Home

"You're in a band?" she started giggling madly.

"Why are you laughing?" he pouted a little.

"I'm sorry." she tried to recover herself, "You're just so..."

"What?" he looked sulky, so she decided to phrase herself carefully.

"Where's the ego? You know..."

He thought carefully for a minute before he responded.

"I'm keeping it real." there was a big grin on his face.

She fell back against her pillows giggling again. "You're the drummer right, you must be the drummer."

"I am not the drummer!" he wasn't insulted this time and played along.

"Hang on a minute..." her face fell, becoming very serious, "This is an expensive house, so you must be rich..."

He shifted about in discomfort at where this was going.

"You must be famous then. Oh God, should I have heard of you?"

She looked terrified, which made him laugh.

"Don't worry about it, my rock star ego will soon recover."

The smile returned to her face. She was glad he was pretty normal. Well, normal enough, though he seemed to be wearing nail varnish today.

"Anyway," his face was serious again, "You're meant to be telling me about you."

She pushed her long hair out of her face while she considered what she wanted to reveal. A small smile crept across her face.

"Well, I guess I'm in the music business too."

"Really?"

"Well, I busked for a couple of weeks."

They dissolved into giggles again, before she elaborated.

"I met a guy in a hostel I went to, I think he only asked me to help him out because he didn't have one of those sad-looking dogs that people take pity on."

"What did you sing?"

"Oh he had a thing for Simon and Garfunkel. Speaking of Garfunkel..." she eyed his curly blonde hair.

"Hey! I do not have Art Garfunkel hair." he made a big show of preening himself then, giving her his little boy pout. "Anyway, what else?"

"Well..." she thought again, "I used to work in a school. I was the lab technician. Made sure none of the kids stole Bunsen Burners or drank the hydrochloric acid."

"A scientist huh?"

"Well, I don't think I was about to cure cancer handing out Slinky springs to the Year 7 class. I liked it though, the kids behaved themselves, the other staff were nice."

"So, why did you leave?"

"I had another commitment that needed my time."

"I guess I don't get to hear about that then?"

"Not yet. I still need some time."

"That's OK, thank you for telling me what you have."

He got up to leave, and made it to the doorway before she spoke again.

"Look, for what it's worth, I saw a lot of kids whose parents divorced. It's tough, but they make it, you know? And I'm sure they know how much you love them...Sorry, it's not really my place to comment."

"No, don't worry about it, and umm, thanks."

He stood awkwardly in the doorway for a minute while they sent each other embarrassed glances, before shaking himself and heading out the room, cautioning her against going anywhere.

"You need rest, doctor's orders."

She sighed as she lay back down, feeling frustrated. Being fussed over wasn't her style, but she did feel pretty sleepy right now, so what harm was there in a couple more hours of sleep?


She awoke to Martin's persistent nudging again. It was dark outside already. Had she slept so long?

"Hello."

"Hey. You should have woken me sooner." She sat up slowly, her head still feeling sore.

"You need to take some of these, the doctor prescribed them. They're just painkillers."

She took the little bottle of pills and examined it. They looked legitimate enough. She read the label on the side.

"I'm Angela Gore now am I?"

"Well, I told him you were my sister who had a terrible phobia of hospitals. I don't think he bought it entirely."

"Could be worse I guess. At least I'm not your wife." She cringed. "Sorry, that was insensitive."

"It's OK, you're not alone in that sentiment."

He passed her the glass of water he was holding and left the room, leaving her sitting on the bed kicking herself for what she had said. When he told her yesterday he was just divorced she had seen in his face that it was still an open wound.

"Well guess I just poured salt into it."

She threw two of the pills into her mouth and chased them down with a gulp of water, and found herself at a loss. She didn't want to go to sleep again so soon. Pushing the covers all the way off her body she studied her ankle. It was less swollen now, but had a few nasty looking bruises on it. She lifted it and gently tried to flex it, testing her range of movement. Not very much.

There was nothing much in her room but the standard bedroom kit - the bed itself, a chest of drawers, a small wardrobe and a table next to the bed with a clock on it. It read 6pm.

"It gets dark so early in winter." she mused, as she turned again to the window and stared out at the blackness. It wasn't entirely black however, she could see the orange glow of the streetlights in the city centre lighting up the sky and drowning out the stars for everyone nearby.

Martin could hear her slowly limping down the stairs and grimaced. She didn't know what was good for her at all. Finally she made it to the sofa and sat down beside him.

"I really shouldn't have said what I did before, I..."

"I know. It's OK." he shook himself a little. "What are you doing down here anyway, you should be in bed resting still."

"I needed a change of venue. I can rest here. Watch."

She made a show of lolling back against the cushions, letting her arms hang limp and rolling her eyes back to pretend she was dead.

"If only you'd stay like that."

She poked her tongue out at him, feeling like she had to bring him out of the depression she had caused with her careless words.

"What do you want for dinner then?" she asked rubbing her hands together.

"Oh no, all agreements are null and void until you are better."

"I'm fine. We sorted all this out."

She went to stand up, but he laid a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down to the couch again.

"That was before you did your living room gymnastics yesterday."

"Ugh. I won't let you run around after me."

"I don't intend to. We're ordering in."


They spent the evening watching DVDs while they ate their Chinese from the cartons.

"Rock star my arse." she thought to herself as she caught a glimpse of him nearly tip noodles all over himself when something on the screen startled him. She could picture him as a nagging parent however, the way he had been treating her.

As one movie ended he got up and went to the kitchen while she sat choosing the next. There was all kinds there, even a few pretty cult films that caught her eye. When he walked back in he was carrying a bottle of wine and a glass. They both settled back on to the sofa and she began to play the film while he poured himself a drink.

"I would give you some," he said, "but not while you're taking those painkillers."

He smirked at her and she glared at him, without any real conviction however. As the movie went on, the bottle got emptied, and by the end of it he seemed to have got himself into a rather emotional state. She shut the TV off with a flick of the remote and he turned to face her.

"Angela..."

She could tell whatever was coming next was coming from the wine more than anything, so she braced herself.

"Why won't you trust me? I can help you, you know? Do you need money? I can give you money. Whatever it is we can fix it. Nothing is so broken that it can't be fixed somehow, right?"

There were tears appearing in his eyes as he spoke. She felt like she was intruding on something personal here. He had taken her and projected his own helplessness.

"Martin, this isn't about helping me, it's about you...I..."

"Please...What does it matter to you why I do it? You don't like me remember? I just have to do something...I...Everything's fallen apart and I can't do anything. I need you to let me do this. Please Angela."

She felt his words tugging at something inside her. He looked so broken right now, and she could do something about it. Even though the rational part of her knew that this strange friendship that was beginning to grow between them could turn bad and ruin them both, she let the pity currently overwhelming her guide her actions.

"OK Martin. You can help if you want to."