Everything to Nothing (8 page)

*

Simon still had
hold of Michelle’s hand which he released as he retrieved the key
to the entrance door of his brother’s apartment block which allowed
entry into the glass fronted hall way. He opened the glass door and
let Michelle enter first and he followed her closing the door
gently behind him. He lightly took her hand and led her up to the
second floor of the block and with another key opened the apartment
door.

Simon flicked
the light switch next to the door and four spotlights lit the room,
all of them directed onto a feature of the room; the first Michelle
noticed was focused onto an elaborate rug, the second a huge
tropical fish tank, the next a large stereo system and the fourth
was trained upon a bar. ‘Nice place.’

‘Yeah, it is.
He is a pilot.’

‘A pilot?’

‘Yep, he got
the brains and I got the nothing!’

‘I don’t think
that is exactly true Simon.’

Simon did not
reply but he made his way further into the apartment. He opened
another door and flicked another light switch. This light
illuminated a large kitchen with a view through the window over the
river.

‘It gets
better! A river view. You’ll have to introduce me to your
brother!’

Simon almost
looked hurt by Michelle’s intended joke and she definitely saw a
brief cloud pass across his face. ‘Materialistic are we?’

‘Only joking
with you,’ and she lightly punched his arm.

‘If I end up
with a place as half as nice as this I’ll be happy.’

‘I’m sure you
will.’

‘You got any
brothers or sisters Michelle?’

‘One younger
brother. He is a nuisance, but quite cute sometimes.’

‘Well be
thankful he is not older than you, or even worse an older sister.
Be thankful you never have to live in their shadow and have your
successes continually compared to an older brother or sister.’

Simon was
talking as he was walking round the kitchen preparing items for the
coffees. He slammed the coffee pot down and turned quickly around
to face Michelle. ‘Be thankful that your every single fucking move
you make, your every decision is not compared to someone else. It
seriously pisses you off!’

He turned away
again and carried making the coffees. Michelle noticed that his
hands were shaking. She moved over to him and placed an arm round
his shoulders. Simon did not move but stopped preparing the coffee,
he leaned onto the sideboard with his hands and his head slumped
down. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have gone off like that. The pressure
that I am under sometimes is immense. I mean, I love him to bits,
but my parents, my parents; they put so much god damn pressure on
me at times.’

Michelle
started to stroke and occasionally patted his shoulder doing her
best to comfort him. He turned towards her and she was surprised to
see that tears were welling up in his eyes. She did not know what
to do, whether to move her hands away or to take a step back
because their bodies were pressing against each other.

‘I’ve never
spoken about this to anyone before. I don’t know why I do so now.
Guess it’s the beer talking a bit.’

‘It is okay.
You can talk to me about anything. It won’t go any further than
me.’

‘I suppose my
mind thought that, subconsciously, and it all just came out in a
flood. For the last ten years, ever since I didn’t get picked to be
captain of the cricket club at the same age as him, I have noticed
this pressure, this ongoing comparison. Gets me down some
times.’

‘It’s okay.
Talk if you need to.’

‘Anyway,
coffee.’

Their eyes
locked together, their bodies still very close together. He tried
to turn round, but she stopped him, tensing the arm that was still
around shoulder, and she leaned slowly towards him, offering her
lips to his. Simon pulled his head away and Michelle took a step
back, obviously annoyed that her offered kiss was refused.

‘No, I’m not
kissing you Michelle. I’m not going to let the physical side of
things destroy what has been a good night. Kisses lead to gropes,
gropes lead to removal of clothes etcetera, etcetera.’

She took the
step back towards him and placed her arms back around him. ‘Trust
me when I say that it would not destroy a good night, it would make
it more perfecter.’

‘Perfecter?’

‘Perfecter. And
also trust me when I say that it will not lead to gropes and it
certainly will not lead to removal of clothes etcetera, etcetera. I
want to be kissed, I want to kiss you. Hell hath no fury like a
woman scorned Simon.’

‘Funny, it is
not the first time tonight I have heard those words.’

She looked at
him puzzled but this expression soon quickly changed as he leaned
towards her with his eyes closed. Their lips touched and the gentle
kiss soon turned into one of more passion. The kiss existed for a
few more moments, Simon briefly exploring Michelle’s mouth with his
tongue until she gently pulled away and smiled a beautiful smile at
him. He smiled back and slowly turned away from her to continue to
make the coffee.

When he had
finished making the coffee he handed a cup to Michelle and led her
into the apartment’s living area. He sat down on a sofa and she sat
next to him, curling her feet up underneath her and leaned against
Simon’s shoulder.

He was slightly
surprised at this show of affection but he wrapped an arm around
her shoulders and slowly, gently stroked her hair. Her eyes slowly
closed as she soaked up his smell and touch, his smell masculine
with a faint touch of his aftershave still lingering on his body.
As he ran his fingers across her head and through her hair, he
could not help noticing how clean and shiny it was, how well looked
after. He then could not help himself scrutinizing the rest of her.
He liked her face, pretty but not strikingly gorgeous like other
women he had dated.

Sometimes when
dating such women he got annoyed when other men kept on looking at
them and even more annoyed when he caught his date looking at the
other men. Simon thought that he would not have the problem with
Michelle and even if a man did look at her in that way he did not
think she would be rude enough to acknowledge it while in Simon’s
presence.

His eyes traced
downwards to her amazing chest. Large, full breasts and he knew
they would also be firm and not bounce around her knees when
released from the constraints of her bra. Then his eyes reached the
most important part of a woman’s body to him; stomach, hips, waist
and bum, the true signs of a good figure and whether the woman
looks after herself. Her stomach, in this curled up position
anyway, bulged a little, but he did not mind that at all. Also, her
hips, waist and bum were in nice proportions, not stick thin like
some of the girls he had dated, a figure that he had since grown to
detest. Michelle was full, voluptuous and womanly. His eyes reached
her legs which were also lovely, just what he looked for in a woman
nowadays, full, long and smooth.

As his eyes
reached the tips of her toes he noticed that she was very lightly
snoring, more like purring almost than snoring. Simon was slightly
amazed that even though she was asleep she was still holding onto
the cup of coffee although it was at an angle that suggested it was
going to be dropped at any second.

Carefully he
removed the cup from her hand and placed onto a table. He then
moved away from her and took her head in his hands and slowly
lowered her body so she lay down on the sofa and her head rested on
a cushion. Simon stood over her for a moment looking at her
sleeping form. Her skirt in the process of her being lowered had
hitched itself very high and he could not help looking at the dark
triangle that lay in between her legs.

His eyes
lingered there for a few more moments and then he cursed himself
and called himself a filthy pervert. He quickly made his way into
one of the bedrooms and removed a duvet off the bed which he then
placed over Michelle. He lent down and kissed her on her cheek and
then went into another of the bedrooms and undressed down to his
underwear. He crawled under the blankets and thought about the
night and how much he had enjoyed it. Slowly, sleep descended upon
him and he feel into a deep slumber and his dreams were full of
Michelle.

Chapter 11

When they were
through in the kitchen Peter took Sarah upstairs and they spent the
rest of the night together experimenting with each other’s bodies.
Peter could not believe how good Sarah was in bed and Sarah thought
the same about Peter.

When the first
line of cocaine started to wear off she asked for another line
which he dutifully prepared for her, happy with her style of paying
for the drug. After she had taken this in the early hours of the
morning they continued with their activities deep into Saturday
morning until eventually exhaustion took a hold of them both and
they fell into a deep sleep.

When Sarah woke
on Saturday afternoon she felt terrible. Peter was still fast
asleep and Sarah thought that she had had a bit more to drink last
night than she thought, hence why she was feeling so ill. She lay
back down hoping to get some more sleep and sleep through the
hangover, but for some reason she felt incredibly restless and she
kept on tossing and turning unable to sleep. She sat up again and
the sudden movement made her feel dizzy and nauseous. The waves of
nausea grew until she could contain them no more and she leaped off
the bed and dashed out onto the landing frantically throwing open
doors until she located the bathroom. She collapsed onto her knees
in front of the toilet and hung her head over it.

Eventually the
waves of nausea subsided and she slowly stood up. She reached for a
glass and filled it with water. As she lifted her head to drink she
kept an eye on her face in a mirror and instantly noticed how red
the inside of her nose looked. She placed the glass down and leaned
closer into the mirror tilting her head so she could look up her
nostrils. She slowly placed a finger up her nose and was surprised
that when she pulled it out it had blood on it. She shook her head
in slight bewilderment, washed her hand and returned to bed. Peter
was still asleep, lightly snoring.

She lay back
down next to him and closed her eyes, desperately wanting to go to
sleep, but her mind was racing and again she felt restless. She was
tempted to wake Peter up but did not think that he would appreciate
it.

As she was
looking over at him her eyes caught the bag of cocaine that was
resting on the bedside table. As she noticed it she felt a rush in
her body and she was surprised to find a longing in her body that
usually only happened when she wanted sex. She shook her head and
lay back down but almost instantly the waves of nausea descended
upon her again and she could not keep still. She closed her eyes,
but all she could see when they were closed was the bag. She
quickly opened her eyes again and leaned up onto one elbow and
looked at the bag again.

Everything was
there that she needed to make herself a line and she remembered how
she felt last night after taking some. She carefully stood up and
slowly made her way to Peter’s side of the bed and picked up the
bag. The mirror and the razor blade were also there. She took them
all out of the bedroom and into the bathroom and locked the door
behind her. She carefully placed the bag on the cistern and scraped
some of the coke onto the mirror and prepared herself a line as she
had seen Peter do.

However, her
small line was in fact a large line as she misjudged how much coke
she was scraping onto the mirror. She realized as the line was
prepared that she had nothing to snort with so she just shrugged
her shoulders and leaned over the cistern and snorted the coke
straight up into her nose.

It was more
than the delicate blood vessels in her nose could take. She
straightened up after taking the drug and she instantly felt a warm
trickle of something wet dripping onto her breasts. She looked over
at the mirror and pouring out of the nostril, into which she had
snorted the line, was blood. She panicked and started to scream and
shout Peter’s name.

Peter woke from
a dream in which he was being chased down a road by a carrot with a
gun to the sounds of shouts and screams coming from the bathroom.
He instantly rolled over and saw that Sarah was not there and as he
quickly sprang to his feet his eyes rested on the bedside table
which had nothing on it. ‘Oh! The stupid bitch!’

He quickly
trotted round the bed and reached the bathroom door. The noise from
inside had subsided and he pressed his ear against the door. All he
could hear was what sounded like sobs. He took a deep breath and
composed himself. He tapped lightly on the door and asked if she
was alright.

‘Yes, yes, I am
fine. There was, erm, a big spider. I hate them.’

‘A spider?
Sarah, where’s the coke?’

‘I don’t know,
you had it last.’

‘It was on the
bedside table. Is it in there with you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Can I come
in?’

‘No! Don't come
in.’

‘Let me in
Sarah. I need to know you are alright.’

‘I am alright!
Just give me a minute.’

Peter shook his
head and looked down at the door handle. He could unlock the door
from the outside but he needed something to turn the lock. He
quickly returned to the bedroom and got a coin out of his copper
jar and then returned to the bathroom door. Using the coin he
turned the lock and slowly, quietly opened the door.

Sarah was stood
at the sink with her head tilted far back. Peter, in the reflection
of the mirror, saw that she has splatters of blood on her chest and
that her nose was still bleeding. He watched her for a few more
moments until Sarah caught his reflection in the mirror.