~*~
Emerging from my room some time later I was disconcerted to find myself literally running straight into Jack as he passed my door on his way to the fridge.
"Woah there," he said, as if he was talking to one of the horses his dad trained, putting out a hand to steady me.
I jumped as he touched me and banged hard into my doorframe. His expression clouded at my reaction and I could see he was about to ask me what was wrong. Thankfully, at that moment, Matt wandered out of his bedroom and Jack took one huge step away from me.
"Morning," Matt yawned slumping down at the kitchen table. "God, I'm glad it's the weekend."
"Yeah, me too," I agreed, skirting around Jack and joining my brother at the table. I knew Jack must have thought my behaviour bizarre considering I was supposed to be the one keen on contact, but the dreams of the night before were still a little too fresh for me to brush aside and so, for a little while at least, I preferred to keep my distance.
"We should do something tonight," Matt announced suddenly, lifting his head and looking at Jack and I blearily. "Something to celebrate the end of the week and the demise of Brad the bastard."
"Demise? Has someone offed him then?" I asked glibly, trying to cover up the fact that I had visibly winced at the mention of Brad's name. One glance at the boys told me that they had indeed noticed my reaction, but were pretending they hadn't to spare my feelings. Bless 'em.
"I only meant his demise in terms of his relevance to us," Matt said after a beat. "To my knowledge no-one has actually killed him."
There was another pause and then he added, "Not yet at any rate." At the exact same moment that Jack growled,
"Give it time."
I laughed and I wasn't putting it on for the boy's benefit. I actually was feeling OK about my break up. My response to his name had been an automatic one, but on probing my emotional depths, I found that I still didn't feel particularly upset about his cheating. It was the anger that was still quite happily churning away.
"Do you have any ideas?" I asked, and then, seeing the looks on Matt and Jack's faces I added, "About going out, I mean, not about how to kill Brad."
"Oh right." Matt stretched then got up and gave Jack a nudge to get him out of the way of the fridge. "I was thinking of going and seeing The Wheelwrights, they have a gig at the uni bar tonight." He took a gulp of orange juice straight out of the carton then headed for the bread bin to pop two slices of bread in the toaster before turning to face me. "I know you and Micky don't exactly get along, but-" he began, but I waved my hand and cut him off.
"I was thinking of going anyway," I yawned. "I met this guy, Adam, yesterday and said that I might drop by."
"You met Adam? He's a decent guy," Matt said, fortuitously turning away as his toast popped up and, therefore, missing the odd look Jack sent me.
I was disconcerted to find that I couldn't figure out what the look meant and so sent him a 'what?' look in return. I didn't get an explanation, however, because Matt began to prattle on about how we'd all go in a big group to support the band.
"Us three, Tommo, Samsa, Simone, Haley, we'll all make a night of it."
So Much to Learn Page 9