Page 88 of Inbetweeners
“Who did you go with?”
“No one. I’ve…” Emmett huffed. “I’ve never been with anyone else. We never went as a family. We had film nights at home, occasionally, when we all sat and watched something my father had downloaded or bought, but cinemas are ‘dirty places’ according to my mother.”
Nix wanted to laugh, but he felt sorry for Emmett. “You never went with a boyfriend?”
“No.”
“None of them liked the cinema?”
“I’ve only been out with one guy. David didn’t like the cinema so we didn’t go.”
Nix swallowed his gulp.One guy?Though that didn’t mean Emmett had only had sex with one guy. “What happened with David?”
“He dumped me. He got married to a woman he’d made pregnant while he was living with me. I didn’t even know he was bi. That wouldn’t have stopped me going out with him, though knowing he was a cheating, lying arsehole would have done.”
“How long were you with him?”
“Three years. We lived together for two.”
Shit.That was a long time.
“Three mostly unhappy years. At least, it’s those memories that are coming back. I’d like to think the good memories are there somewhere, but probably not. I was an idiot. I couldn’t see what was in front of my nose. He never cared. I did and he didn’t. I wanted to hold hands, he didn’t. I wanted to go to Italy on holiday, he didn’t. I didn’t want to go waterskiing, he did. I made excuse after excuse for the way he treated me. He probably laughed with his friends about how pathetic I was. And I made myself pretend not to care. That was the worst thing of all.”
Nix took a fistful of popcorn and crammed it into Emmett’s mouth. “Enough with theI am crap.I can say it about you, but you can’t say it about yourself.”
Most of the popcorn went onto the floor as Emmett struggled to either spit it out, or chew and swallow.
“Arsehole,” Emmett finally muttered.
“Yeah, you are.”But you aren’t. David was.
The film started and they fell silent. Nix kept snatching glances at Emmett who sat very still and stared intently at the screen. Nix was surprised how angry he felt that Emmett had been hurt. Yeah, hewasan arsehole at times, but not all the time. His shitty family had fucked him up. They had that in common. Cruelty came in many forms.
Nix put a Malteser against Emmett’s lips. The tip of Emmett’s tongue emerged, he licked once, then sucked in the chocolate. Nix slipped one into his own mouth.
A moment later, Emmett turned to him with his mouth open. Nix smiled and gave him another chocolate ball. By the time he’d fed him four, Nix had a hard-on. What was it about this guy that turned him on so fast? He wanted to blame it on lack of consensual sex over the last year, and how fucking awful Hell was, yet it was more than that.
The gaps between Emmett’s requests for chocolates lengthened, and when his head slid down to rest against Nix’s shoulder, he realised Emmett had fallen asleep. He couldn’t help wondering if Emmett’sFineof this morning should really have beenI got killed again.He wasn’t sure why he did what he did next, because Nix wasn’t a holding hands type of guy, but he took hold of Emmett’s hand, threaded their fingers together, and clung to him.
Nix hadn’t even realised he’d fallen asleep himself until he saw Vin looking at him from the seat in front. A new face, a change of attire to resemble someone like Emmett, but still Vin, still trouble.
“You like him,” Vin said.
Nix knew it wasn’t a good idea to let Vin think that. “Who?”
“This pathetic angel.”
“I don’t like anyone.”
“Then let go of his hand.”
“No.”
The glimmer of rage on Vin’s face told Nix that he should definitely keep hold of Emmett’s hand.
“I’ll have you recalled,” Vin snarled. “They can send someone more amenable.”
Nix said nothing. If that was within Vin’s power, there was nothing he could do.
