Page 29 of Bad Friends

I rest my chin on his shoulder and snuggle into him. “Something will turn up, T.”

“Fucking better had or I won’t know what to do. Don’t wanna relegate myself to teaching or worse, singing for my supper.”

“What would be wrong with that? You’re an amazing singer.”

It gets to the part where they’re singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and Theo sings the lyrics badly, putting in a terrible rendition on purpose.

“I take that back,” I laugh, holding my stomach, he’s so funny.

He pulls me in close and kisses my temple, somehow much calmer and more settled now than he was before. He’s always been very touchy feely with me but that’s just him being a luvvie, right? This is what they’re like.

“What I meant was that I’d have to start going begging and sleeping with the right people to get in the right circles. I hate that about my industry.”

Okay, so maybe it’s only me he’s like this with, then?

“But you are betrothed to me,” I announce dramatically, “and unless it’s for a role, why should you have to get naked with some stranger? True, I know you don’t mind getting naked, but you still shouldn’t have to.”

“True.”

The film finishes and some late-night carol service plays next. We don’t turn it over because we know nothing else is on now until tomorrow. Instead, I get out myDie HardDVD and he rubs his hands with excitement.

“Ain’t Christmas till you’ve watched this, mate,” I exclaim.

We dance around the room in a jagged, discotheque fashion as Run DMC’s ‘Christmas in Hollis’ comes on. Theo pretends like he’s above it but I know he still enjoys being silly on occasion, even though he seems so serious all the time.

We take the sofa again, my back resting against him. He has his arm slung loosely over my shoulder and sits quietly, saying nothing.

“I hear you thinking,” I mumble, as Bruce Willis makes it to Nakatomi Plaza.

“I hear you breathing,” he says, “but I don’t judge you for having big lungs.”

“Nice, you think you have a big brain. I expect people with low intelligence do always think they’re right.”

We chuckle and then there’s more silence.

“I think I’m over all that Susan crap,” he murmurs. “Well, I hope so. Anyway, I have bigger worries. Like actually earning a living from acting instead of temping, running improv classes and being an understudy all the time.”

“Yeah but you did say understudies get paid well.”

“Not in here,” he says, smacking his chest, “not in here. I need to be allowed to run free.”

“Don’t we all, boy. Don’t we all.”

All I know is that once Theo starts taking off Bruce Willis’s epic one-liners, I can hardly breathe, it’s so funny. Life’s not that bad, really. Not bad at all.

Chapter Twelve

January. A new year. New beginnings. Christmas is done with, for another twelve months. I wonder if I’ll now always associate Christmas with disaster? I hope not.

I’m driving Theo out of Leeds to Adam and Susan’s new place. Theo is, apparently, Susan’s favourite out of all of Adam’s friends – Adam told him so, and Theo relayed this to me with more than a hint of glee. Anyway, when Theo got an invite to dinner at their new house, he asked if I would come as his plus one. To be honest, a free meal isn’t the only attraction. I’d quite like to have a nosey around. Plus, they live outside Leeds and Theo doesn’t drive, also my new car needs a good run out.

“How are you doing?” I ask, as we travel down the M62 to Castleford, which is quieter than the city and is also a cheap place to buy a house, hence moving there – I assume.

“I’m alright.”

“But you’re happy you’re going to see her?”

He chuckles. “Some days I don’t think about her at all. I’d call that progress. Maybe if I see them in their little love nest, it might help me to realise she’s with him. No chance of nicking her out from under him.”

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