Page 72 of Fool Me Twice
Fucking terrible.“It was okay.Busy, though.I’m run off me feet.”Zig flopped down onto the sofa next to Si.Not touching, simply...there.
Side by side, there wasn’t the pressure to look Si in the face.
“No trouble, I hope?”Si asked.
Was there something significant in his tone?
“Nah.Nothing.Dead boring, really.”
There was another pause before Si spoke again.“I tried to ring you, earlier, but couldn’t get through.Problem with your phone?”
Zig frowned and pulled it out of his pocket.“Shit.Forgot to switch it on again, didn’t I?I was up at the Chalice Well this afternoon.You been there?It’s a technology-free zone.”He grinned and thumbed it to life.“Huh.Three missed calls.Was it something urgent?”
“No, it was— Here, what’ve you done to your hand?”Si grabbed his right hand, the one that’d lost the argument with the wall.
Fuck.Zig should have known he’d notice the swelling knuckles.“Nothing!Uh, slammed the hatch on it.You know, the one that lifts up to let you out the bar?Ange went through to, uh, talk to some regulars, and she left it open.Then Finn came over and shut it, but I’d, uh, left me hand there.”Zig’s laugh sounded fake even to him.“Felt a proper numpty, didn’t I?”
“You ought to ice that.You sit there, and I’ll get the frozen peas.”Si disappeared into the kitchen, coming back with a bundle wrapped in a tea towel.
Zig’s heart clenched.“You’re too good to me, you know that?”He took the parcel and applied it to his throbbing hand.It didn’t exactly make it feel better, but he knew it’d reduce the swelling.
“You want a beer with that?”Si asked.“Or some painkillers?”
Zig thought of the motherly woman in the street.“How about a cup of cocoa?And maybe we could watch some moreDoctor Who?”
“Yeah, course.”Si went off to the kitchen again, and the kettle began to boil.
The TV remote was harder to work with his left hand, but Zig managed to navigate to iPlayer.Si came back with two steaming mugs, sat down on the sofa, and put his arm around Zig’s shoulders.
Zig sank into his embrace, wishing to God that the world would bugger off and leave them alone.
In the early hours of the morning, when they’d finally gone to bed, Si lay with his arms around Zig.He could have wept, except he was a big boy now, wasn’t he?Any road, this was good, wasn’t it?Zig showing his true colours again.Like, before Si got in too deep with him.
Hah.That horse had bolted clean across the Welsh border and would be booking a crossing to Ireland right around now.
Zig had lied to him.He’d lied about seeing his dad—maybe not explicitly, but he’d said there hadn’t been any trouble at the pub.Si wouldn’t call the sudden appearance of Zig’s estranged, criminally minded bastard of a dadno trouble.
Or maybe he’d lied about being on the outs with his dad?Gods, had that whole story about getting him sent down been a lie?
Maybe it hadn’t, though, cos what about that hand of his?Lie number...Si had lost count.It’d been a rubbish lie.Who had Zig been punching, to bruise his knuckles like that?His dad?
But why wouldn’t he tell Si about it?
That bit about his phone being switched off had been a lie too.Si knew how long it took for a phone to restart.So, he must have seen the missed calls.And ignored them.Si was losing him.
His arms tightened reflexively around Zig, who shifted and rolled out of his grasp.“Sorry.Can’t sleep.Gonna watch telly for a while.”
Again?They’d watched two episodes ofDoctor Whoalready.“Want some company?”
“Nah, you get your rest.I’ll be good.”
Will you?Si pulled the duvet tighter around himself, but somehow he still felt cold.
Waking up the next morning was worse than the worst hangover Zig had ever had.And he’d only been drinking bloody cocoa the night before.He wished it’d been something stronger.Maybe there might have been some lingering effect to numb the pain and the anxiety that came crashing down on him along with the memory of the night before.God knew how much sleep he’d managed—two hours?Three?—by the time Si’s alarm went off and, from the next room, roused Zig from his uneasy dreams of Dad and prison.
Si seemed subdued too.Well, they’d both had a late night.Zig tried to be helpful but found himself staring at a running tap while the water went down the sink instead of into the kettle he held.
A large, gentle hand took the kettle from him, filled it, and switched it on.“You go get some more rest,” Si murmured.“Looks like you could use it.”
