Page 156 of Inbetweeners
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When they pulled up under the building, Emmett got off the bike, removed his helmet and stepped in front of Phoenix. “I don’t want to go out. I want to stay in and talk. We can order food.”
“Why don’t I go and get us something? Saves us freaking out when a delivery guy knocks on the door.”
“Us?”
“Well, you.” Phoenix smiled.
Emmett couldn’t see any artifice in it. But he’d ask, just in case. “Is that all you’re going to do? You’re not planning to disappear and handle Vin on your own?”
Phoenix scowled. “I was trying to give you time to get into those jeans.”
Emmett laughed. He felt anxious about Phoenix going anywhere on his own, but he didn’t want to make an issue of it. Maybe Phoenix needed space after seeing his brother and it gave Emmett the opportunity to call Tar. He hurried upstairs and the moment he was in the flat, he made the call.
“Yes,” Tar said.
“Do you consider our work here done?” Emmett asked.
“Almost.”
“What’s left to do?”
“Vin needs to be in Hell.”
“I don’t want Phoenix to go back to Hell. It’s not fair.”
“Life isn’t fair, though occasionally, it’s unfairinyour favour.”
“Meaning?”
“Is it unclear?”
“I don’t want a philosophical discussion about this. Phoenix shouldn’t evenbein Hell.”
“There is nothing I can do about that.”
Emmett clenched his teeth. “Can you give us more time together?”
“Probably not.”
Disappointing, even though Emmett had expected that response. “I thought coming back was an opportunity and instead it’s ensured I’m going to be even more miserable than I was before. If he has to go back to Hell, then I want to go with him.” There. No hesitation. The request made that Phoenix hadn’t wanted him to make. The words had been said and he wouldn’t take them back.
“Why?”
Emmett tightened his grip on his phone. “Maybe suffering that’s shared is easier to bear.”
“Would you do anything for him?”
Emmett thought about it. He wanted to yellyesbut somehow felt there was a trick in that. “A difficult question to answer.”
“He’s going to ask something of you. Your choice will be difficult.”
What?To not go to Hell with him? Phoenix had already made his feelings about that clear. But if there was nothing else that could be done…
“I want a perfect day,” Emmett said. “For both of us, but most of all for Phoenix. I want it to be everything he’d wish it to be. Can you do that?”
“I’m not the one in charge.”
