boag_patience-6

PATIENCE by Boag <<< part 5

PART 6

Richey and Nicky sat at the table fine tuning some lyrics whilst Sean watched sport on TV. Every so often Sean issued an update to Nicky.
“C’mon Wire concentrate!”
“Alright alright…I’d find it easier to concentrate if Wales were winning”
“Fuck Wales, we never win anything, don’t you ever learn?”

The lyrics were progressing so rapidly that they were going to start recording a few days earlier than expected. Richey was looking forward to getting stuck into the artwork whilst the rest of the band created the music. He was feeling more positive about the band and himself than he had done for a while “maybe” he thought “I just needed a little break, some time away”.

James returned from his lengthy phone call with Emma smiling from ear to ear. Richey looked up and groaned internally, he was well and truly sick and tired of hearing about each and every little thing going on in heir universe “people in love are so boring!” he silently thought. Everyone was staring at James, finally Nicky said something.
“So?”
“I’m getting married! I asked Emma over the phone a minute ago and she said yes!”

Richey felt like James had walked up to him and kicked him in the chest, it was as if all the air had been sucked out of his chest and he was struggling to breath. He dropped his pen and stared into space, James had destroyed him totally and utterly. The positive feelings of a few moments ago were like shards of a broken time “how foolish I was to think that could last” he said to himself.

“Congratulations” Nicky screamed as he kicked his chair out from beneath and ran to James, they threw their arms around each other and embraced. When they released each other Nicky was openly crying and James too had a tear streaked face. Sean got up and walked slowly to his cousin, he held out his hand and shook James’ before pulling him close and saying “good on ya!”
Richey was the only one who didn’t openly react instead he transformed soundlessly. A screen descended over his face like dusk had fallen through him, his eyes drained and became empty and his thoughts burned black. His heart and his soul were shattered, he was broken.

James knew he had to speak delicately to Richey, he wasn’t afraid of the abuse he suspected would follow this news but he was worried that the injury he had dealt his former lover might prove too devastating. Simply put, he wanted Richey to know that there was still love between them even if it wasn’t all that he wanted.
“So Richey what do you think?” James asked in as neutral a tone as possible.
It took Richey a full two minutes to formulate his answer. “I’m pleased for you” Richey forced out in a voice so devoid of sensation it terrified those who heard it.

Instead of hearing what Richey had actually said, the lie he had breathed for his lovers sake, he heard the voice that spoke it, the shapeless and pitiful sound that emerged from Richey. In his fear he reacted as only he knew how.
“Yeah you really sound it”
“What do you want me to say? I told you I’m pleased for you and I am”
“James, you know how phobic Richey is of relationships, he’s probably afraid he might be next!”
“She has noticed how you act towards her Richey, she knows you avoid her and that if you do bother to speak to her it’s only out of some vague notion of politeness”
“I don’t really know what you having a go at me about, I am polite to her as I to Rachel and Rhian, she is your woman it would be inappropriate for me to be over familiar”
“It’s inappropriate for you to be so cold!”
“I don’t really have much to say to her, I don’t talk to Rhian or Rachel much either”
“But you are warm and friendly to them”
“I hugged Emma last time I saw!”
“Yeah she could tell you really meant it too”
“If she has such a problem with me why haven’t you said so sooner?”

James didn’t have an answer. Emma had spoken to him about Richey’s behaviour months ago but the fact he was even polite to her and hugged her was a shear miracle in his mind, he wasn’t going to push it by confronting Richey and risking him turning on her. James could take the abuse but he wanted to avoid putting her directly in Richey’s line of fire as long as possible but he knew I would happen eventually.

“You know I am trying to concentrate on finishing these lyrics for the album we start recording in a few days You do remember the album we’re about to start recording don’t you? Unlike you this is my life, this is all I have”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? Do you think that by getting married I’m somehow betraying the band? Nicky is married, Sean is virtually married!”
“No I’m bloody not! I am in a long-term relationship, it’s completely different”
“Oh shut up!”
“No I don’t mean you’re betraying the band, I just mean that I was busy before you decided to question my sincerity”
“I’m questioning your sincerity because you are so insincere!”
“Nothing is ever enough for you is it!”
“Whoah! This is supposed to be happy news, why are you pair fighting like this?” Nicky was astonished at the vile exchange occurring before his eyes. Richey and James were the kindest people he knew but when it came to dealing with each other a part of them came out that he just could not accept lived within them.

“Get used to it James, this is what married life is like”
“WILL YOU SHUT UP!” James screamed at Sean before he walked out cursing under his breath. Sean followed him and Nicky sat down next to Richey.
“Richey I think I’m starting to see what’s going on between you and James, you’re in…”
Richey cut him off with a rapidly procured lie of epic proportions, he knew James would thank him for it rather than being angry, he was protecting their secret with no consideration of the cost.

“I love Emma”
“What?!”
“I love her, I want her, he knows it, that’s why we fight all the time”
“But…”
“I met her at the gig first, we talked a bit and seemed to it off, I left to get a drink and see you, James stepped in and she went back to the hotel with him…and it’s not he first time he’s stolen a woman off me, there was someone in Blackwood too”
“That explains everything! Well everything except the mans touch comment”
“I don’t trust women anymore, I’ve been sleeping with men, it keeps my mind off her, that’s why I wanted to feel you touch me, being touched by another man is so different, feminine qualities have started to…repulse me”

Richey couldn’t help but smile inside at the success of his last minute deception, it had been genius, Nicky now believed he knew what was happening between them and everything had slotted into place nicely. Although he didn’t want to discuss anything with James he knew he would have to tell him about the untruth just to keep it going. Of course the plan wasn’t without holes, what if Emma discovered the lie through Nicky telling Rachel and Rachel telling Emma or Sean telling Rhian and Rhian telling Emma. Girlfriends and wives talk, he would have to instruct Nicky this could go no further.

“You can’t talk to anyone outside the band about this Nicky, not Rachel especially”
“No I won’t, you know you can trust me don’t you”
“Yes I do…I know you’ll understand why no-one can know, Emma mustn’t know how I feel about her, the consequences are too terrible to contemplate”
“It would rip everything apart…James would never forgive you”
“Exactly”
The conversation ended and Richey knew he had to get to James before Nicky.
“I need to talk to James, this needs to be smoothed over”

He left and ascended the staircase. He heard James and Sean talking in James room and gently tapped on the door. They stopped abruptly and turned to see who it was, neither could hide their surprise when it was Richey who poked his head round the door.
“Sean me and James need to talk, do you mind?”
Sean looked to James for approval, James nodded and Sean left the room closing the door behind him. Richey sat down on James bed and went to begin but was cut-off by James.
“That was a hell of a performance down there” The vitriol in James voice came trough as he spat the words at Richey not bothering to conceal his contempt.

“I’ve not come to talk about that James, I’ve got something to tell you”
“oh yeah?”
“A little while ago me and Nicky went shopping, long story short, I came onto Nicky in Topshops changing rooms, obviously he refused and then the questions started, I cracked”
“You bloody fool!”
“Will you wait and just listen?!”
“I didn’t tell him much but something I said made him remember something else I’d said, I’d told him that stuff had happened between us that neither him nor Sean could understand and appreciate and that they shouldn’t ask what it was because we couldn’t answer them, I said it was personal and they were to respect our privacy. Then I told Nicky that I’d just wanted to feel a man’s touch again. After our little outburst downstairs he had figured it out, he was just about to say it when I cut him off”
“oh fucking hell, this just gets better!”

“No it does, I told him I’m in love with Emma and that me and her spoke at the gig before you and her did but you’d jumped into my spot when I left to get drinks, I also told him that this isn’t he first time you’ve stolen a woman off me…he believed every word James!”
“Thank God, at least you’ve put right the mess you nearly made!”
“I did it to protect us”
“There is no us, not anymore”
“No I guess not…but once upon time there was and I want to protect that time”
“What happens now?”
“I don’t know…James hold me one last time, I’m scared and I don’t know what’s going to happen”
James complied and let Richey rest his head on his shoulder as he slipped his arms around him.
“I think there’s something else I want to do with you one last time”

Richey couldn’t accept what he heard James say, after everything that had happened already that day he was willing to go to bed with him for old times sake? He felt as far away from sexy and aroused as it was possible to feel but there was no way on earth he was going to miss this opportunity to imprint himself on James, the only hope he had left was that by doing this he would somehow reawaken James’s desire for him and surely it had to say something about his relationship with Emma if he was willing to cheat on her.

part 7 >>>

<<< Boag's stories