So Much to Learn (53 page)

His time-out
hadn't seemed to calm him any as he was still wearing the sour
expression he'd had when he'd left earlier. We glared at each
other, making it clear that hostilities had not been ceased, but
both of us kept our traps shut for Simone's sake.

They sat
together once more on the couch, their hands firmly entwined.

"I just wanted
your help in explaining the Alex situation," Simone said as Micky
continued to glower.

"Are you sure
you should be telling her?" He asked, jerking his head in my
direction as if Simone wouldn't be able to figure out who he was
talking about.

Simone's face
fell briefly but then she rallied saying firmly, "Yes, I want her
to know everything."

Clearly unable
to see a way out of it without properly arguing with her Micky
grunted and sat back, presumably indicating to Simone that she
should start off the story.

"So what
happened was," Simone seemed to have totally perked up since Micky
had joined us once more. It was actually pretty sickening. "About a
week and a half ago Micky was waiting outside here," she pointed to
her front door to show where she meant, "for me to come home. He
turned up like that quite a lot over the weeks but I'd managed to
use the back door to avoid him or just driven away again if I
turned up and saw him waiting for me."

I smirked at
Micky as she said this, amusing myself with images of him sitting
there lovelorn and pining for his lady love. He, predictably,
scowled in return.

"But I had
already planned to meet up with Sam that evening so I wasn't due
home for ages yet."

My smile
widened, if she said it was the day that it was pissing down with
rain I knew I would enjoy this story even more. Unfortunately she
didn't, choosing instead to look at Micky expectantly so that he
sighed and opened his mouth to continue the story.

"It's not quite
as pathetic as it sounds," he drawled, obviously annoyed by my
enjoyment at his past pathetic episodes. "This place was on my way
home from work and I just dropped by to see if she was in, I was
here less than five minutes."

"Sure," I said
sarcastically, but I dropped my attitude at a quick glare from
Simone. I did, after all, want to hear the end of the story.

"Anyway, I was
sitting on the step and this girl suddenly appeared from behind the
bushes around the car park and ran over. She asked me if I lived in
the flat which was obviously a bloody stupid question because if I
lived here I would've just let myself in, wouldn't I? But before I
could tell her this she asked if Alex lived here. Now I knew that
he had something going on with him but nobody had said that I
shouldn't say where he was living so I told her yes and the stupid
girl burst into tears.

"Well meeting
you for the first time can come as a bit of a shock to people," I
said before I could stop myself.

"Oh, yes, well
done, you're so damn witty," Micky snapped back, but he obviously
just wanted to get the story over with as soon as possible so he
limited himself to that comment and then continued. "So I told her
either to tell me what was wrong or bugger off and she started to
sob out all this stuff about how it hadn't been Alex's fault, that
he'd only been protecting her and so it took me ages to figure out
what she was talking about."

Simone clearly
couldn't take the suspense any more as she butted in and took over
the narration from that point. "But what she was trying to say was
that although Alex had been involved with that kid falling down the
fire escape it had been an accident. You see apparently Alex and
this girl had something going on together, completely platonic of
course..."

When I raised
my eyebrows at this Simone met my eyes in perfect agreement. "Yeah,
that's what they said, but although they both swear there's nothing
going on beyond friendship, it seems like more to me. Anyway,
they’ve kept it a bit of a secret because her and Alex don't
exactly move in the same circles, if you know what I mean."

No, I didn't
really know what she meant and so, clearly with great delight on
what she was about to impart Simone clarified, "The girl is Grace
Andrews!"

"No way!" Now
she really had my attention. The Andrews’ were the rulers of
Bridunna, Mr Andrews was the mayor and owned the largest and most
successful farm for kilometres around and his wife was the biggest
bitch and gossip in the Southern hemisphere. The Andrews’ have
never really got along with my parents, still regarding them as
outsiders despite the fact that they had lived there since before
Matt was born. In Bridunna, however, if you're not at least a third
generation resident you're considered an outsider. Also, as with
many people in the town, the Andrews’ thought that me, my brother
and his best friend were stuck up little upstarts to leave Bridunna
to go to university. Needless to say they got along just fine with
Jack's dad.

I didn't know
much about Grace Andrews except that, even at fourteen, which was
how old she’d been when I left, she was stunningly beautiful and
watched like a hawk by her family. The only clear image I had of
her was her walking quietly through town being completely dominated
by her bully boyfriend and bitchy friends. I'd written her off as
some pathetic girl, but as learning about Haley and now Sam had
taught me, you can never judge a book by its cover. Unless the book
has a picture of Micky on the front of it in which case you throw
it away without even bothering to open it.

I whistled
softly and then laughed, "Onya Alex! How did he manage to get in
with Grace Andrews?"

Simone smiled
slightly too. "She goes to that snooty private school Mum and Dad
sent him to and, I don't know, somehow they got to talking and
found something in each other that they liked."

Not unlike you
and Micky then, I thought to myself. Goodness but the world truly
was full of completely mismatched couples.

"So how was
Alex protecting Grace?" I asked, getting back to the story in hand,
"Was the guy who ended up in hospital attacking her or
something?"

Simone nodded.
"But he wasn't just some guy, he was her boyfriend. It turns out
that he'd practically dragged her up the fire escape to…you
know…"

"Have his
wicked way with her?" I supplied in disgust and Simone agreed.

"Yeah, pretty
much. But you see Alex was already up the fire escape, higher up
and round the corner having a smoke or whatever so they didn't see
him. But when he heard Grace protesting he came down and saw this
guy molesting her. Alex grabbed the boyfriend and pulled him off
her but this guy lost his footing on the edge of the stairs and
even though both Alex and Grace both tried to grab him he fell and
that's what happened."

Simone was
grinning ear to ear by this stage and it was obvious that she was
overjoyed that, for once, Alex had been doing the decent thing and
wasn't really to blame.

"No wonder the guy in hospital was refusing to say anything,"
I breathed, wondering anew at how quickly my life had gone from
drama-free to being filled with practically nothing
but
drama.

"Yeah, he was
whisked away in an ambulance straight away so he didn't know what
the state of play was. He didn't have a clue whether Alex and Grace
had dobbed him in or what."

"There's a
point," I said, frowning. "Why was Alex refusing to say anything?
Surely he could have just explained what happened and got
completely off the hook?"

Simone
grimaced, but it was Micky who suddenly spoke up, giving me a bit
of a fright as I'd been so enthralled in the story that I'd pretty
much forgotten that he was there. "That Grace girl was so freaked
out and embarrassed she asked Alex not to say anything and then ran
away." The disgust in his tone made it evident what he thought
about that. "And stupid Alex took her at her word and refused to
say anything about what had happened to protect her."

"What a
gentleman," I remarked.

"What a moron,"
Micky countered, "He could’ve saved everyone a lot of trouble and
just said outright what had happened.

"No white
knight lurking inside you then," I said, not at all surprised.

"Damn right.
There's a difference between doing the right thing and not being
thick."

"Interesting
that you know the distinction between the two but not how to put
either options into action in your own life," I said sweetly.

"Children
please." Simone interjected and I reluctantly backed off. "The
upshot of this whole thing is that Grace spilled the whole story to
Micky who then just about throttled Alex when he got home and
forced both of them to call the Bridunna police and explain what
happened. It turned out the police were looking for Grace anyway
because she'd been reported missing by her parents. She'd run away
to look for Alex and to tell him that she was sorry and that she
was going to tell the police everything. God knows how she found
this place, she's actually a pretty plucky girl. And everything
worked out because of Michael," Simone finished fondly, looking up
at him and smiling a secret, personal smile just for him.

I thought Simone was perhaps disproportionately allocating
praise here. I mean if she'd been home then
she
would’ve been the one to sort it
out, if I'd been on the doorstep then
I
would have done it. It was just
plum luck that he'd been there! I couldn't believe that was what
had caused Simone's turn around when it came to Micky.

"And what about
Micky’s behaviour towards Sam and me then?" I asked crossly. "That
all just became null and void did it?"

Simone had the
grace to look a bit sheepish at that. "Well, the Sam thing will
take a while, but we're all taking it one day at a time and after
he…um…broke Sam's nose they talked and cleared the air a bit."

Micky met my
sardonic gaze head on at this, refusing to look embarrassed. I'm
sorry was I the only one who thought that a sentence that was
supposed to show how someone is reforming into a better person
shouldn't include a bit about breaking his brother's nose? Looking
at Simone it seemed that the answer was apparently so.

"And as for
you," Simone continued brightly, "well you were the reason I still
refused to allow us to be together properly but after that apology
he gave you I..."

I choked
violently on my saliva at this and gazed at her incredulously.
"After that, what? Excuse me?" I looked at Micky again with raised
eyebrows. "Did I miss something?"

Simone also
looked at Micky in confusion. "You said you apologised, you
promised…" She trailed off and I could see the accusation in her
eyes.

"I said that we
were going to be more civil to each other," he said stiffly. "I
didn't actually get around to apologising."

"Yeah, and the
only reason I said I was going to be more civil to you was because
you blackmailed me, you little prick," I snapped. "What was it you
said to me? That if I was a bit nicer to you, a bit more respectful
you would try not to let slip to Matt about Jack and me? I guess
you were hoping that if Simone saw me being polite to you she'd
think that you had actually apologised." I looked at my best friend
and continued, "Just for the record he didn't even get near to
saying sorry, he shouted a lot, accused me of ruining his friends'
lives and basically treated me like scum, but I'm afraid there was
no apology."

My face
reddened as the taunts he’d flung at me that day in the stairwell
rose to the surface of my memory again. "And then, after all that
you went and told Matt about Jack and me anyway!" I accused him.
"And conclusively ruined everything not only for me but for two of
your supposed friends as well."

"Hell no!" Micky said suddenly. "You're not going to pin that
one on me!
I
got a
call remember, I didn't make a call."

"So who did
then?" I shouted, too far gone in anger to notice that Simone's
front door had just opened. "Who else would be so cruel, so much of
a bastard to do that to us?"

"Me," came a
hard voice from behind me, making me jump and swing round in shock.
I stared at the newcomer unable to find any words for once.
Eventually, after much mouth gaping, understanding slowly began to
trickle into my brain.

"Ah," I said
knowingly, sinking back into my chair in fatigue. "Bloody
karma."

Alex crossed
his arms defiantly but regarded me warily.

"Yeah, karma,"
he agreed, "I guess you should be careful who you tell to grow up
because if they're living in the same house as your best friend
they're going to find out stuff about you that you don't want other
people to know."

Weirdly enough
Alex didn't look half as pleased with himself as he should have. In
fact he seemed a bit…ashamed? Oh for goodness sake I was never
going to understand that boy!

"Wise words," I
said gravely and I swore for about half a second there a glimmer of
a smile appeared at the edges of his mouth.

"Look," he
sighed, all traces of mirth immediately disappearing, and stared
hard at a point just above my left shoulder, presumably so he
didn't have to look at me as he spoke, "I shouldn't have done it,
yeah? Matt and Jack are alright guys, you know? I was just pissed
at you and then I heard Micky talking 'bout how he'd seen you and
Jack going for it on the couch."

I blushed at
this and glared at Micky wondering for perhaps the millionth time
in the last half hour or so how he had managed to attract gentle,
softly spoken Simone.

"So yesterday
after a few drinks," Alex shrugged, "I found your number in
Simone's address book and called you up to just kinda let you know
that I knew. When Matt answered I sorta just blurted it out then
hung up. I know it was stupid but I did it and I can't take it back
so, sorry and all that."