“I’m fine, lad,” Tim said, lifting his arms. The sleeves of his jacket rolled down to reveal his wrists. “Only scratches. I get worse wounds from the rose bushes outside.”
Tim stumbled into the room with a yelp, having been pushed by Janice, who snapped off the gloves she was wearing.
“All done,” she declared, tipping her head in Scott’s direction “Most of the mess came from you. Snakes, as scary as they look, are clean eaters, and John left little trace.”
“Speaking of snakes…” Carly began. “Where’s Thomas?”
“He’s whispering sweet nothings to Penelope for protecting, Scott.” Janice waved a flippant hand at Tim. “There’s a bag of clothes by the door. It’ll be too suspicious to burn them tonight, but we can have a bonfire tomorrow.”
“What about a bonfire and a BBQ?” Jay suggested.
Carly bobbed up and down. “Yes, we’ll do steaks, chicken thighs and vegetables kebabs.”
Janice nodded. “We’ll check with Thomas, but it sounds good. We can make an afternoon of it. What do you think, Scott?”
“I think… I think you’re all crazy,” he replied, before yawning into the back of his hand.
“That’s your cue to leave.” Thomas mumbled from the doorway.
He pushed the door wide, then stepped to one side to let everyone out. They didn’t linger. Tim and Janice were first out, followed by Jay, who shot Scott a smile. Carly squeezed Scott’s shoulder before heading to the door. She paused to squeeze Thomas’s hand.
Thomas didn’t move until the front door closed with a loud thump.
“You’re wearing my T-shirt…”
“Oh.” Scott looked down at himself. He still had his good hand tangled in the fabric. “Jay got it for me. Said it would make me feel better.”
Thomas cocked his head. “And does it?”
Scott lifted a shoulder and tucked his nose down to breathe the scent. “Yes,” he admitted. “In your absence, it’s helped.”
“Good. Did you eat?”
“A little.” He pushed his bowl towards Thomas’s place at the table. “Some left for you, though.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You didn’t eat anything at the hospital.” Scott bit his lip. “Or before that.”
Thomas sighed and came over to the table. He reached a hand out, and Scott gave up his grip on the T-shirt to take it. They held hands while Thomas sat down to finish the rest of the soup.
He frowned at the half drunk coffee in front of Scott.
“Yeah, tomato soup and black coffee are not my idea of a match made in heaven.” Scott snorted.
“Scott…” Thomas tightened his grip. “I owe you an apology.”
“No, you don’t. I’m sick of people apologising when it was me who–”
“I left you outside Brixton.” Thomas closed his eyes. “I didn’t even say goodbye. We’d been together for three years, and you were so excited that we were being released on the same day, and that was how I chose to end it, by driving away and leaving you there as a memory.”
Scott tried to pull his hand away, but Thomas didn’t give it up.
“We were friends,” Thomas continued. “We were good friends. I knew it at the time, I knew it afterwards, but I didn’t want to wait for you to cut me out of your life, so I cut you from mine first.”
“It hurt,” Scott whispered. “It really fucking hurt, Thomas. We might not have told each other our darkest secrets, but I trusted you. I trusted you more than I’ve ever trusted anyone. I didn’t want to lose you from my life, was working up the courage to ask you whether we could still hang out, but then you were gone, driving away from me. You didn’t look back.”
Thomas flared his nostrils. “I couldn’t. I couldn’t look back.”
