Page 53 of Fool Me Twice
Si took a deep breath.“Well, we weren’t...But yeah, we are now.”He couldn’t stop the grin from breaking out over his face.
Adam grimaced.“I bloody knew it.”
“Dunno how, seeing as I didn’t,” Si said firmly.
“You realise you’re making a mistake, right?”Adam kicked at a screwed-up leaflet that’d blown in from somewhere.“It’s gonna be history repeating itself.”
Si folded his arms.“No, it ain’t.He’s changed.”
“Has he?”Adam’s voice dripped with scepticism.
“He’s grown up and stopped listening to all that bollocks his dad used to tell him.”Si held Adam’s gaze.“You gotta remember, we were all kids back then.I know you looked up to your dad.”
“Still do,” Adam confirmed defiantly.
“So, it took Zig a while to realise his dad’s a wrong’un.And I know what you think you know about Zig, but that break-in at your dad’s site?Zig didn’t have nothing to do with that.”
“And you believe that?”
“I do.It was all his dad.Well, and that mate of his.You remember him, right?Trent.Nasty, slick little bastard.”Si gave Adam a sharp look.“And even if it weren’t true, Zig ain’t the same man he was then.”
“How can you be sure?”Adam threw up his hands.“You can’t be sure!He’s only been back on the scene for a matter of days.”
“Cos he’s told me other stuff.It ain’t mine to share, but gods, if you’d been there, you’d have believed him too.I know he don’t always tell the truth, but this weren’t him lying.It weren’t slick or nothing.It was raw.Like open bloody heart surgery.”
Adam shook his head.“Listen to yourself.Five seconds ago you’re admitting he’s a liar, butthis, this we’ve gotta believe him on?”
“Adam, you know you’re my best mate.Always have been.So don’t take this wrong.But it don’t matter what you believe, cos I trust him.”Si gazed at him sadly.“I hope this don’t mean we can’t be friends no more.”
Adam was still shaking his head.“I can’t...Look, I gotta go.I’ll call you.Take care, okay?”
Si watched sorrowfully as he walked out of the alleyway and was lit, briefly, by the streetlamp before disappearing into the dark.
Si headed home alone, caught in an unholy battle between elation and sadness.And a hefty dollop of nerves, he wasn’t gonna lie, cos what if Zig had second thoughts by the time he finished his shift?
No, that was daft thinking.Zig had said he loved him.Elation surged to a victory, and Si practically skipped round the corner.All he needed was an umbrella and a sudden downpour, and he could reenact the “Singin’ in the Rain” bit from that film his mum was so keen on.
Course, it’d probably look a bit different with a large, hairy biker doing it.Might get him a few funny glances, and his mates would piss ’emselves if they saw it.
Sadness rallied.Adam hadn’t been happy with the news.Should Si have said what he had to him?He’d made it sound like he didn’t care what Adam thought, which was bollocks.Sicaredall right.He just wasn’t gonna live his life by it.
Maybe Adam would come around?Be okay with things, once he’d had time to get used to it all?Once he’d got to know Zig—the new Zig—better?That was never gonna happen, though, if Adam refused to take the chance.Well, there was nothing Si could do about that right now.
Si let himself into the flat, took off his boots, and grabbed a beer from the kitchen.The place felt empty without Zig in it.Too quiet and definitely not colourful enough.He sat on the sofa.Zig’s bedding was rolled up at one end.Si smiled.Might as well bung that in the wash.Zig wasn’t gonna be needing it anymore.
Or was he?Maybe he’d still want his space, despite them being together now?They hadn’t actually talked about what that meant.Si had been assuming it meant sharing a bed, but he shouldn’t go taking Zig for granted, should he?He took a contemplative swig of beer.
It wasn’t like they’d ever actuallyslepttogether before.Even when he’d sneaked Zig into his room at Adam’s dad’s, Zig had always left before morning, joking about his dad changing the locks if he stayed out all night.
Course, maybe it hadn’t been a joke after all.There wasn’t a lot Si would put past Zig’s dad, despite never having met him.He didn’t want to; he’d heard enough to know that.Zig was well away from that bastard.
Si took a hefty swig of his beer and wished he could fast-forward time to when Zig would be home.He nodded at his twelfth Doctor figurine.“Bet you never had this problem when you were waiting for River.Lucky bastard.”
Zig knew he’d had a stupid smile on his face the rest of the night.Every time he’d fixed someone a shot, he’d seen it in the mirrored back wall of the bar.He’d tried to tone it down around Finn, cos he wasn’t a bastard, but it kept creeping back up on him.
Si was going to give him another chance.Si believed he’d changed, and for the better.Zig hadn’t been fooled by all thatwe’ve both grown upstuff—that’d just been Si being tactful.Si hadn’t changed, not in who he was.Okay, maybe he’d got a little more cautious, but hadn’t that started six years ago, when he’d told Zig to piss off?The actual growing up, though, that was all Zig.Thank God you finally managed it.
He’d never had so many people buy him a drink.
