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Emma and I both gasped, exchanging a shocked glance.
“Mike’s gone?” I looked at Susan who was still passed out. “When?”
“About three weeks. He left us for some fucking slag who he met at a competition.” The hate in her tone for her dad felt like itscored my chest; it was so sharp. “And she started drinking and hasn’t stopped since.”
“Where’s Theo?” Emma asked, worry thickly lacing her voice. “Why isn’t he taking care of you both?”
“He’s got a job in Milton Keynes. He doesn’t know how bad it is.” Ana’s eyes swam with tears as she looked at the family picture on the mantlepiece. “He knows Dad has gone and that Mum isn’t coping, but he?—”
“He doesn’t know you’re not coping either,” I said over her, feeling a mixture of pure anger and sadness for my best friend. “You have to tell him, Ana.”
“I can’t. He’s just started his job; it’s taken him ages to find one he likes.” Her shoulders shuddered, and it struck me how thin she’d become.
“How did we miss all of this?” I asked Emma.
She shook her head and looked as guilty as I felt. “I don’t know.”
“I just thought getting drunk like her might help,” Ana offered. “That day at school. I thought if she was getting pissed all the time, then maybe it made things easier.”
“Did it?” I asked, knowing the answer.
She shook her head and let out another quiet sob. I hugged her again, wondering again how we hadn’t seen that she was suffering, why we’d thought she was just being moody.
“You should have told us,” I whispered against her hair. “We’re your friends. We would have helped you.”
“I couldn’t. I felt ashamed.”
“Why?” Emma exclaimed. “You’ve got nothing to feel ashamed about. There’s only one person who needs to feel like that.”
I thought that both her parents should feel like that. Her dad might have left, but Susan should have been there for herdaughter, not expecting Ana to be the one to keep everything together.
“How has the place got like this in three weeks?” Emma moved away from us and picked up an empty wine bottle.
“It hasn’t. She’s been working so much she hasn’t done any cleaning for ages, and it was gradually getting worse. At first I didn’t do anything,” Ana informed us. “I didn’t think it was up to me, so I just kept my room tidy and did my own washing. Since Dad left, though, she’s given up totally, and I’ve been trying to take care of her and the house.”
“Which is why Dad saw you in the supermarket?”
Ana nodded solemnly. “Yeah, we’ve had no proper food for weeks, even before it all kicked off. That was what they started arguing about. Dad was a typical twatty man expecting Mum to work full time and keep the house tidy and the fridge full.”
It made me realise how good my Dad was. He expected me to do chores and help around the house, but he had everything under control as well as running the bar. I knew there were only the two of us, but even so, I couldn’t imagine him expecting his wife to work and look after the house.
“But he’s met someone else?” Emma asked.
Ana’s expression turned angry. “Yeah. Slag. And he’s a bastard.”
Emma and I exchanged a worried glance as our friend’s hands fisted at her side.
“Okay,” I said with a resigned sigh. “What about food? Did you manage to get everything you needed from the supermarket?”
She nodded. “Dad at least remembered to transfer my allowance into my bank account, so I used it to buy food.” She gave her mum an accusatory glare. “She’s too fucking out of it to know where she’s put her bank card for me to use that.”
“Ana, you need to tell your dad,” I replied. “He needs to know exactly what state she’s in—what you’re having to deal with.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t want him to know.Shewouldn’t want him to know.”
“But you need help,” I stressed.
“I just need a couple of weeks off school, so I can get on top of everything. Then, when I have, I’ll call him and ask him to come back. If the house is clean, the fridge full, and she’s sober, then maybe he will.”
