Page 34 of Fool Me Twice
“Trent.Pumping Si for info so you and him could do over his boss’s building site.”
“Si.That your little boyfriend, is it?So what if he did?”
“For fuck’s sake, Dad.You don’t shaft your mates!”
Dad stood up slowly, and Zig took a step back.“He’s no mate of mine.Some rich bastard raking it in from other men doing all the work?Or do you mean the little tosser you’ve been panting after?I wouldn’t let him in the house.”
“Si’s a good man!”
Dad sneered.“Too good for you, then.”
It hit Zig like a slap to the face, and he reeled from it.
Dad gave a satisfied grunt.“If I’ve got to have a fairy for a son, I might as well get something out of it, eh?”He sat back down and picked up his beer.
Zig blinked at him a couple of times, his throat tight.Then he hurled himself up the stairs and into his room, slamming the door behind him.He threw himself down on his bed.The sheets were crumpled and needed a wash.
Zig buried his face in the pillow.Was that all he was worth to his dad?A way of making money?
Well, duh.You’ve always known the bastard don’t give two shits about you, you stupid wanker.It’s not as if he thinks you’re a real man.Not like Trent.
Dad and Trent.Working together, like always.And now they’d lost him Si.
Except they hadn’t, had they?Zig had done that himself, spouting off all that crap Dad always came out with.Justifying himself.Making out like he was so clever, beating the system.Jesus, he’d even defended Trent for shafting both of them.
Sod it.He’d always known it wasn’t gonna last, him and Si.It wasn’t like they had much in common.Si had his nice home in the country to go back to, with his nice mum and dad, probably a granny or three somewhere who knitted him sweaters at Christmas...
Fuck.
Zig got out his lighter and a ciggie, but his hands were shaking and everything was all blurred.He threw them across the room instead.
Present day
Saturday morning they both got up late, as Si wasn’t working this weekend and Zig wasn’t due in until six.
Si had made cocoa when they’d got back from the pub, to warm up from the chilly walk home.It’d been nice.Zig had sat close to him on the sofa, their shoulders and thighs touching, but he hadn’t tried it on or made any flirty suggestions.He’d acted like a mate.That’d been a relief, what with Si newly determined not to get involved.Definitely.
All right, it’d been a bit of a disappointment too, but that was hearts for you, wasn’t it?Never on the same page as your brain.Si had gone to bed after they’d finished their cocoa, and Zig had settled down on the sofa, and that had been that.
So what if he’d maybe dreamed about Zig?Dreamed about holding him.Kissing him.Doing more, too, like they had back in London all them years ago.
Subconsciouses were tricky buggers.Everyone knew that.Si had had dreams about walking in the dragon procession stark-bollock-naked, but it didn’t mean it was something he actually wanted todo.
Si shook off the dreams with the duvet and padded into the kitchen to boil the kettle sometime after ten.He brought Zig a mug of tea and sat next to him on the sofa, hoping to rekindle the easy atmosphere of the previous night.“Fancy a proper breakfast today?There’s eggs and bacon in the fridge.”
Zig stretched and, in the process, moved a couple of inches away.When he took the mug Si held out to him, he shifted over farther.Si’s chest hurt.He told it not to be a daft bastard.
“Cheers.Whatever you’re having.”Zig’s voice was flat.He seemed to notice, cos he roused himself to give one of them easy smiles he was always flashing around.“Appreciate it.”
Si hated those smiles.There was nothing behind them except Zig wanting to make everyone like him.As if he was worried what might happen if they didn’t.“You’ll be washing up after, mind,” he said.“And that pan’s a bugger to get egg off of.”
Zig let out a startled laugh, and this time, the joy on his face was real.Si basked in it.
“Gonna make me work for me keep, are you?Fair enough.”Zig paused.“Listen, I’m earning now, so I’ll chip in, yeah?”
“Ain’t got paid yet, though, have you?Talk to me again after you get your first wage packet.”
“Don’t wanna be a parasite.”
