Twenty Six

Lisa rolled over. 'I should go.'

The bedside clock had just flashed to 3.01am. 'Stay,' I said. 'What's the point in going now?'

She snuggled against me. I guess that's what she wanted to hear. But I didn't say it for that. I meant it. I eventually fell asleep.

Yeah, so you noticed - I skipped the sex scene. Give me a break, this is a public blog ya know. Besides, five years and Harry Potter hasn't got a proper girlfriend yet. I got laid in two weeks.

It was late by the time someone knocked on the flyscreen again. I braced myself for the worst, thinking Mike had figured things out already. 'Wait here for them to go away,' I said to Lisa.

'At least see who it is.'

I didn't want her to know quite how gutless I can be, not yet anyway, so I obligued. I pulled back the lounge curtain. Dad gazed maurosely at the front door. I would have ignored him if he hadn't looked as if he had been invited to breakfast in Hell's kitchen.

'So,' I said after the garage-ritual entry.

Dad nodded, looking around at my spartan pad as if my threadbare existence confirmed everything he had expected.

Lisa joined us, wearing a t-shirt, jeans and a smile that said recently-sexed. 'Hi.'

'Dad, this is Lisa.'

Dad nodded at her and stared fractionally too long at her chest. 'Didn't Gary have a girlfriend called Lisa?'

'No. Mike... um... did.' I didn't see much of Dad anymore but he'd known my friends pretty well since they had invaded our house every afternoon after school. It must have been six months since we last spoke, and I had told him then about Mike and Lisa. Now I wished I hadn't.

'You the same Lisa?' he asked.

Lisa didn't redden or seem abashed in any way. She kind of stared him down. 'Yeah.'

He looked from her to me. 'A-ha.' He nodded again; something else he had expected, apparently.

Twenty Seven

Twenty Five

'I can't believe it,' I said. 'And that bruise the other day?'

Lisa grimaced. 'He doesn't mean it.'

'Mike?' I couldn't believe it. But nothing bothered Mike, not ever. I shook my head. The entire picture I'd slowly compiled of my friend over the last nine years - through High School and into real life, shook, crumbled, cavorted and spun on its axis. Did I know him at all?

Lisa stood, probably misinterpreting my silent mental gyrations for lack of interest. 'This was a mistake. I'll go.'

I caught her arm and spun her around. 'You can't let this go on.' There was something about my voice I didn't recognise. Lisa looked up at me, searching my face. I had never been comfortable with scrutiny, but at that moment, I had nothing to hide.

She melted into me and I held her tight. 'I don't know what to do,' she said, her words muffled through my shoulder.

I gently pried her head up so that I could look at her. My fingers lightly traced the edge of her bruise, before sweeping back through her hair. 'You let me help you,' I whispered in a husked voice, choked by emotion that I didn't know I possessed.

She smiled weakly, a tear streaking her face and she hugged me tightly. Seconds later, I don't remember how, our lips were as locked as our bodies. There was no turning back for me now.


Twenty Six