The Psycho (The Soldiers of Anarchy 1)

Chapter Fifteen

Liv

Iwoke up the next morning, and the weight of shame still hung heavy in my heart.

What the hell had I been thinking about last night, picturing him in that way?

Of all the fantasises I could’ve had, that was the one that worked?

Shoot me now.

I glanced at the clock on my bedside table and saw that I’d overslept. I needed to get the boys ready for school, and there was no time to spare. Jumping out of bed and throwing on some clean underwear and a summer dress, I began tying my hair up as I marched out of my room and started shouting for them to get up and get dressed. Hayden’s door flew open, and he stood there gawping at me, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

“We’re late, come on. Get ready for school,” I chastised him as I flung Ollie’s door open and found him sitting up in bed.

“You need to get up, mate. Get cleaned up and put your uniform on. It’s a school day and we’ve all overslept.”

“But I don’t need my uniform today,” Ollie proudly informed me.

“Why?” I folded my arms and gave him the ‘don’t bullshit me’ stare.

“Because it’s Ancient Greece day at school. I have to go dressed up as a Greek.” He spoke with such pride and excitement, but I just stared at him, not quite believing what I was hearing.

“Greek day? You have to dress up as a Greek? In what? What Greek outfit do you think I have that I can magic up in the next fifteen minutes?” The morning–that’d started out as a shit heap–was quickly turning into a catastrophic pile of crap. “Seriously, Ollie, you couldn’t have told me about this last night?” I turned to face Hayden, who was loitering guiltily in the doorway. “And you? Do you have to dress up as a Greek too?”

Hayden shook his head and his cheeks reddened as he said, “Mine is next week. And it’s a Roman Empire Day.”

“Ugh! Well at least I can order something online for that. But what the fuck am I supposed to do now?”

They both gasped at my use of the f-word, but that was the least of my worries. I glared at Ollie, and his little face dropped, tears welling up in his eyes.

“Bud, don’t cry. We’ll sort something out. It’ll be fine,” I said, crouching down to give him a hug, but not believing a word I was saying. I opened my mobile and googled Ancient Greeks kid’s dressing up clothes, and when I saw the white togas and the sashes, I figured that maybe I could make it work.

“Listen,” I said, gripping him by the arms. “Go and brush your teeth, have a wash and brush your hair. I’ll be back in a minute, and we will make you look like the baddest Greek that’s ever lived.” I stood up and headed for the door as Ollie darted into his ensuite bathroom. “And you, Hayden. Scoot.” I shooed him away. He was the older of the two, and Ollie needed my attention more this morning.

I went into my parent’s bedroom, cursing my mum for not telling me about this before she left. There must’ve been some correspondence sent home or something on the school newsletter about this. But there was no time to wallow and complain. I had a job to do.

I rooted through her drawers and found one of her extra-large white pillowcases, a blue silk pashmina, some gold belts and a gold headband. Then I headed down to the kitchen and grabbed the scissors from the drawer, cutting out a hole for Ollie’s head at the top of the pillowcase and then two holes at the sides for his arms to fit through. Once that had been taken care of, I ran back upstairs, charged into Ollie’s room and threw everything down onto the bed.

“Now, this might be a little short, so maybe put a white T-shirt and your white football shorts on first,” I told him, and he got busy doing just what I’d asked. He was always such a good boy.

Once he was standing in front of me in his little white outfit, I put the pillowcase over his head, draped the blue pashmina across his shoulder–to fall down to his hips–and then I tied a gold belt around his waist to hold it all in place.

“Do you still have your brown sandals from last summer?” I asked him, and he nodded and pointed to his closet.

I crawled over and grabbed them from the pile on the floor. Then, I slipped them onto his feet and fixed the buckles. He went to move towards the mirror, but I stopped him.

“One last touch, bud,” I said, tying the gold headband around his head like the photos I’d seen on Google. “There. Now go and look.” I gestured to his mirror.

He walked over to check himself out and when he gasped and fist pumped the air, I almost burst into tears. God, I loved him.

“This is awesome. I look so cool,” he said, turning to check himself out from every angle.

“He really does,” Hayden piped up from the doorway, dressed neatly in his uniform.

“Just call me super Liv!” I sang, pushing myself up from the floor, deciding to leave the mess of the beds for later. “Come on then. We have to go!” I clapped my hands to get them moving.

All three of us ran downstairs, and I grabbed their school bags and the lunch boxes I’d made up for them last night and we headed out.

When I pulled onto the carpark opposite their school a few minutes later, I felt pride ripple through me. All the kids in Ollie’s class were dressed up, and my Ollie’s outfit was way better than most of theirs. I’d done a good job. Maybe I wasn’t such a monumental fuckup after all?

“Have a good day, kiddos!” I shouted as they both jumped out of the car and made their way through the school gates.

And then I sat there, contemplating what else to do with my day after the whirlwind morning I’d just been through. I could go home and clean, but then, I couldn’t be arsed. Both of my best friends had classes, but I’d already dropped out of my business course after I found it to be the most depressing way to spend my days. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do, but my dad had told me to take time off to figure it out. Only problem was, the answers weren’t coming to me. I needed to do something to clear my head. Go somewhere to try and figure out what the hell I was doing with my life.