the dad of us, okay?”
“When you treat our mother like shit, I’m gonna step in. Deal with that. And stop being a bitch to her and start being grateful for what she does for you.”
“Zachary!” Mum raised her voice in a way she didn’t often do. If there was one thing she was known for, it was her ability to run a family without the use of yelling. She was a gentle woman who usually got her point across with calm but firm discussions. Right now, though, she appeared completely flustered, and I had to wonder just how much hell Annika had been giving her.
I raised my hands, signalling my surrender. “No more swearing. I know.”
Mum exhaled a long breath and started to say something, but Annika cut her off.
“I’m not being a bitch. I just wish she would think about letting me have the clothes I want rather than clothes from the thrift store.”
Mum untied her apron, a look of complete defeat on her fifty-year-old face. Glancing between us, she said, “I’m disappointed in the both of you today. I don’t ask for much, but what I do ask for is respect while you are in our home. Lunch is ready, but I need a moment or two to myself. When I return, I expect you both to have yourselves under control so we can discuss our problems in a more civilised manner.”
In other words, she needed to pray.
And we needed to sort our shit out.
After she left the room, I turned to Annika. “You know she can’t afford the clothes you want, so why are you giving her so much hell for it?”
Six months after I’d come to live with Margreet, her husband died from a severe asthma attack, forcing her back to work. Raising four kids as a single mother meant there wasn’t a cent spare most weeks. Neither Axe nor I had ever asked her for more than she gave, but I finally understood why Mum and Annika were clashing so much.
My sister’s face crumpled into a mess of tears.
Fuck.
I was far from capable of dealing with this, but I pulled her into my arms and gave it a shot. “Nik, what’s going on?”
She clung to me and cried for a good few minutes before looking up at me. “You don’t understand what it’s like for me at school. The girls are so bitchy, and because I don’t measure up to their standards, they pick on me every single day. It’s been like this since the middle of last year, and I can’t take it anymore.”
Her tone concerned me. It sounded like she was ready to give up. No fucking way would I allow that. “What do you need?”
That seemed to throw her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what will it take for you to feel confident enough to get to school every day this year and get the shit done that you need to get done in order to not fuck the rest of your life up by failing?”
Her shoulders slumped and she moved out of my embrace. “You can’t fix everything for everyone, King. This isn’t the kind of situation where you can just make a few changes and poof, it’s all good.”
I crossed my arms and planted my feet wide, ready to do battle with her. “Tell me what you need, Annika, and I’ll make sure it happens. Sure, shit won’t ever be 100 percent the way you want it to be, but there’s gotta be some things we can do that will allow you to take care of business.”
She threw her arms up in the air. “Oh my God! Take care of my business? What does that even mean? Is that biker talk or something?”
“Let me help, King,” Ivy said, moving next to me. She didn’t like to step on toes, so she usually stayed out of arguments, but I was fucking glad for any help she wanted to offer.
Thankfully Annika loved Ivy. “Please tell him that teenage girls are the meanest humans on the planet and that this is the kind of problem that even the almighty King can’t fix.”
Ivy smiled, but she didn’t give Annika an inch. “I’ll agree that teenage girls are mean, but you should never think that your problems can’t be worked on, Nik. A few fashion and beauty tweaks, and you’ll be fine. And I can tell you how to make them happen without costing the earth.”
That caught Annika’s attention. “Really?”
Ivy nodded. “Yes. Trust me, I’ve been through all the same stuff with my mum. I know the ways around this.”