Page 178 of Inbetweeners
“Huge,” was the only word Emmett could manage.
“Of course I am.” Nix sat there looking up at him.
“Fuck off. But they are huge. Black and blue. They sort of shimmer. Wow.” Emmett rolled his shoulders hoping to feel something at his own back, but he didn’t.
Phoenix pushed to his feet.
“Careful,” Emmett called. “We don’t have any money to pay for damages. Only a few Euros from our trip to Greece.”
Phoenix spread out his wings and Emmett stopped breathing.
“You look amazing.”
“Open the window.”
“Fuck the hell off. You are not jumping out of the window.”
Phoenix pulled his wings in and Emmett watched in astonishment as they folded up neatly behind him. When Emmett turned him to check his back, they’d gone. No sign they’d ever been there.Wow!
“How did you do that?”
“I just wished them away. They’re heavy.”
“Oh look. You shed a feather.” Emmett scooped a tiny black feather from the floor and brushed it over his cheek. “I once thought I’d found a load of angel feathers. Then I discovered the dead pigeon they’d belonged to.”
“How old were you?”
“Eighteen.”
Phoenix laughed. There was a knock at the door and Emmett threw him a pair of shorts before pulling on his own.
Daniel had brought breakfast. “Gabriel told me congratulations are in order.” He smiled at Phoenix. “Be at the lift at nine. It will take you to training.”
Phoenix nodded, pulled the breakfast trolley into the room and closed the door.
More or less the same thing happened for the next four days. Phoenix woke with an erection and wings, Emmett woke with just an erection. Training was only for Phoenix, and Emmett wasn’t allowed out of the room while he was gone. Or when he was back. Emmett grew increasingly impatient. Maybe he wasn’t going to get wings. It was probably because he’d freaked out when Gabriel had opened the window.
Unsuitable.It was a word his father had used a lot in relation to Emmett.Unsuitableclothes, friends—the few he had, the wrong car, bad choice of university, unsuitable subject chosen and even a mistake with the flat he’d bought. Not that Emmett cared by then. There was only so much he could take.
He tried to show Phoenix he wasn’t bothered by the non-appearance of his wings, but knew he hadn’t fooled him. Emmett felt bad that Phoenix was downplaying the fun he was having training and was determined that this time when Phoenix came back to the room, he was going to be a different person.
Starting with a soak in the tub. Emmett submerged up to his neck and sighed. Then bent his knees and went all the way under. He wasnotgoing to moan about life not being fair. Phoenix had spent a year in Hell. That trumped everything.
Suddenly, the water churned and Emmett felt as if he’d been engulfed by a very small, but strong whirlpool. He fought to get out of the water but even getting his head above the surface was difficult.Am I still in the bath?What was in there with him?
He threw himself out, and yelped as he realised his wings had emerged. But there was no magnificent display, just a soggy mess. The bathroom door opened and Nix stood there gaping at him.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Having a bath.”
Phoenix grabbed a towel. “You’re not supposed to soak them until they’ve developed their waterproof coating.”
“Well, if they’d let me go to the training sessions, I suppose I might have known.” Emmett sighed. “They emerged while I was in the bath. Don’t laugh.”
Phoenix pulled him into his arms. “I love you. You look like a bedraggled parrot but I still love you.”
“A parrot? Oh shit, what colour are they?” He tried to look over his shoulder.
