The Deepest Cut (15 page)

‘Look, don't worry about it, Danny will get bored of him before long, he always does. He doesn't keep friends the way the rest of us do. He picks them up and puts them back down again when he wants to. This won't last long,' he said.

‘Really?' I asked.

‘Really,' he said. ‘He's a twat, always has been ever since we were little.'

‘Cool, thanks,' I said.

‘No worries, bro.' He saluted me as he walked off to catch up with his mates.

‘Where's Nath?' Jake asked from inside his sofa cocoon.
Tom and Jerry
was on in the background. The whole thing reminded me of the time he had the flu when he was ten, and spent a whole week cuddled up on the sofa under his duvet, watching TV while I was at school.

‘Dunno,' I said and sat on the other sofa. ‘How you feeling? Heard anymore from Kel?'

‘What do you mean, you don't know?' He sat up and looked at me. ‘Why's he not come back? Was he not in school?'

I reached for the TV guide to try and distract myself. I was going to have to tell him what Nathan had said, but I didn't really want to. He was heartbroken enough about Kelly, without having to deal with Nathan dumping us for Danny over something so stupid, it didn't even really matter. All that stuff about Jake and I being close and him being left out was rubbish. I didn't want to dump it all on Jake while he was feeling like this.

‘What's going on?' Jake said.

‘He's just being a dick, that's all.'

‘Because of that Danny? Yeah, I was thinking about it earlier and I reckon it's 'cause of that Sarah, too. He just fancies her and that's why he went off with her.' He reached out for the remote and paused the TV.

Nathan and Sarah were holding hands as they left. I wished Nathan hadn't said what he'd said earlier. I much preferred Jake's theory.

I shrugged.

‘Nah, nah, nah, you know more,' he said. ‘What's he said?'

I cleared my throat.

‘Just tell me, was it about Kelly?'

I sighed and put the TV guide down. ‘I'm gonna go and get a Coke, want one?' I stood up.

‘Get one in a minute, tell me what he said.'

‘He didn't say anything.'

‘You're such a liar,' Jake said and un-paused the TV.

Debbie was in the kitchen emptying the washing machine. She was knelt down next to it, huffing, sighing, and pulling all the clothes out. The radio was playing some sort of talk show thing.

I opened the fridge.

‘Christ, you frightened the life out of me,' she said.

‘Any Coke in here, Deb?' I asked.

‘In the salad drawer, darling.'

I got one out and shut the fridge. She stood with her hands on her hips, staring at me.

‘What's up? I know that tone of voice anywhere. What's wrong?' she asked.

I took a deep breath.

‘Your dad upset you again?' She shook her head in disgust at him, but for once it wasn't him.

‘Nope,' I said.

She pulled out a chair for me at the kitchen table and one for herself. ‘Sit,' she said.

‘Do I have to?'

She nodded. ‘Talk,' she said.

I opened my Coke and took a deep breath. ‘You know Nathan went off with that Danny the other night?'

‘I do. Jake has told me all of the details, he thinks it's because of that girl Sarah. Maybe he wanted to get back at Megan … make her jealous–'

‘It's not because of Sarah,' I said.

She got up to put the kettle on. We all knew it was a serious chat with Debbie when the kettle went on for her coffee. ‘No?'

I shook my head. ‘Nathan was angry because me and Jake weren't there for him when it kicked off with him and Megan. He told me earlier that he thinks me and Jake are close and leave him out and that he wants to find new friends. Like Danny.'

‘Oh,' she said, leaning on the side.

I watched her, waiting for her to say more. She'd have the right words to make it better. She always did. ‘And this Danny, Jake said he's bad news?'

I shrugged. ‘Apparently.'

Debbie sighed. ‘Thing is, darling, there's not a lot you can do, is there?'

‘What do you mean?'

‘Nathan's perfectly entitled to go off and make new friends.'

‘But–'

‘But it sucks, and it hurts and you want everything to stay the same, just how it is … forever. But it won't. Things change. People change.'

‘I don't like it,' I said.

‘I know you don't. You can still be friends with Nathan, just maybe not as close.'

I was completely thrown by her comment. I didn't agree. We had each other. We didn't need anyone else.

‘I know it's scary, sweetheart,' she said. ‘Especially for you, you've lost so much already, but you just have to remember that Nathan having new friends doesn't mean he's not your friend anymore.' She stopped talking and got her mug out of the dishwasher.

‘I don't like Danny,' I said.

‘I know, but my advice would be to let Nathan do what he's got to do.'

‘But it's upset me, Deb.'

She stopped, walked over to me and put her hand on my head. ‘Of course it has, darling, all change is scary.'

‘But Danny's an arsehole. What if Nathan gets in trouble because of him?'

‘Nathan knows better than that,' she said.

She pulled away and went back to making her coffee. ‘So, talk to me about Polly …' she said.

‘Nothing to tell,' I said, shrugging.

She smirked at me as I got up and walked out of the room, trying to hide my smile.

After three hours of the silent treatment from Jake, because I wouldn't say what had happened with Nathan and why he didn't come back after school, I finally told him. Step by step, blow by blow. Then I told him what Debbie had said about it all, too.

He was sitting on the wall outside the chippy, deep in thought. He held a chip mid-air, stopped on its way to his mouth. It was like someone had paused him. I stood in front of him, waiting for him to speak.

‘I have no words,' he said, and put the chip in his mouth.

I sat down next to him on the wall and opened my drink. He took it off me and had a long swig.

‘Even if he is pissed off with us for not being there for him, or whatever, it's not right is it?' He held another chip in front of his mouth. ‘Actually, he's probably got the right to be a bit pissed off with me, 'cause I didn't go and find him as soon as I found out what happened.'

‘It's not your fault, you were trying to calm Megan down and get her to sort it out with him,' I said.

‘He'll get over it,' he said. ‘All this bullshit about us being closer and yada yada … ignore him. He's being an idiot.' He got up off the wall and took his vinegar-soaked battered sausage out of the packet. ‘Now tell me what the deal is with you and Polly?' He took a huge bite of his sausage.

‘Don't you want to talk about what happened with Kelly?' I asked him. I didn't want to talk to him about Polly. It still didn't seem right to be getting all excited about it while he was totally heartbroken.

‘Nope, I do not want to talk about that slut,' he said. ‘Unless you saw her at school today and she was … No, I don't want to talk about her.'

‘There's nothing to tell about Polly,' I said.

‘Did you see Kelly today?' He asked.

I laughed to myself. ‘No, I didn't actually.'

‘Cool,' he said.

‘So, you gonna go out with Polly then?' He asked.

I was just about to answer when a car skidded to a halt next to us. Its bass was throbbing. The tinted window on the passenger side rolled down and a cloud of smoke escaped, followed by Nathan's head.

‘Alright gay boys?' He laughed.

Jake and I watched him as he got out, shut the door, and then leant his hand in to grab a fiver off the driver.

‘Whatcha up to then?' He asked.

‘Eating our chips,' Jake said. His tone was half-dead. ‘You?'

‘Getting some dinner for me and Danny boy, then we're off round Sarah's, innit.' He smiled and winked.

‘Oi, hurry up, man.' Danny's voice came from inside the car.

I looked at Jake, then at Nathan, then back at Jake, then back at Nathan. Then I spoke.

‘Nath, man, what you doing?'

‘Getting chips.'

He smiled, smacked me on the back, and went inside the chippy.

‘Did that just happen?' I asked Jake as we walked off.

‘I don't know,' he said, glancing over his shoulder. ‘I think it might have.'

‘That was weird,' I said.

As we turned the corner, Danny's car skidded behind us, he revved up the engine, and as it screeched past, the sound of Nathan's voice came flying towards us. ‘Looooooooosers,' it said.

I threw my chips in the next bin. I'd suddenly lost my appetite.

Nathan had spent a few days ignoring us outside school, but in school he was pretending nothing had happened. It was completely doing my head in. We were only good enough for him when Danny wasn't around.

Three days before we broke up for Christmas, we were in the home-ec room about to bake mince pies for the carol concert that night.

We were asked get into pairs.

Nathan made a beeline for Jake, grabbed him, moved him over to a kitchen unit and left me standing there on my own.

‘Loner,' he said.

‘Adam, you'll have to work on your own. Do you think you can handle it?' Our teacher asked when she saw there were no other people to pair up with. ‘I'll put you here. You can still talk to them.' She moved me to the kitchen unit opposite Nathan and Jake.

At the unit in the corner, Kelly was trying to keep her head down. Jake kept glancing over at her.

‘You OK?' I asked him.

‘He's fine, aren't you Jakey boy?' Nathan said, patting him on the back before he'd even had the chance to respond to me.

‘I haven't got a clue what I'm doing,' I said, looking at all the ingredients.

‘You gotta read the recipe, idiot,' Nathan said.

Jake glanced at Kelly again. It was the closest he'd come to her since the party. She wasn't usually in any of our classes but because today was a special thing, we'd all been mixed up.

‘Look, Jake, just don't worry about it,' Nathan said. ‘The first thing you got to do is block her on Facebook and delete her number. Forget about her. She's a skank.' He punched Jake lightly on the arm, then opened the packet of flour and started weighing it out.

‘I can't believe she did that to me, man,' Jake said.

‘I know, she's a dirty cheating ho,' Nathan said.

‘I feel like my heart's been ripped out, you know,' he said to Nathan.

‘You know what? You need someone to take your mind off her,' Nathan said. ‘When I was with Megan, I thought nobody would ever be as good as her …' He poured the flour into their bowl. ‘Then I met Sarah …' He gazed off out the window. ‘She's amazing. Trust me, you need someone new, someone better.'

Jake shook his head. ‘How's Polly?' He asked me. Probably because he wanted to change the subject.

‘Polly?' Nathan asked. ‘Is something going on with you two?' He laughed so loudly that most of the class looked over.

Jake thumped him on the arm. ‘Stop being an idiot, Nath, or I swear to God I'm going to throw that whole packet of flour over your head.'

‘Why did nobody tell me about this?' Nathan asked.

‘Er, because you've not been around,' I said.

‘Er, because you're an idiot, actually,' he said. He laughed away to himself for a bit, then looked up at me. ‘You do know Ed's gonna rip your bollocks off, don't you?'

‘No, he's not,' I said.

‘Yeah, he will,' Nathan waved a spoon in my face. ‘Then you won't be able to do anything with her. Not that you know what to do anyway, Mr Virgin the Virginal.'

I didn't want to rise to it so I ignored him.

‘Ed and Ads already spoke about it and he's cool,' Jake said. ‘So shove that up your a-hole, and get mixing this pastry, bitch.'

‘Serious?' Nathan asked, as he shoved his hands into their bowl of mixture. I was still weighing out mine.

‘Yep,' was all I said.

‘What's the matter with you, Billy no-mates?' Nathan asked.

‘Nothing,' I said.

‘You're lagging,' Nathan said, as I opened the butter. ‘Anyway, back to more important issues,' he said.

‘Like?' Jake asked.

‘Like finding you something to help you get over that slut in the corner.'

Jake gave him a sideways look. ‘Unless it's a supermodel, or vouchers for a year's supply of Nando's, I doubt it,' he said.

‘I had something more specific in mind,' Nathan said, grinning.

I put my flour down and leant in. I had a feeling I didn't want to miss this one. ‘Like?' I asked.

‘Not that it's any of your business,' he said to me, then turned to Jake. ‘You know that girl who was with us Saturday night, not Sarah, her mate Lucy?'