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My favourite photo is of me and Mikey. I’m standing at the top of the stairs, grinning up at my brother. Mikey looks a little… Shocked? You can’t blame him though. He’s dressed in one of my pink tee-shirts and a pair of my pink velvet trousers. I can’t remember forcing him into my clothes. God knows how I managed it since the tee-shirt and trousers were several sizes too small for him and he had no patience at all. To this day I still can’t remember how I managed it.

I don’t think I’ve been the best brother to Mikey. I could be when I felt like it. I’d let him watch his favourite TV programmes, not complain when he started to get too loud, didn’t get mad at him when he shoved me onto the floor in a mad temper. And in return he could be nice to me. If he had a packet of sweets, he’d always share them with me. He wouldn’t mind if I changed the channel on TV (unless he was watching Scooby-Doo.)

But there were times when I was mean. Like one Christmas when I was little and was kind of hungry. So I ate the rest of my advent calendar chocolate. When Mom asked why I’d done it, I denied it and said that Mikey had eaten them. I go bright red when I think about that and feel kind of bad even though it was years ago when I was only about five years old.

I can’t remember what Gerard was like with Mikey. I don’t really remember Gerard being home much. At one point Mom kicked him out of our house to go live with our Dad. Some boys had threatened to kick our door down and get Gerard and Mom said Gerard couldn’t stay here. She had me and Mikey to think about. So Gerard went off to stay with Dad, my step-mom Paula and her two daughters Jasmine and Anna.

Now that Gerard’s out of prison for the third time, I don’t think he’s that bad of a brother. But I can’t tell if Gerard’s making fun of him or not. On New Year’s Day one time, Mom invited Gerard and his girlfriend Mel over for dinner at this Chinese restaurant ‘The Imperial’. Mikey and I went along as well and Gerard decided to see how many banana fritters he could make Mikey eat before he was sick. Luckily, Mom made him stop when Mikey started to turn green.

I might not have always been the perfect sister to Mikey but I did feel very protective of him. For example, Mom once took me, Mikey, Lucy and Taylor to Wolverhampton so she could see her friend and the four of us went to the park. While Lucy, Taylor and I sat on the swings, Mikey would climb onto the jungle gym. He’d grab hold of the monkey bars, jump off the edge and then just fall down to the floor. It didn’t seem to hurt him and he kept on doing it so we just left him to it. Until a group of teenagers showed up at the park.

They practically ignored us at first but then they started laughing and making fun of my brother, saying he looked like a pot-bellied dwarf because his tee-shirt would ride up when he jumped off. This was stupid since Mikey was tall and extremely skinny. I couldn’t stand it and in the end, I told Taylor and Lucy to watch Mikey while I went to tell my Mom.

Mom told me to just ignore them but Mom’s friend Mandy had other ideas. I took her back to the park and she told the teenagers all about my brother and that if any of them pissed him off that Mikey could easily push them over and end up hurting them. And when she walked away, they didn’t say anything to me or my brother.

Mom was always great at looking after Mikey. There was only one occasion when she broke down sobbing, saying that she couldn’t handle it anymore and that was when he threw a tantrum and broke her bed. Now that I think about it, Gerard was sweet to her about it. He went into her room, held her while she cried and offered to let her sleep in his bed.

Dad was never good at looking after Mikey. He got mad every time he was too noisy. This was fair enough but he never politely asked him to be quiet, he’d just yell “Shut up Mikey!” as if Mikey were a dog instead of a person. And then of course Mikey would get mad. Dad blamed it on his autism but I’d get angry if Dad had turned to me and barked “Shut up Abbie!”

Normally when people meet my brother, they think he’s stupid. Well trust me, Mikey is not stupid. I wasn’t old enough to remember it but Mom told me – We were on our way home from holiday. Gerard and Mikey were in the back and I was strapped into a car seat in the middle while Mom and Dad sat in the front. I was only a baby at the time and I was roaring my head off. Eventually Mikey got sick of me crying and started squeezing my head to shut me up. Dad had to pull over and Mom sat in the back with me and Gerard while Mikey sat in the front. Mom laughed when she told me and said “So Mikey sat in the front while I was squashed up in the back. He’s not stupid.”

I remember we were playing football in the garden a long time ago and I accidentally kicked the football over into next doors garden. I told Mom but she couldn’t be bothered to go and get it back. So she sent us to bed. In the middle of the night, I heard Mikey’s bedroom door open and heard him going down the stairs. I knocked on Mom’s door and told her what I’d heard and she ran downstairs. By the time she was down there, Mikey was in the back garden and trying to scramble over the fence into next door’s back garden.

That’s my brother Mikey. One of the sweetest guys you’ll ever meet.