Chapter Text
Gemma's got a boyfriend and Cheryl is concerned.
The boy is nothing but smiles and friendly comments, he helps around the house when he comes over and he's everything she should be wanting for her daughter except he isn't. There's just something off about him. Something she can't put her finger on.
Maybe if things were different and Tony. . . well fuck if things were different then she wouldn't have to feel this way all on her own.
Alan however is always smiling and charming and she wants to like him so very much except she just doesn't.
Gemma get's angry when she mentions it. She wants to live her life and she wants to make her own decisions and Cheryl remembers what that's like. She wants to let her but Alan is starting to creep her out and she can't say why and that just seems to piss Gemma off.
She never imagined her daughter ever being angry. When she was a baby she seemed so happy but like all Constantines she eventually got her share of the bad and now Cheryl just hopes she'll finish school.
She wonders sometimes if Gemma can picture her when she was her age. She does know what it's like to be young. She had a whole world of hell to live with back then. . . she doesn't tell Gemma this, let her think her grandad was a good one. Keep the demons down and the doors locked.
In the end she calls her brother, the only person left now who remembers her at Gemma's age. The only person who knows what kind of hell went on behind their own closed door.
He's cheerful when he picks up, talking animatedly until he senses something's wrong.
"It's Gemma, she's got herself a boyfriend." She say's.
He laughs but it's shallow. "You don't sound too glad of that." He say's. "What's the trouble?"
She shakes her head and sighs. "I don't know. He just bothers me. There's nothing wrong with him, he's polite, he's nice, he seems to treat her right I just don't know."
"Does she like him?" He asks.
She sighs. "I've never seen her like this. Maybe that's it. She's growing up. I don't know John I just. . ."
Maybe it's her voice but he clears his throat, reminding her of when they were kids. "You want me to come by?" He asks. "Maybe meet the lad and see what he's about?"
She nods. "Would you?"
It's selfish. John is on the other side of the country. He doesn't need to come all the way here just because she can't the number on a teenage boy.
Who could though?
Yet he does come, right as Gemma and Alan get out of school.
He's in her kitchen when they come home and Cheryl see's Gemma smile. It's not the same smile from when she was little. She used to adore her uncle but Cheryl thinks in recent years she's started to get a little cold with him.
Maybe it's just moody teenage years, lord knows she had them herself.
It was different then though, back then she'd have done just about anything she could not to stay in the house. She'd hated it there. Her drunk dad and her brother always in trouble. She'd gone out with school friends and boys who'd thought she was pretty. Left them to the stink of drink and their misery.
John shakes Alan's hand and the boy smiles, polite and charming as ever.
"You must be the uncle." He say's. "Very pleased to meet you."
John shrugs. "Gemma told you about me?" He asks.
The boy nods, pearly, white teeth showing. "She did indeed. Gemma spoke very highly of you, sir."
Her little brother who used to steal her make up and use it for paints put's his hands up. "Easy with the 'sir' stuff." He say's. "I'm not that old."
"Oh no sir, didn't mean it like that." Alan say's and there's just something Cheryl doesn't like about him.
They let the kid's go into the sitting room and stay at the kitchen table.
"What do you think?" She asks, her cup of tea cold in front of her.
There's a chip on the table.
One of Tony's leavings.
John shrugs. "Seem's like a descent kid to me." He say's. "Trying a bit hard but that doesn't make him bad."
She taps her knuckles on the table. "Maybe I'm crazy." She say's. "But John I swear it. There's something about that boy."
He softens a little. "I'll spend a few days, try and talk to him. I suppose he comes round a bit then?"
She nods. "Funny, I've never met his parents. He doesn't really talk about them but they're kids so I try not to pry. . ."
John gives her hand a squeeze. "I'll stay a few days." He say's and she's glad of him, grateful for him.
Glad and grateful she's not alone.
She wonders if John knows some of the thoughts that live in her head, the memories and the awful little things from their childhood she can't forget. The paint on their front door and the floor boards that squealed. . . the anger inside.
She's made a good life for herself, had a family even if it's turned to shit of late.
John's the last link to who she was then and she's always loved him. She thinks he might be why she did so well with Gemma. . . she got a trial run on her baby brother. Had to raise him in some ways because dad wasn't going to do it.
Now she's just a mum worried about her kid and her brother is the only one she knows she can turn to.
She worries about Alan but she'll get her brother's opinion before she makes up her mind, after all mums are supposed to worry so maybe it's all just normal.