Page 2 of Full Service

“Asking. We’re rushed off our feet at the moment and could use the hands on the job. You might be making tea and catching sparks in a bucket for the first few months, but you’d earn some money and get a qualification out of it at the end.”

“Are you…offering me a job?” I asked. I could feel my lips curling up into a smile.

“Nah. You’ll have to ask the boss-” Alun pointed at an older man who was working on one of the cars at the other side of the warehouse “-but he’s looking for people at the moment, and if you’re polite and can promise to work hard, I can’t see why he’d say no.”

I felt myself smile then, properly smile for the first time in ages. I could earn money — buy a car for myself, even — and make my parents and brother proud in another way. Maybe they’d be happy to see me succeeding, even if it wasn’t in the same way as he had. After they’d gotten over the disappointment of me being expelled. Obviously.

At my nod, Alun had talked to his boss, a smiley but scruffy man named Steffan who had a big beer belly and a kind voice. Steffan headed over to the little kitchen area and introduced himself to me, asked me if I was willing to work hard, to turn up on time — and whether I was any good at making cups of tea.

Once again, I found myself smiling. Which wasn’t something I did much at the time. “Yes,” I said. “I can do all that.”

“Then it seems you have a job, young man.” Steffan smiled and Alun held his hand out for a high five. When I left an hour or so later having been taught the very basics of how to lift a bonnet, check oil levels and pump up tyres, I felt like I could fly home. Even if my parents weren’t thrilled at first, I could be something and make them proud without treading the path my brother had.

I wandered down the country lanes slowly. My parents lived in one of the few council houses in the area, so our home was owned by the local authority and they paid a small amount of rent to keep it. Mum wouldn’t have anyone else know that though and had always forbidden us from mentioning it to anyone.

As the estate came into view and the road transitioned from dirt track to tarmac, I spotted my brother’s car out in front of my parents’ house.Great. As if this wasn’t going to be difficult enough without him being there showing everyone the benefits of a university education.

I opened the front door. From the living room I could hear voices — my father’s, calming. My mother, slightly hysterical. And another familiar voice cutting through it all.Him.

“I just don’t know what I’m going to do with him!” Mum said. “Expelled hours ago, so the school said. So where the hell is he?”

I opened the door tentatively. I hadn’t known the school was going to call, and high emotions weren’t about to make this any easier. The living room was painted magnolia, and though a lot of the furniture looked expensive, most of it was second hand.

“Hi Mum, hi Dad, hi Gruff,” I said to them each in turn. And then to the last member of the group. “Hi, Hywel.”

Hywel was my brother’s best friend, fellow high achiever…and the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen in my life. I’d had a crush on him since before I even knew what it was to have a crush on boys, and after I’d figured out what I was, it hadn’t gone away. He’d stayed at our house nearly every weekend for years and starred in my own wanking fantasies from when I was thirteen up until…well, I hadn’t exactly stopped with those fantasies.

He was tall, though I was fast catching up, and had dark golden hair that grew to the nape of his neck, tanned skin unlike anyone else in the village and gorgeous green eyes. Today, heand my brother were in matching suits, both grey with pink shirts. Though my brother still looked like a village boy trying to play big in the city, at least to my eyes, Hywel looked like he had been born in that suit. Every time I saw him I felt like I was about to explode. Or run off upstairs for a sneaky wank. One or the other.

“Isaid, what the hell do you think you’re playing at?” In my daydreaming about my brother’s best mate, I had completely forgotten about my current issue.

“Um,” was all I could think to reply.

“Bloody hell, I knew you were doing badly at school. I didn’t know you’d gone completely illiterate!” My mum was shouting now, and my father swiftly interjected with a hand on her leg before she could stand up.

“Now, Caroline. I don’t think we need to get personal about this. I’m not thrilled about the news, but perhaps if we let Macsen tell us his side of the story….” My father was forever a voice of reason to my mother, and I was glad that in this at least he seemed to be following his usual role.

“Well, you know how horrible Mr Owens has been over the years…he gave me back my work with red all scribbled over it, and IknowI’m not that bad at maths. I mean, I’m not good, but he made me look like an idiot.”

“So you took to vandalism?” My mother’s voice was lower and calmer now, but no less threatening. If she’d been a banshee two minutes ago, she was a snake coiled to strike now.

“I…yeah, sorry Mum. Sorry Dad. I know I shouldn’t have.” I knew what I’d done was bloody stupid.

“And what’s your plan now? How are you going to finish your A Levels and get to university without a school? The nearest college is miles away and you know we can’t afford to drive you there.”

“Well, I stopped off at the garage and…they offered me an apprenticeship. I’m going to be a mechanic.”

The silence in the room was deafening. The snake coiled in ever tighter and I could see my mother weighing up her options. I looked silently, pleadingly to my brother, but he kept his eyes firmly averted. He had never rocked the boat and wasn’t about to start now.

Hywel was looking at me though. Sea-green eyes bored into mine and I couldn’t make out his expression. I had no idea if he thought I was absolutely insane.

“Well, you can think twice if you think we’re buying you a car now,” said Mum. “It was all well and good when you wanted to be a lawyer but certainly not if you’re going to squander your talents fixing cars.”

“Caroline.” My father’s tone was a warning now, and Mum closed her mouth and looked at him in betrayal.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Hywel said quietly. All four of us turned to him in shock, but he didn’t shrink back. “If it plays to your strengths, go out there and get some money and experience behind you. University was for me and Gruff, but it might not be for you.”

“Thanks, Hywel,” I said.

---