Si could’ve understood if it’d been a boyfriend.He knew he’d been crap company when he’d first got together with Zig.But Adam said they were only mates.Better mates than me?he wanted to ask, but he didn’t.
That night, Adam’s dad had been in a right mood over supper.Stuff had gone missing from the site again, and he was worried it had been an inside job.The thieves had known exactly where to look and what for, he reckoned.Someone must have tipped them off.
He sent Si a sharp glance at that point, and Si’s stomach lurched.
Adam put down his fork with a clatter.“Oi, you’d better not be suggesting Si had anything to do with it.”
Si’s heart warmed.
Mr.Merchant’s face softened.“Of course not.Christ, I hate the thought that one of the lads who work for me could be dishonest, though.”
Si swallowed his mouthful of potato.It didn’t go down easily.“Maybe someone was talking, like in the pub, say, and let it slip by accident?Didn’t mean no harm by it?”
“Maybe.”That sharp look was back in Mr.Merchant’s gaze for a mo.“If that’s the case, I hope whoever it was will think a bit more carefully about who they talk to in the pub, next time.”
Si nodded and forced another forkful of supper down his throat.Normally, he’d stick around downstairs after they’d finished.He’d watch telly with Adam while his dad frowned at the VAT receipts—or maybe the list of stuff that got nicked, tonight.Instead, Si sloped off to his room.
It didn’t work.Adam was at his door in five minutes flat.“Si?I’m coming in,” he said in a low voice.
Si thought about yelling back, “I’m busy!”which was their usual code forhaving a crafty wank, but to be honest, the five minutes of alone time he’d had hadn’t been much fun.Too many thoughts going round his head.“Come on, then,” he said dully.
Adam slipped in, like he was trying to be furtive, and closed the door quietly.“Doyou know anything about those thefts?”
Bloody marvellous.“No, go on, say what youreallythink.”
Rolling his eyes, Adam flopped onto the bed next to Si.“I don’t think you had anything to do with it, obviously.Just— Look, I know you like Zig, and I’m not saying it was him neither, but that Trent bloke he’s matey with is well sus.He’d shaft you soon as look at you.And not in a good way.”He smiled weakly.
At least this was a safe subject.Ish.“Yeah, he’s a right bastard.Don’t like the way he looks at Zig, neither.”All smug like, as if he could make him do anything he wanted.
Adam was silent a moment.“So, you know, be careful what you say around him, yeah?Cos I hate the thought of Dad getting ripped off.He’s been great to me, he really has.He doesn’t deserve it.”
“He’s been good to me and all.”Si managed to get it out without his voice cracking.
Adam stretched and flung himself off the bed.“Right.TV’s shite tonight, so I’m gonna get the Xbox out.You coming?”
“Yeah, all right.”Si followed him downstairs.A bit ofTomb Raiderwould take his mind off his worries.
Trouble was, once he was lying in bed that night with the light turned off, it all came back, along with the sick feeling in his stomach.
He hadn’t thought anything of it that night at the pub when he’d had a few too many.Mostly cos Trent had turned up like a dodgy twenty-pound note with a pocketful of cash, and if there was one way to dull the disappointment of seeing that bastard at Zig’s side, it was by letting him buy the drinks.
Trent and Zig seemed to spend a lot of time together—with Trent working for Zig’s dad—and while it was daft to be jealous, Trent was older than them, around twenty-five, and he had broad shoulders and proper muscles, not skinny, gangling limbs like Si.Trent’s light brown hair was always perfectly gelled in place, and even Si could tell he dressed sharp.It was hard not to feel a bit inadequate, next to him.
Well, until the bloke opened his mouth and reminded the world what a knob he was.
He’d been having a dig that night, Trent had, saying it was bollocks how builders walked away with hundreds of thousands for, basically, a heap of bricks piled on top of each other.Like any toddler could do it if they had the muscle.
Of course, Si had jumped in to say, hang about, there’s more to it than that.And yeah, he’d made a point of listing all the skilled labour that went into building a house, but he’d also gone on about the cost of materials.The copper piping, the tools, the fittings.
He’d had a fair few pints by then, so it was all hazy in his memory, but hadn’t Trent asked outright what they had on-site right now?Rightthen, rather, seeing as it wasn’t there no more.And hadn’t he waited until Zig had gone to get a round in to ask about it?
Si could believe Trent had ripped off Adam’s dad— Shit, was that where he’d got the cash for all them drinks he’d been buying?Some other poor bastard he’d done over?Si felt sick.
Oh gods.He was gonna have to tell Zig.Tell him he reckoned his mate might be a criminal.And what about Zig’s dad?Was he involved too?The things Zig said about his dad, off-hand comments made with a laugh or dark mutterings after he’d been drinking, they’d all made him sound like someone Si wouldn’t want to meet.
Sometimes he wondered if Zig was scared of his dad, but that couldn’t be right, could it?Scared of his own dad?And yeah, Si knew some dads were bastards, but not anyone related to people heknew, right?And definitely not someone like Zig.Half the time Zig talked about his dad like he actually admired him, and anyoneZigadmired had to be someone pretty special, right?
Nah, all the negative stuff was just cos Zig’s dad didn’t like him being gay.Had to be.And it wasn’t like that was unusual, was it?Dads were often funny about that.
