Who’d have ever thought he’d be doing this with Zig, back when they were teenagers in London?
Six years ago
Si lay on his bed in Adam’s dad’s house in Peckham, his muscles aching from work and his belly full of hearty, plain food, thinking about Zig.They’d met up three more times since that first night in Soho.They’d danced together, they’d snogged, and last night—Si’s knees went weak thinking about it—Zig had given him his first blowjob, in a back alley in Soho that reeked of rotting garbage and piss.
It’d been bloodyepic.Si couldn’t wait to return the favour.He was nervous about it, mind, cos he didn’t want to make an utter balls-up of it, but he still couldn’t wait.
And now he was getting a stiffy, so it was a bloody good thing he’d come up to his room.
They hadn’t actuallysaid, but Si reckoned him and Zig were a thing now.Boyfriends.That was what Adam called Zig anyway:Seeing your boyfriend tonight?Or when that sharp-dressed, older lad Zig hung around with sometimes turned up at the pub:your boyfriend’s mate’s here again.It gave him a good feeling, hearing that word.Warmth spread through him.
Mind, he had no clue how his mum and dad would react if he told them he had a boyfriend.Would they be disappointed?Si didn’t like to think of that.It’d never come up while he’d been living at home.He’d never had a proper boyfriend or girlfriend while he was at school.Lucy Mansfield hadn’t hung around long enough to count, and he still wasn’t sure how he’d felt about her.It’d been too confusing, he’d told Adam one night, cos he liked boys and girls.
“Yeah, but who do you wanna shag?”Adam had asked.
“No one,” Si had answered, because he didn’t feel that way about any of his mates and why would he want to shag someone he didn’t know all that well?’Cept that hadn’t been the right answer, cos after that Adam thought he wasn’t into sex at all.
To be fair, for a whileSihad thought he wasn’t into sex at all.But then he’d come down here and met Zig, and Si was absolutely, one hundred percent into having sex with Zig.
Zig was the one thing that made being here worthwhile.Well, him and being with Adam again.But Adam would be going off to uni soon, and if it wasn’t for Zig, Si would be packing his bags to leave too.Being a brickie wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, ’specially when your best mate was planning to bugger off and get an education.Si didn’t really feel like he fit in, somehow, with the work crowd.Most of the others were older, and they talked about their wives and kids and mortgages.The ones who were younger mostly bragged on about all the alcohol they’d drunk and the girls they’d shagged.Every time he met one of the girls down the pub, Si was tempted to tell her how her bloke talked about her when she wasn’t there.He didn’t, though.He didn’t much fancy getting an “accidental” two-by-four in the face from said bloke once they were back on-site.
Adam didn’t exactly fit in, either, but then, he was the boss’s son and was on his way to uni and some artsy-fartsy career in design.This was it for Si.
Unless he got his head out of his arse and worked out what he really wanted to do.But that’d probably mean going back home to Glastonbury, and well...
Zig was in London.
Present day
Zig and Si spent the rest of the evening in front of the telly, cos nobody stopped watching after one episode of a series anymore, did they?Si had been right: Jodie Whittaker had proper cracked it.The “fam” were okay too.The older man reminded Zig a bit of his gran’s fella, Ray, whom he hadn’t thought of in years.But that made him think of another old man, which led him down roads he didn’t wanna tread right now, not while he was cosied up with Si.Anyway, Jodie was the one who stole the show.
Si’s phone rang once while they were watching, and he frowned at it, rejected the call, then texted furiously for half a minute.After that, he switched his phone off.
What the hell was that all about?Zig reckoned it’d be better not to pry.Course, it might not be Si’s mum telling her son to kick him out on the streets, but best not to get into it, just in case.He didn’t want to ruin the mood.
He stretched out on the sofa, more relaxed than he’d been in fuck knew how long.Zig hadn’t spent a lot of time with his housemates in Lewisham, mostly because they were wankers.And his box of a room hadn’t felt like home.Si’s place, though, felt lived in.The sort of place you could put your feet up on the table and not worry if you had a hole in your socks.It was warm, and cosy, and there wasn’t any mould on the walls or the ceiling.Not even in the bathroom.Si’s furniture was like the man himself: solid, comfortable, and totally unpretentious.
Jesus, Zig could get used to being here.Toobloody used to it.
After the third episode, the Rosa Parks one, Si hit Pause.“Sorry.You probably don’t wanna spend the rest of your life watchingDoctor Who.”
Zig laughed.“There’s worse ways to spend it, believe me.But yeah, we could take a break.Catch up a bit.You, uh, you seeing anyone right now?”
“What, me?”Si’s eyes widened, as if Zig had asked him whether he’d done a lot of interplanetary time-travelling lately.“No.You?”
Was there something hopeful in his tone?Or was that simply Zig hearing what he wanted to?“No.Not for a while.”Where he’d been, for most of the time since he’d last seen Si, wasn’t the sort of place he’d have gone looking for a long-term partner.And after that, Zig had been too busy trying to build a life on the straight and narrow to worry about finding someone for more than a hookup.
Si coughed.“So, you been here before?Glastonbury, I mean?”
“Me?Never.”Zig flashed him a grin.“I’d have looked you up if I’d been here, wouldn’t I?”
“S’pose.”
“Go on, then, tell me about the place.I know it’s got a festival, but that’s all.”Zig shuffled closer to Si on the sofa.
Si seemed to stiffen, and not in a good way.“Well, the famous thing is the tor.Glastonbury Tor.”
“Yeah, I think I’ve heard of that.Dunno what it is, though.”
