Page 67 of Inbetweeners
“Did they all think you were an arsehole?”
Emmett pushed to his feet and stalked to the bathroom.
Nix groaned.Why am I such a dickhead?And why was Emmett so touchy about everything?
When Emmett came back, Nix went to clean himself up. Emmett was holding the tie when he returned. They fastened themselves together without saying anything.
“Should you have told Tar about Vin?” Emmett asked.
“Probably.” Nix took a deep breath. “Except Tar’s not telling us everything. And I don’t want to go back to Hell. I mean, I know I’ll have to, but…”Tell him!“Before I left Hell, they told me they wanted me to bring something extraordinary back with me, and if I did, my reward would be to be left alone, to have books to read, good food, a bath once a month. Doesn’t sound much, but it’s huge.”
“You don’t get to bathe?”
“Occasionally, in some other demon’s filthy water.”
“Ugh.”
“They also said that if I brought back an angel, I could have whatever I wanted.”
Emmett’s eyes widened. “Oh.”
“Don’t worry. That’s not going to happen. You’re not that much of a pain in the neck. I wouldn’t wish Hell on anyone. Definitely not on you. I have no fucking idea how they think I could get an angel to go with me to Hell, but I would never make you go, I swear. Not that Icouldmake you go. I have no idea how to do that. I wanted to tell you before someone else did. It’s the sort of sneaky thing they do. Just when we’re starting to…tolerate each other, they’d throw that into the mix. In any case, they were lying to me, they wouldn’t give me whatever I wanted.”
He felt Emmett’s fingers thread with his. “If you could have anything you wanted, what would you have?” Emmett asked. “Apart from that boat.”
“Another chance at life. Not to fuck things up this time. To take a different path.”
“The path that led you to Hell?”
“Ah, well, that was maybe one path I had to take. But I did a lot of wandering around off the right track. I could have been a better person.”
“And not stolen wallets?”
“Among other things.”
Emmett rubbed Nix’s palm with his thumb. “Will you tell me what you did to deserve getting sent to Hell?”
“They don’t read out a list of your crimes before or after you get there, but I’ve done a lot of bad stuff. I’m guessing the worst was… Being a killer at ten years old.”
He’d expected Emmett to recoil, but he didn’t. His soft caress of Nix’s palm didn’t even falter.
“I’m assuming that if it wasn’t an accident, you did it for a good reason.”
“I thought so at the time.”
“But since it led to Hell?”
“I wish there’d been a different road to take. Maybe there was, but a ten-year-old me couldn’t see it.”
“Will you tell me what happened?”
Nix thought about it, then nodded. Why not tell him the worst? “My father was a criminal. Drug dealer. Thief. People smuggler. Anything that made him money, though he was low-level. Never the top guy, just a driver, a rent-a-thug and then a gun for hire. He drank a lot. He used to come home drunk and lay into my mother, or me. I hated him. Used to wish I was older so I could tell someone about him and get us away from him. Sometimes I’d look at his gun and think about killing him, even though I knew killing was wrong.”
“Your scars?”
“My dad. Cigarettes on my arm. A broken plate caused the scar on my face. I tried to shield my brother from the worst of it. Orion was five years younger than me and a deep sleeper, luckily. My mum sought refuge in drugs. My father didn’t care about that. But then she slept with another guy to get money for a fix and that was too much for him.” He gave a choked laugh.
“He didn’t give a shit that she was too out of her head to feed us, or take us to school, but to cheat on him was taking the biscuit. I heard them yelling at each other from where I lay in bed with my brother. My father called her a whore and he slapped her, kept on slapping her. It wasn’t unusual. I knew the sound, but then the noise changed, a blow that was different, a sound from my mother that made me sit up. I crept to the door and I could hear her and the noise was all wrong.
