“Yeah,” Zig said shortly, too on edge to think of anything else to say.If they ever finally got to Glastonbury, which Zig was beginning to doubt, would Si be happy to see him?
“You look troubled,” the old man persisted.“Something on your mind?”
Zig dredged up a smile.“Nah, I’m good, ta.”
The man glanced at Zig’s backpack.“Not sure of your reception?”
Ouch.That was so on the nose it physically hurt.“Maybe.”Zig sighed.“It’s someone I ain’t seen for a while, that’s all.”
“Parted on bad terms?”The tone was sympathetic.
“No— Ah, I dunno.Difference of opinion, maybe?Nothing that couldn’t have been smoothed over.”
Si hadn’t even known the whole of it.Zig rubbed his hands on his jeans legs cos yeah, he felt pretty guilty about that.But that was all in the past, back when Zig had been a total fucking moron who’d believed all the shit his dad spouted.
“But it never was?”
Again, he sounded sympathetic, and understanding, and somehow it all came spilling out.“I thought we were gonna be okay, you know?Then out of the blue, I get ‘Sorry, mate, being a brickie ain’t working out for me,’ and he gives me a kiss and buggers off back to Somerset.”
The old bloke didn’t seem fazed by Zig outing himself.“That must have hurt.”
“I was fine,” Zig protested automatically.Okay, so maybefinewasn’t the word.Maybe it’d been like a knife twisting in his gut, but that was cos Zig had had the wrong idea about him and Si.Same as he’d had the wrong idea about a shedload of things back then.See: total fucking moron.Si, on the other hand, wasn’t stupid.He’d sussed out that Zig wasn’t the sort to get mushy feelings about.That was why he’d found it so easy to leave him.
The old man was nodding.“And that was a while ago, now?”
“Half a decade ago.”Zig laughed bitterly.“Just hope he still remembers who I am.”
“You don’t seem the sort that anyone forgets.Not with those eyes, and that hair.Very striking.”
Zig was starting to wonder if the bloke was hitting on him.“The hair was different back then.Bright red.”He’d dyed it black with blue ends last night.Maybe that had been a mistake?
The old guy laughed.“I suppose you change your eye colour any time you feel like it too.”
“These?They’re real, not contacts.”He wasn’t the first person to assume that, but Zig’s mismatched pair—one blue, one brown—were what he’d been born with.
Cobbled together out of old parts they found on the scrap heap, weren’t you?his dad’s voice sneered in his head.
Fuck off, Dad, Zig thought tiredly.
Maybe he ought to actually get some contacts?It’d been years since he’d last tried them, back before he’d been away, and they had to have got better.There was a chance they wouldn’t scratch his eyeballs raw now.
“Ah well.I’m sure your young man will be happy to see you.And you’ll fit right in, here in Glastonbury.”
Zig shrugged, a little more jerkily than he’d intended.“We’ll see.”At least he could be fairly confident on the second part.He’d watched some YouTube vids last night while he was failing to get to sleep, and Glastonbury was full of people who dressed weird, looked weird, and fuck him if some of them didn’t act pretty weird too.Mismatched eyes probably didn’t rate a mention.
“Good luck,” the man said, and pulled himself to his feet as the bus lurched to a stop.Glastonbury Town Hall.Huh.They were there.Zig grabbed his rucksack and followed the trickle of passengers off the bus.
Jesus, the wind was cold.Zig hunched his shoulders as he tapped at his phone, wishing for a moment that he’d chosen his jacket for warmth and not for how cool he looked in it.Si had always liked him in leather, though.
Fuck, this was crazy.Despite what the old guy had said.Why the hell would Si help him out after so many years?Because he’s a decent bloke, that’s why.Zig couldn’t imagine Si had changed much.Maybe he’d got himself a significant other and settled down, though?Shit.That’d be a right spanner in the works.No S.O.was likely to be happy with Si’s ex turning up unannounced and wanting to stay.
Could Zig lean on Adam if Si let him down?He ought to be easy enough to find.How many tattoo studios could there be in this town?Then again, like that beardy bloke down the pub said, Adam never really liked you, did he?Zig shivered, shoved his hands into his pockets, and picked up his pace.
Si.He was the one who’d always taken Zig’s part, despite...Anyway, he’d help, even if it was only for old times’ sake.Even if he was all loved-up these days with some West Country lad with an accent as thick as Si’s.Si would see him right.
Right?
Got to get to him first, though, haven’t you?Zig peered at the map Google was showing him, and tried to work out which way was which.Okay.Si’s parents’ house was that way.And seriously, only twenty minutes’ walk away?Result.Zig hadn’t taken on board how bloodysmallGlastonbury was.Like, seriously small.He should have twigged when he found out it didn’t have its own railway station, but for fuck’s sake, they held the UK’s biggest music festival here every year.How was he to know that probably increased the population by a factor of, like, a million?
