Page 26 of Dream a Little Dream

“Of course.”

“You can marry a man.”

Rahul bristled. “Ican’t.”

“Because you don’t want to or someone else doesn’t want you to?”Like Allah?

Rahul stared across at Aaron as if wanting so very much for Aaron to hug him. Or rage for him. But he was the pillar of restraint made from human engineering. A perfect specimen ofobedience. He wouldn’t stray from the path his parents had laid out for him and fall onto the grubby soil where Aaron lay.

“It isn’t something my parents believe in,” Rahul said.

Aaron held out his arms. “Right here, buddy. Right fucking here.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

The main door to the communal flat opened and in bundled a group of the sporty lads, disrupting the quiet ambiance and Aaron’s chance to convince Rahul he deserved to find his own path.

“Aww, romantic meal for two?” Archie, the larger of the bunch, said as they all burst into the kitchen.

Aaron only knew his name because he’d heard thelads, lads, ladsall chanting it when he’d chugged a beer from a pint-sized can in the kitchen when Aaron had been lying in bed wondering how long it would take to walk to where Dr Kenneth Lyons lived.

His mates all cackled behind him, following him like flies around a corpse, interrupting Aaron’s first decent meal in he couldn’t remember how long by clanging open cupboards, cracking open beer cans, crunching through crisps, ready to start their Friday night.

Rahul bowed his head. Another perfect display of subordination. Aaron sat back, sharp, dead eyes on the lads. He caught Archie’s eye in challenge. A big bloke, he’d probably been the King of his previous school. Fucked the popular girls. Probably got one pregnant and paid for her to have an abortion.

“Fucking stinks in here,” Archie spat and grimaced, then slammed back his beer and belched.

Rahul ducked his head farther, hands clasped together in his lap as if in prayer, and he left his meal untouched. It was a good meal. It deserved to be eaten. Savoured. Aaron could almost understand him wanting to please his mum by fulfilling her dreams because she’d fed him such delicious delights all his life.

Aaron’s mum had fed him different things.

Made him adifferentkind of regimented soldier.

Dream a little dream….

Scraping back his seat, Aaron stood. When he had to talk about this later, when he had to explain his actions, he’d blame Kenny. How fuckingdarehe go on a date! How fuckingdarehe pretend their encounter hadn’t unleashed this cataclysmic shift in both of their existences. And how very, fucking dare he make Aaronfeelfor the first time in years, then expect him to cope with the storm, the unhinged swirling sensations raging through him when in the real world. He shouldn’t have let him out of that dark room. He was a savage animal, forced from his mother into captivity, then fed, watered and tempered by his captors. But Kenny haduncagedhim. Whether he meant to, he had. Let him loose. Thrown him into the wild to fend for himself. No one could blame him for what happened next.

You can’t blame a beast for ripping apart the prey they feed him with.

It was inevitable.

Two steps, and he squirmed between two of the lads. “Excuse me.”

“Watch it,bender.”

Aaron sighed.Oh dear.Archie had just sealed his fate with that slur. To be honest, he’d met his destiny when he’d been born a massive prick. Aaron was just going to dish it out. He reached for the cupboard above him, yanked it open with the all the force of his parentage and smashed it into Archie’s face.Hard. The door ripped from its hinges, and Archie toppled back, collapsing into his mates who then dropped him on the floor and he writhed around as he would on the football pitch if someone so much aslookedat him, clutching his bloodied and broken nose.

Aaron grabbed a pot of salt from the cupboard, returned to his seat, seasoned his daal, then picked up his fork. He ate.

“Eat up.” He pointed to Rahul’s plate. “That’ll go cold.”

Chapter seven

You Could Be Happy

Kenny opened the door to The Jobber’s Rest country-style public house on the outskirts of Ryston, wondering if he should be here at all.

Probably not.

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