Page 111 of Everything That Kills Me
Last time, he’d given Jack the benefit of the doubt. Unless he phoned and explained, Zeph wouldn’t do that again. He’d forgiven him too easily.
He’d revert to his plan.
Pull himself together.
Not let anyone see how much he was hurting.
Earn money until he returned to Cambridge.
Not hope for Jack to call.
He managed a few of those. Well, one to be exact. He earned money.
The day Zeph was due to return to university, he had an email from the Student Loan Company. He assumed it was a notification that the first instalment had been paid for his tuition, but when he read what it said, he gasped.
“What’s up?” Martin asked.
Zeph checked the message again, to be sure he’d not made a mistake, but he hadn’t.
“It says all my student debt and the whole of this year’s tuition fees have been paid.” He showed Martin. “Did you do this?”
Martin read it over his shoulder and shook his head. “I wish I could say yes, but no.”
“You’re not just saying that?”
“You told me you didn’t want us to help. But we couldn’t have afforded that amount.”
Paulo put three coffees on the table. “Your father?”
Zeph almost laughed. Martin did laugh.
“No way,” Zeph said.
“Then who?” Paulo asked.
“Does it matter?” Martin shrugged. “If they want Zeph to know, they’ll tell him, right?”
“Could you ask the loan company?” Paulo suggested.
“I’ll do that.”
After breakfast, he went up to his room and called them. He somehow wasn’t surprised to be told that they weren’t able to divulge who’d paid the fees.
“Lucky you!” the woman said.
Yes, but…
Zeph had a short list of who might have done it. He’d done well in his second-year exams, a first in every paper. He’d already been told by his college that he’d been awarded two prizes, but that was a few hundred pounds not twenty-five thousand. Maybe the university had awarded him some sort of scholarship, but he’d have been told, surely, and the amount was staggering.
So it had to be Jack. Except security work didn’t paythatwell. So maybe not Jack. But even considering it might have been him made Zeph’s heart break all over again. One day, it might be too fragile to be mended.
Martin and Paulo took him back to university that lunchtime. Zeph had an ensuite room on the top floor of one of the staircases with a lovely view of the college quadrangle. Except he’d be staring out at people holding hands, having fun.
The three of them lugged his stuff up the stairs and Paulo insisted on hanging up Zeph’s clothes and making his bed before they left.
“We’re going to miss you.” Martin hugged him and Paulo hugged both of them as he usually did.
“Make sure you have fun too,” Paulo told him. “All work and no play makes—”
