Dream Guy (12 page)

Joe struggled to understand Nell. A frog sprang from the pool and plopped onto the wooden deck. As the sun hit its back, it shriveled and blackened until there was only a faint scorch mark on the wooden decking. Joe ran for the French window, ran for the shower, leaving Nell behind.

In the shower, Joe curled himself into a ball, letting the water bounce off his back and skull. He kept his eyes tightly closed and tried to remember his room at home, the light over the desk, the bed, the walls, the trousers lying in a heap in the corner, the book bag he had just upended underneath the drawing table. He dragged himself back into the room, reaching high above his head and trying to haul himself up first by the fingertips, then by the hands, until he managed to get one elbow back into his own room. Then he felt the hand on his foot. He tried to shake it off, but the grip was firm, and he heard Smokey’s voice protesting strenuously.

“No way, man. There’s no way I’m going back, which means you can’t go back either. Come on, Joe, just a couple more days. This has been the best holiday I’ve ever had. I’ve found some really great stuff. You’ve got to try it.”

Joe kicked, but Smokey was stronger and now had him by the waist, pulling him back from his room and back into the shower stall, back into the villa and the sunlight—and the frogs. Joe fought back in earnest, prying away Smokey’s hands and lashing out at him with fists, legs, feet.

He scrambled up and with a final lunge, tumbled onto the floor and lay there panting. It was dark.

The light came on and Ben was there.

“Joe, what the hell is going on? You’ve been yelling your head off about frogs.”

Joe looked around his room. His duvet was crumpled and he was wearing swimming trunks. His hair was wet, but the rest of him was dry. Ben knelt beside him and put a hand on his forehead. Joe tried to knock it away, but Ben was stronger.

“You’re burning up, kiddo. I’m going to get Mum.”

Joe sat on the floor, still dazed. He didn’t ever want to see Smokey again, but he had to know if Nell was safe at home. He stood, but wobbled and sat abruptly back down on the floor. Sue Knightley came in. Like Ben, she held her hand to his forehead.

“Baby, you’re sick. You’ve got to get back into bed.” She hadn’t called him baby in years. She tried to coax him off the floor and under his duvet, but Joe broke away from her and headed for the door.

“I can’t, I’ve got to find Nell. You’ve got to let me find her.”

Ben blocked his path and his mother clutched at his arm and held him back. He wanted to shake them both off, get rid of them.

Sue Knightley whispered urgently, “Joe, it’s nearly two o’clock in the morning. Nell will be safely tucked up in bed, where you should be.” Joe saw her glance over at Ben. “Check my bathroom cabinet. There’s some ibuprofen in there. Hopefully it will sort out this fever, at least until the morning.”

Ben watched as his mother propelled Joe back to bed, shook out his duvet, covered him up and sat beside him, stroking his forehead just as she had done when he’d had chickenpox. He began shivering. She tucked the duvet in close around his body and rubbed his arms. Ben went to get the pills and a glass of water.

They managed to get two Nurofen down him. He kept muttering about Nell and the frogs, but his murmurs were increasingly slurred and subdued. He still shivered periodically.

Mrs. Knightley looked up at Ben, leaning on the wall near the head of Joe’s bed. He pushed himself away from the wall and helped her to her feet.

“I’ll stay with him, Mum. You try to get some sleep. If he’s still like this tomorrow, I’ll stay at home with him. I’ve only got one double lesson, and I can easily catch up. Zahid will get the notes for me.”

His mother brought up Ben’s bedding. Together, without speaking, they unrolled the single futon so it lay alongside Joe’s bed. Then they shook out the sheet and duvet. Joe was still restless and shuddering.

“He’ll need to go to the doctor, if he’s not back to normal.” She seemed to shrink before Ben’s eyes. He reached out and drew her into his great bear hug. Her head barely reached his shoulder now. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head and eased her out of the door.

“Try to get some sleep. We’ll work out what to do in the morning.” He waited, listening, as she took each step down to her own room. Then he switched off the light before stumbling onto the mattress on the floor where he lay, listening to Joe and watching the minutes glowing past on the clock radio.

Chapter Ten

Gear

The sun woke Joe, not the alarm. He lay there watching it stream through the Velux window and thinking it must be really late. He sat upright and saw the bundled form of Ben on the floor, curled up on the futon. They were both meant to be in school. Friday was double biology followed by triple art. He leaned down and shook Ben’s shoulder.

“Wake up! Wake up. We’re late again, Elphick’s going to kill me.”

Ben pushed an ineffectual hand at Joe then tried burrowing deeper under the duvet, but when Joe wouldn’t stop jiggling his shoulder, he emerged, his normally immaculate hair wildly askew, his eyes bleary and his face puffy.

“Mum rang us in sick. You’re not going anywhere today, and I’m keeping an eye on you.”

Joe leaped out of bed then stopped as he looked down and saw he was wearing his swimming trunks. “Why?” He pointed.

Ben shook his head. “You tell me.”

“I’ve got to see if Nell’s okay.”

“Nell?”

“Yes. Nell Brennan. Something happened last night, and she might have been affected.”

“What happened? You haven’t been anywhere, Joe. You went to bed really early. The next thing we knew, you were yelling your head off about frogs, and you were so hot we could have fried eggs on you. What happened?” Ben was standing with his hands on his hips in a spooky echo of their mother.

Joe ignored Ben and headed for the shower. By the time he’d come out, he could hear the shower going in the downstairs bathroom, which meant that Ben was getting ready too. He threw on his clothes and rummaged around his bag for his notebook. At the back was a list of phone numbers. He did have one for Nell. She’d had a mobile since she started secondary school. He went downstairs to the kitchen and phoned the number, but he only reached the answerphone.

“Nell, call me to let me know you’re okay.”

He glanced around the room. It was nearly ten, which meant he’d have to wait an hour until break time, then, maybe, she’d turn her phone on. Unlike other girls, Nell would absolutely never keep her phone on during lessons, perhaps because she knew that scarcely anyone would call her. She wasn’t exactly Miss Popular.

Ben came into the kitchen and insisted on checking Joe’s temperature. It was still high, although Joe could feel nothing but a surge of energy that demanded an outlet. He felt as if he could run the two and three-quarter miles to school then do sixty press-ups. Ben somehow persuaded him to sit down and have some juice, but Joe could not keep still. His legs jiggled, his fingers drummed and his toes tapped. Ben brought more ibuprofen and stood over his brother until he’d swallowed the pills.

The medicine did slow Joe down. The brothers sat at opposite ends of the sofa, Ben holding the remote, the television blaring daytime nonsense that neither really registered. After the juice and pills, the energy drained out of Joe. His head sank lower and lower until it was resting on the arm of the sofa and his eyes closed again.

Ben watched until he was sure his brother was asleep then fetched a blanket.

Before draping it over Joe, he stretched out his brother’s limbs and checked his forehead again. It was damp with sweat and his pulse was thrumming, but Joe was in a deep sleep. Ben remembered some platitude about sleep being the best cure for a sickness, and he hoped it was true. He covered Joe up, then fetched some books and settled in an armchair, trying to make notes for his next history essay.

The phone rang at ten-forty. It did not rouse Joe. Ben caught it on the second ring, hoping it would be their mother. A hesitant voice spoke.

“Hello?”

“Knightley residence. How can I help you?”

“Is that Ben?”

“Yes. Who’s this?”

“Nell Brennan. You probably don’t remember me, but I used to be a friend of Joe’s.”

Ben sighed. “Don’t be daft, Nell, of course I know who you are. What’s up?”

“How’s Joe?”

“He’s running a high temperature, but I reckon he’ll survive.”

“Would it be possible to see him? Could I call around this afternoon? I’ve got something of his. I think he may need it.”

Although it sounded a bit weird, Ben remembered how insistent Joe had been about wanting to speak to Nell, needing to know that she was okay. He watched Joe steadily for the next two hours, but when the phone rang again, Joe woke up, his face flushed and ridged where he’d been lying against the sofa fabric.

Ben spoke quietly. “Joe has been asleep since around ten. The temperature seems to be coming down, and it’s a really deep sleep, so I think he may be on the mend.” Joe stirred, causing Ben to turn around. “He’s just woken up. I’ll get him some lunch, then he can ring you himself.” After a little more nodding and hemming and “yeah, right,” Ben put the phone down and asked Joe how he felt.

Ben watched carefully as Joe woozily put his feet to the floor, rocking a little as he sat up.

Then Joe asked him, “Who was that on the phone?”

“Mum. You gave us quite a fright last night. Are you feeling better?”

“I don’t know.” Joe sat with his head in his hands for a few moments, then he stood up. He moved slowly toward the door.

“Can I help you?” Ben offered.

“I’m just going to the loo. I feel really odd still. My head’s all furry on the inside.”

It took Joe a little time to come back, and he shuffled as if he needed a hip replacement. He clambered onto the sofa without Ben’s help, but he lay down immediately and reached for the blanket. Ben went over and shook it out, then felt Joe’s forehead again.

“It’s definitely coming down, but you’re still pretty hot.”

“Did anyone else call?”

“Yup. Nell Brennan. She’s coming around after school.” Ben waited, but Joe scarcely reacted, just whispering something about ‘Nell’ and ‘a relief’ before falling back asleep. Ben rang his mother to tell her the latest then settled down again for another bout of reading. Now that Joe seemed to be calmer and cooler, it was actually quite pleasant to sit there quietly doing some work and chilling out. It was the first time in ages that Joe hadn’t fled at the sight of him. Of course, it would have been better if he were choosing to be with Ben while fully conscious, but it was perhaps a start to rebuilding their relationship.

It hadn’t occurred to Ben that anyone in the family would freak when he brought his first boyfriend home. He had felt confident that neither of his parents would be judgmental or horrified that their son might be gay. He had simply assumed that his brother and sister would feel the same, and Liesel had been fine about it. Of course, Joe had heard about it in less than ideal circumstances. It had been unfortunate that Charlie Meek had seen Ben kiss Zahid goodbye on the High Street as he caught the night bus home after an evening at the Honey Club.

Ben glanced at Joe and returned to his books. When the doorbell chimed a while later, he jumped. The tumbling books roused Joe, but he was too dopey to do more than raise his head.

Nell Brennan was standing on the doorstep, her uniform neat, her backpack immaculate and a large carrier bag in her left hand.

“This is for Joe.”

“Come in for a cup of tea. I know that Joe wants to see you, Nell.”

“I should be getting home.”

“Are you looking after Kieran?”

“No, he’s with his childminder. I’m still too young. I can’t be left in charge until next year.”

“So what’s the hurry?”

Nell looked over Ben’s shoulder. Ben turned to see what had caught her eye. There was Joe, rumpled and looking a little confused, wearing his customary black long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans. He seemed to have grown during the day. Ben clocked that they were nearly the same height now. He stood aside, and Joe stepped forward.

“Are you okay, Nell?” asked Joe. “Please come in.”

She shrugged off her backpack and squeezed into the hallway past Ben and Joe.

There was an awkward pause as they all went into the kitchen and Ben made tea, but then he muttered about getting back to his books and went off to the living room. Joe waited until he heard the door closing.

“I’m really sorry.”

“Not half as sorry as you’re going to be.” Nell’s grimace was wry. “Smokey’s selling something he brought back with him. And he’s told a couple of people how he got it. They thought he was bonkers, so he gave up talking about it, but I thought you should know.”

“What did he bring back?”

“I think it’s coke. He offered some to a girl in my tutor group. He’s being a complete div. He’s virtually doing it under the teachers’ noses. He’ll get caught in a day or two. But if he starts talking and brings you and me into it, I don’t know how either of us are going to explain it.” Nell sipped at her tea.

“You’re really calm about all this.”

“You’ve gotten me home safely twice now.” She reached down for her carrier bag and handed it over. “Here’s your rug. But in return, I want a full explanation. Time got all warped in Sardinia. It was like we’d been there forever, then like no time at all. I didn’t see you. But I woke up in the same room at least three times. You were never there. Smokey was never there, I was all alone in this villa with a load of books and some music. It was like a slice of heaven. Then I’m standing in front of you wearing Beyoncé Knowles’ wardrobe and giving you some sort of warning.”

“You said that Smokey was bringing weird people to the villa. If you were in your room the whole time, how did you know that?”