“Right,
well I’m going to go and get changed I think.” Chloe said.
“Okay.”
Paul replied.
He
was pretty sure that he’d managed to put Chloe’s mind at rest about Mark. He
felt really bad lying to her though, and throughout the conversation he had
become increasingly angry with Mark. Lately he seemed to be hurting everyone;
he’d managed to piss Chris off yesterday by being thoughtless when he was only
trying to help, he’d made Chloe so confused that she’d convinced herself that
he hated her, he was being disloyal to Ben, and making Paul lie to cover his
back. Yep, that was about all of them. Paul was frankly fed up of giving him
the benefit of the doubt, even pitying him, when in reality, everything bad
going on at the moment was his fault. He needed sorting out, and sooner rather
than later.
“I’ll
see you later then.” Chloe turned to go. “Oh, and Paul?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
She said, smiling warmly at him.
“Any
time. Really, I mean that.” Paul managed to smile back even though by now he was
fuming with anger and resentment.
Chloe
left the kitchen and Paul set off in search of Mark. He found him standing in
the dining room by the big window.
“What
the hell do you think you’re doing?” Paul said, trying not to shout.
Mark
turned round wearily. “What?”
Paul
was taken aback for a few seconds by how tired Mark looked.
“You
can’t treat people like that.”
He
really was no good at being angry.
“Paul,
I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mark said, as if he had much bigger
things to worry about. Which was fair enough, but thinking about how upset
Chloe was brought all the anger back to Paul.
“Chloe.
I’ve just spent the last half an hour trying to convince her that you don’t
hate her.”
“What?”
Mark asked, suddenly looking concerned. “I don’t hate her.”
“I
know you don’t.” Paul said.
That’s the whole problem isn’t it?
“But
she’s so confused about the way you’ve been treating her lately that she’s
convinced you do.”
“The
way I’ve been treating her? But I’ve hardly even spoken to her.” Mark said.
“That’s
the whole point!” Paul exclaimed. He was getting frustrated now. “She’s not
stupid you know, she has noticed something’s wrong. I know you’re feeling a bit
mixed up at the moment, god, don’t I know it…”
Paul
didn’t have a chance to finish.
“What’s
that supposed to mean?”
Paul
could see Mark was getting angry too.
“You’ve
been taking it out on everybody when it’s not even our fault!”
“No
I haven’t.”
“Oh
so being insensitive and thoughtless doesn’t count then? You’re either ignoring
us, moaning to us or insulting us and I for one am totally fed up of it.”
“You’re
meant to be my friend Paul. I thought you’d understand. I wish I hadn’t told
you now.” Mark said.
“So
do I! I’d be much happier if I didn’t know every single little detail of this
stupid affair in your head!”
That
must have hurt, as Mark didn’t reply straight away. Well good, so it should.
“I
don’t know why I even bother talking to you sometimes.” He said finally.
“Well
I’m surprised you even get a chance coz all I seem to be doing recently is moping
up the emotional mess you seem to leave everywhere you go.”
“This
is about Chloe again isn’t it?” Mark asked, seemingly needlessly.
“Isn’t
everything?!” Paul said exasperatedly.
“No,
I mean just now, the conversation you had with her. This isn’t about anyone
else at all. Have you got a thing for her or something?”
Paul
couldn’t believe his ears!
“Don’t
make me laugh, you’re the “emotionally troubled” one remember? I’m just trying
to protect her, and everyone else,” he said pointedly. “from the damage you
have it in your power to cause. She doesn’t understand what’s going on, you
can’t keep doing this to her. It’s not fair.”
“I’m
not doing it on purpose. I don’t want to hurt her.”
“It’s
a bit late for that. You know, if you were a bit nicer to her, you might stand
a chance.”
“I
don’t want that.”
“Well
what do you want? Coz excuse me if I’m wrong here, but isn’t the whole point of
this that you do want her?”
“No!
I don’t know.” Mark said unhappily.
“Look,
I don’t want to hear your tragic explanations of how hard it is for you, I just
want you to sort this out.”
“You
have no idea what I’m going through…”
“No,
and what’s more, I don’t care! I don’t know who I’m meant to tell what about
you and I’m not going to keep lying for you. Especially not to Ben. Do you have
any idea how I feel lying to one of my best friends? No, you haven’t even
considered it have you? Too busy wrapped up in your own pathetic problems.”
Paul said cuttingly.
“That’s
not fair.”
“Don’t
you tell me what is and what isn’t fair. Are you saying what you’re doing to
everyone close to you is fair?”
“I
know it’s not fair…”
“No,
you don’t! You’re just one hundred percent selfish. You don’t care about anyone
else, least of all Chloe.”
Mark
looked shocked. “You know how I feel about Chloe.”
“But
do you really feel like that or is it something you deliberately started to get
over Joanne?” Paul asked.
“This
has nothing to do with Joanne.”
“Of
course it has! It has everything to do with Joanne! If you hadn’t split up with
her when you did, do you really think we’d be having this conversation now?”
Mark
didn’t reply.
“Well
do you?!”
“Paul,
I don’t want to argue with you over this…” Mark said calmly.
“So
don’t. Walk away like you always do. Go and pretend it’s not happening.”
“You
know, I could really do without this right now…”
“Oh
I’m sorry, I forgot, you have “problems”. Well guess what? So does everyone
else. Every single person in the whole world has problems, but you’re the only
one who feels theirs is so much more terrible than everyone else’s that you
have an excuse for the way you’re behaving. Well I’m sorry but I don’t agree
with your twisted logic. So I suggest you either go and sort it out right now
or just shut up about it, coz I don’t wanna hear about it any more!”
“You
don’t get it do you?” Mark started.
“No
I don’t…”
“For
god’s sake, just let me finish will you?! I can’t sort it out because whatever
I do, someone always ends up getting hurt. I try to keep my distance because I
think it’s the best solution, but it turns out it’s upsetting Chloe so what do
you suggest? Coz I’m pretty sure Ben wouldn’t be too pleased if I turned the
tables and started being all over her.”
“What
I don’t understand is how you can be so bloody arrogant that you automatically
assume that she feels the same way! Has it even occurred to you that she might
be totally happy with Ben and hardly ever thinks about you? Coz I hate to burst
that little bubble you seem to be living in at the moment, but not every girl
in the world worships the ground you walk on and would die for an opportunity
to get with you. Joanne certainly didn’t.” Paul added under his breath.
Apparently
not subtly enough.
“Why
do you always have to bring her into things? She’s in the past Paul, what are
you trying to do to me?!”
“Make
you see sense!”
“I
can see sense. I know this is wrong. I think about it every single second of
every day but I don’t know what to do about it! And of course it’s crossed my
mind she doesn’t feel the same way, I know she probably doesn’t, but I can’t
help how I feel. So please just stop arguing for arguments sake and get off my
back!”
When
he came to, Chris found himself in a glass bottle with miniature frogs chewing
at his toes. He tried to cry out for help but unfortunately, his mouth had been
removed and in its place was a golf ball, which was of absolutely no use to
Chris whatsoever seeing as he didn’t know how to play golf. He tried to send
his S.O.S message telepathically but as he wasn’t actually telepathic, that
didn’t work either. What he really needed now was a cosmic spaceman. Suddenly,
a fat man dressed in authentic cowboy gear appeared at his side.
“Hi
I’m Bob and I’ll be your cosmic spaceman for today.” He said, shaking Chris’s
hand firmly.
Chris
was about to ask him if he knew the way out when he said,
“I’m
afraid you’ve been declared criminally insane. We’re going to have to hang you
up by your flugles and beat you senseless with wooden spoons.”
Bob
gestured to the small army of tortoises behind him fiercely gripping pink
wooden spoons. As they started to advance towards him, Chris heard a heavenly
voice calling his name. Was it an angel? Chris looked up to the neck of the
bottle. The mists cleared and he saw… Ben? What was he doing here? That wasn’t
his voice. Chris was confused.
“Can
you get me out?” he shouted up to him, but Ben didn’t reply. He just kept
staring at Chris. He heard the voice again, louder this time.
“Chris?
Can you hear me?”
Chris
could, but he didn’t seem to be able to tell anyone that. This was definitely
not good. He looked to his left. The tortoises had changed into flying pandas
but they didn’t seem to be getting any closer so that was alright. Time was
running out though he noticed from the countdown clock on the wall. Soon the
hand would get to the number of oblivion and who know what would happen then!
Then
suddenly, without any warning, the bottle filled with water and Chris was
sitting in Ben’s front room.
What? Why am I…? Oh, it was a dream! But why am I wet?
Before
he had time to contemplate that fact any further, Chris noticed Chloe and Ben
standing by his chair, staring at him.
“Are
you alright?” Chloe asked with a smile.
“Yeah,
I just had the strangest dream. Did you tip water on me?” Chris asked, still
feeling slightly bemused.
“Yeah
she did, isn’t she horrible?” Ben said.
Chloe
gasped. “I did not, it was you! Don’t listen to him Chris, he’s a liar!” she
said, pushing Ben away playfully.
“Okay,
but why?” Chris asked.
“Well
I was trying to wake you up nicely, but you wouldn’t wake up so he got a cup of
water and threw it over you. I did try to stop him but you know what he’s
like!” Chloe explained.
“What’s
that supposed to mean?” Ben asked in mock shock.
“Nothing!”
Chloe said mysteriously.
Chris
laughed. “You two! You’re like little children!”
“She
started it!” accused Ben.
“You
know you love me really!” Chloe said as Ben hugged her.
“I
really do.” Ben said, kissing her.
Yuk. Just what you want to see first thing in the
morning when you’ve got a hangover. Chris thought.
“So,
tell us about your dream then.” Chloe said.
“It
was a bit muddled, I can’t remember most of it but there was definitely…”
Chris
was interrupted by a loud clatter and a bang from the dining room.
“What
the hell was that?” Ben said, letting go of Chloe.
The
three of them made their way over to the dining room doors. Opening them, Chris
saw something he never thought he’d see. Mark was lying on the floor, slumped
against the wall, holding his eye. A small table was on its side, which must
have been what made the clattering noise. Paul was standing just right of the
doors looking incredibly angry. Angrier than Chris had ever seen him look, in
fact. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together and work out what had
happened: Paul must have hit Mark. Something really bad must have happened
though; they usually got on so well.
“What’s
going on?!” Ben asked.
As
soon as Ben said that, Chris realised he knew the answer. He remembered what
Paul had said about Mark yesterday at the shoot. Chris thought he’d calmed
down, but he should have noticed how angry he really was. The more he thought
about it, the more convinced he became. It had to be about Chloe. What else
would they argue about? Chris still couldn’t believe Paul would actually hit
Mark though. He wasn’t like that.
“Well?
Are you gonna tell me why you felt the need to fight in my flat?” Ben asked
seriously. “Or why you felt the need to fight at all! This isn’t like either of
you. I wanna know what’s going on.”
Chris
was pretty sure Ben actually really wouldn’t want to know what was going on.
Mark
said nothing but started to get up off the floor.
“Paul?
Do you wanna tell me why you just hit one of your friends?” Ben persisted.
No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no
no no no. Don’t say anything. This is not a good time to tell Ben. Chris pleased silently.
Paul
looked from Ben to Mark, obviously still furious.
“I’ll
tell him.” He threatened.
Oh no.
“Well
maybe you should because the way I’m feeling right now, I honestly don’t care.”
Mark said, now standing opposite him.
Okay,
this was getting dangerous.
“What
are you talking about?” Ben asked.
Not
a good question.
“I
think maybe everyone needs to calm down a bit.” Chris said.
“Don’t
tell me to calm down!” Paul started.
Chris
shot him a look.
“It’s
okay, I’ll sort it out.” He said to Ben. “Why don’t you and Chloe… um... go…
somewhere else.”
There
were undoubtedly a million better ways he could have said that, but he was so
desperate to get both of them out of there before Paul said something stupid,
he couldn’t think of any. Ben looked a bit hesitant but agreed anyway, and him
and Chloe left the room. Chris thought about Chloe’s reaction to the fight.
She’d looked really worried and… guilty. She couldn’t know could she? No, Mark
would have said. Unless he didn’t know that she knew. Was it possible she could
have worked it out on her own?