Page 49 of The Dramatic Life of Jonah Penrose
“Do you really believe that?”
She paused. “No,” she said, followed by a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry. I just... I heard what happened, and it scared me. I love you, I love you so much, and you’re so far away, Jonah. I can’t look after you.”
“I love you, too, Mum. You can come here to visit. You know that, right? Or I can come up again soon. Do you think that would help?”
“Maybe getting away from here for a couple of days would do me good... but your dad, what if... what if something happens and I’m not here?” He heard a glass shattering across the floor. “Shit. Sausage, I’ve got to go. Don’t let anyone else hit you, okay? I love you.” She hung up before he could say goodbye. He stared at his phone, a dreadful feeling of unease caressing his skin, pushing its way inside of him to wrap around the ache in his chest.
When Jonah went back into the bedroom, Dexter had left. He’d made the bed and folded the clothes he borrowed from Jonah and placed them on top of the dresser neatly, as if he’d never been there. Jonah dressed himself in a pair of loose cotton trousers and pulled on the first T-shirt he could find, then went downstairs to find Dexter pouring out two bowls of cereal.
“You really have a lot of gumption, you know,” Jonah said, opening the cutlery drawer to get out two spoons. “Rummaging through my stuff to get food. Did your parents never teach you how to behave in other people’s homes?”
“Well, my mum ran off with a man from Spain when I was three and my dad decided the stock market was more important than spending time with me, so I guess not.” Dexter handed a bowl of cereal to Jonah with a grin. “That question backfired, didn’t it, arsehole?”
Jonah snatched it from him, then slumped down at the table. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
“Eh, don’t worry.” Dexter sat opposite him and shoved in a giant mouthful of cereal. “I have my dad coming to watch the show this Saturday night, actually. Can’t wait for him to tell me how disappointed he is in me afterward.”
“He doesn’t like you working in the theatre industry?”
Dexter waggled his spoon in the air. “‘It’s a bloody outrage!’” he saidin a croaky voice Jonah could only assume was an impression of his father. “‘You should work with numbers, not dance around on the stage like a pansy!’” Dexter laughed, then plonked the spoon back into the bowl. “Imagine how he reacted when I told him I was, actually, also a pansy.”
Jonah shook his head with a disbelieving laugh. “Shit. Well. I’m sorry, that really sucks.”
“How were your parents when you told them?”
“That I wanted to go into the theatre or that I was gay?”
Dexter laughed. “Both?”
“They were fine, actually, about both things. Maybe not so much the theatre stuff, as I was a typical theatre kid and constantly singing show tunes, which I think made them go a little insane. Unfortunately, the issues are only now cropping up.” He forced himself to eat some cereal and grimaced as he chewed. “Not with me liking men, or being in the theatre, just other stuff. My dad’s unwell and it’s taking a toll on my mum and... well, I’m not there and the feeling of guilt is getting pretty overwhelming.”
Dexter stirred his spoon around his milk and cereal. “You think they want you to go home and drop the life you have here?”
“No,” Jonah said truthfully. “But it doesn’t stop the worry. And Cornwall’s hardly down the road. I can’t just pop in on them.”
“Then just do what you can,” Dexter said, the solution simple, one Jonah was already doing. But it wasn’t enough. “And let’s get ice cream today so you can let all the shit that happened in the last twelve hours be forgotten for a while.”
“You want to get ice cream with me?”
“Yeah,” Dexter said with a smirk. “Or sorbet, if that’s more your thing.”
“Where do you want to go for ice cream?”
“The shop down the road sells it.”
“Oh. Fancy. You do spoil me.”
“And we can bring it back here and you can lick it off me.”
“Deal.” It was the quickest decision Jonah had ever made in his entire life.
Twenty-One
“My body, I can feel it falling, turning to stars. I will be with you there, and no one can tear us apart.”
—“Eternity,”The Wooden Horse, Act Two
Melanie Cowperthwaite holed herself up in a tiny office in Richmond. Jonah hated going there; the minute he stepped off the tube the world changed from shades of gray to shining silver. Richmond exuded wealth, and no matter how nicely Jonah dressed he always knew he didn’t belong there. Richmond had no time for boys from the coast who dreamed of sand between their toes. But Melanie called him, her voice filled with passionate concern, and when Melanie called and told him she needed a face-to-face meeting, he went.
