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Identity Check Chapter 17 |
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Perhaps it was hearing "I love you"
that gave Patrick the strength he needed to put Easter behind him. The
strength to resist the temptation to call or text Simon. The strength to stay
true to his promise to David. Simon had said "I love you" too - many
times. But could Patrick believe it? In all those months Simon had been gone
he'd made no real effort to find Patrick.
What he said about leaving his phone behind was an excuse. He'd got
along just fine without Patrick and Patrick could get along just fine without
him. Term restarted and Nick and Colin came back and
began at once to fret about their upcoming end of year exams. But tonight,
three weeks into the summer term, they were worried about only one thing. "Will people actually recognise us?"
Nick said. "I mean, Monty Python, it's so old. I know geeks like you two
still like it, but what about normal people?" Patrick and Colin gave him offended looks and
adjusted their cardinal's outfits. The Circle's Summer Fancy Dress
Extravaganza was tonight, and Colin and Nick had been persuaded to attend on
the grounds that plenty of women showed up too. Straight women. "Well, David's downstairs," Patrick
said. "Looking, might I add, entirely gorgeous." He grinned at
their eye-rolling reaction to that. "He doesn't know what we're wearing,
so let's see what he says when he sees us." Downstairs, Patrick held them back for a moment
at the living room door. "David," he called out. "We're
coming in. Have you got any guesses what we're wearing?" "No guesses. Maybe a couple of
fantasies," David called back and Colin giggled. "How do you know he's only talking about
me?" Patrick said, and Nick snickered at Colin's suddenly alarmed
expression. Patrick turned back to the door. "So what you're saying is,
you don't know what to expect?" He grinned at the other two and Nick
rolled his eyes. "No, I suppose not." They sprang into the room, startling David, who
was dressed in US Navy whites and wearing Commander's stripes. "Nobody expects the Spanish
Inquisition!" Patrick declaimed. "Our chief weapon is surprise...
surprise and fear... fear and surprise... our two weapons are fear and
surprise... and ruthless efficiency..." "Feel free to interrupt at any time,"
Nick said to the staring David. "Unless you want to hear the whole
sketch. Believe me, these two know it." "Quiet, Cardinal Biggles!"
Patrick ordered. "You know who we are, right?" he asked David. "Well, it's a wild stab in the dark, but...
the Spanish Inquisition?" "Well, yes, but specifically?" "Oh, yeah, Monty Python. Was that in one of
the movies?" Colin sighed while Nick just smirked, making
Patrick glare at him. "I don't know what you think is so funny,
after all, this means you're going to a party at a gay club dressed as a
Catholic cardinal and wearing a leather flying helmet. That's way beyond
kinky." Nick looked at his watch. "Do I have time
to change?" The taxi tooted its horn outside. * "Hey, Pat, nice dress," the barman
said, grinning, as Patrick and David arrived at the bar to get a round in for
the group. "Hey, Andy." Patrick gave him their
orders and Andy turned away to start grabbing bottles from the fridge. "Friend of yours?" David said. "Well, we both work here." "Right." David bent closer, whispered
in Patrick's ear. "Screwed you?" "What? Ah... well, yeah, one time."
Why the hell did David want to know that? "Just so I know," David said, smiling
again. "He's hot." "Yeah." "Nice arse. Not quite as world class as
yours of course." "David!" Patrick blushed, but grinned.
Still, he didn't much like David asking him about other guys. Hit too much of
a nerve. Their drinks came and they carried them back to the group. "Pat!" Nick said, grabbing his arm,
after he finished handing out drinks. "Pat, back me up here. Russ's
costume, doesn't it endorse animal cruelty?" "What?" Patrick looked at Russ, who
was dressed as a matador and looking spectacularly sexy in the outfit.
"For fuck's sake, Nick." He rolled his eyes. "He looks
gorgeous, that's the point." Russ smirked and raised his beer bottle to
Patrick. "Touché!" "That's fencing," Nick said scowling.
Huffing, he turned away from Russ, who wandered off in the direction of a guy
dressed like an American footballer. Nick talked to Phil and Colin instead, though
mostly to Colin, talking across Phil who sat between them with his feet up on
the table. He was dressed as a cowboy, a black hat pulled low over his eyes,
spurs jingling on his cowboy boots. The outfit suited his rangy physique.
Patrick saw just a glint from his eyes under the shadow of the hat's brim,
watching him and David. David pulled Patrick close suddenly, arm around
his waist and spoke into his ear, above the seventies disco music blasting
across the heaving dance floor. "This shit is so cheesy." "It's fun!" Patrick protested. "If you say so. Why don't we duck out
early?" "Are you kidding? I'm here till they toss
me out!" David frowned at him, eyes dark. "I'd
really prefer a... smaller party." "Come on, David. This is fun and you look fantastic
and I like dancing with the hottest guy in the place." He leaned in to
nuzzled David's neck, but David pulled away. "Really? I thought you liked dancing with
Phil? Done enough of that already tonight." "What?" "Or Russ. Or your friend behind the
bar?" David said. "Did you ever dance with him, or just let him
fuck you back there in the bottle store?" "David!" Patrick shout was loud enough
to catch the attention of the others. They all looked at the two of them and
Patrick blushed and took David's arm to pull him a few yards away.
"What's bothering you, David? Me dancing with Phil? He's just a friend.
Or is it Russ or Andy? Look it was just a casual thing with Russ and Andy was
a one night stand." "You think I'm jealous of a barman?"
David gave a harsh laugh. "Or of Brokeback Council Estate over there? I
don't think so." Patrick stared at him and David's face changed
abruptly. He winced and rubbed his temples. "I'm sorry, Pat. This
fucking music is giving me a headache. I'm going home. You don't have to come
with me. Best if you don't really. I think I just need some sleep." "But, I... David, let me come and make sure
you're okay."
"But..." Patrick began, but David was
gone, shoving his way through the crowd. Patrick stared after him, not sure
what had just happened. Had he done something to upset David? Should he follow
him? Or would that just irritate him more? "Everything okay?" Phil said,
appearing at Patrick's side. "David's gone home, said he had a headache.
But... I don't know... Maybe I did something to upset him." "Of course you didn't." Phil couldn't know that of course, but Patrick
smiled at him anyway. He wondered again if he should go after David. If
something was wrong, they should sort it out. Or maybe he should wait and
call him in the morning, give David time to get over whatever was bothering him. "Come on and dance again," Phil said,
taking his hand and leading him onto the dance floor. Patrick resisted only
for a second and then gave in to the pull of the music. He'd call David in the morning. * "Gotta have some
music!" "Not too loud!" Colin warned, as
Patrick put a CD into the stereo, taking a couple of times to get it in
right, his hands rather clumsy. "It's after three, the neighbours will
kill us!" "Kill us? We're members of the
clergy!" The strains of James Brown's 'I Feel Good' came out of the
speakers. He tweaked the volume down a tad and started to dance. It made
perfect sense at that moment to do the "Walk like an Egyptian"
dance. Colin fell over onto the sofa laughing at that,
and did the hand movements too while lying flat on his back. After a moment
he sat up and looked around, puzzled. "Pat, did we leave something behind in the
taxi?" "Like what?" "Like Nick." Patrick laughed. "He left about one
o'clock. With a girl." "Oh, it's not fair. That boy can pick up birds
in a gay club. I need to dye my hair blond, that's gotta
be the key." He flopped back down. Patrick came over, sprawled along the
back of the sofa and reached down to ruffle Colin's hair. Colin batted his
hand away. "Who says you gotta
be blond to be cute?" Patrick pulled the band put of his own hair,
shaking it out to hang down. "I look blond to you?" Colin's grin faded to a more thoughtful look and
he reached up and grabbed Patrick's arm to pull him over the back of the
sofa. Patrick yelled a protest and they wrestled, laughing, Patrick trying to
get away. But Colin was stronger than him, and had some interesting moves,
making Patrick wonder if he'd picked up some self-defence training for his
travelling. A moment later Patrick was on his back on the
sofa, with Colin on top of him, and he stopped laughing when he saw the more
serious expression on Colin's face. "Um, Col..." "You know, I've been wondering..."
Colin trailed off. "Wondering what?" Colin kissed him. Their lips touched only briefly and then Colin
moved up again to look down at Patrick, face thoughtful, as if analysing what
had just happened and if he'd liked it. Frozen, astonishment paralysing him,
Patrick waited for Colin's next move. "More," Colin said. He bent down again and this time his tongue
pressed between Patrick's lips and instinct made Patrick respond, opening his
mouth. Not just instinct, but also curiosity. This was Colin! He'd never shown any sign of
being gay or bi and while Patrick had sometimes wondered what it would be
like to kiss him, even go to bed with him, such thoughts had only been
passing fancies. He'd never considered making a move on Colin. Now Colin was
making a move on him! He was a damn good kisser though. When they
broke a moment later Patrick felt sorry they'd stopped. But how far did Colin
want to take this? Sex? No, they absolutely couldn't have sex. And not just
because of Patrick's promises to David. Colin bent close again. "No, wait," Patrick said, pushing him
back. "This is, um, nice. But we're both really drunk. We should stop
now before this goes too far." A strange look crossed Colin's face, torn. Eager
and yet fearful, perhaps suddenly realising just what he'd started. "Er, you're
right. God, sorry, am I crushing you?" He stood, wobbling a bit, and
offered a hand to Patrick to help him up. "Shit, you won't tell David,
will you? He'd kill me!" Patrick laughed at the sudden alarm in Colin's
voice. "No, course not. Think we should go to bed now. Our own beds I
mean. Sleep." "Yeah. Better do that. Wow. That was...
sorry." He turned off the stereo. "Sorry, Patrick, I shouldn't
have... Just been wondering." "It's okay. It was okay. Nice I mean." "It was?" Colin looked torn again,
between pleased and scared. Patrick grinned at him. "You're a good
kisser." He turned away from the grin that said Colin had settled for
'pleased' and headed upstairs to bed. * "Oh my God," Colin said, as he
staggered into the kitchen the next morning. "What the hell did I drink
last night?" It was just barely still morning, nearing
eleven-thirty. Patrick looked up from the table where'd he'd had his head
down on his arms, a huge mug of coffee beside him. "Drink?" he said. "Pretty much...
everything." Colin shook his head, then stopped doing that
quickly. He poured a big glass of water and gulped it down, then poured
himself a coffee. "Where's Nick?" "He went home with a girl, remember? I told
you last night." Colin snorted. "Pat, I pretty much remember
getting dressed and that there was some kind of naval officer in the house.
After that... you're going to need to find some eyewitnesses." Patrick frowned. Had Colin really been that
drunk? Patrick remembered everything about the night before - maybe a bit
blurry in spots - and Colin hadn't been that much more drunk in comparison,
had he? So it was somewhat interesting that he claimed not to recall anything
he'd done, when one of those things was kissing Patrick. Well, Patrick wasn't in any frame of mind to
make a big deal of that. Best forgotten anyway. Patrick shouldn't have been
kissing him in the first place. Colin's straight. It would be totally wrong
to try to tempt him that way. Patrick had to wonder at himself. Had he been
trying to 'convert' Colin? No, he made the first move. He was just curious.
Unless Patrick had led him on somehow. He shook himself. Never mind any of that. The
main reason he shouldn't have kissed Colin was because of David of course.
He'd already tried to call David to make sure he was okay, but he wasn't
answering either his home phone or his mobile. Probably sleeping in. Maybe
Patrick should go round there and see if he could cheer him up if he still
didn't feel good. He reached for his phone in his pocket, thinking
about calling David again and almost dropped it when it rang just as he took
it out. Nick's name showed on the display. He'd already called a couple of
times earlier according to the 'missed calls' log. "Pat!" Nick sounded relieved.
"About time you got up. I thought you were going to sleep all day.
Listen, I need a favour." "It better be something easy." "I need you to come round with some clothes
for me." "Clothes? What? You want clothes?" Colin looked over from adding most of the sugar
bowl to his coffee, raising his eyebrows. "Don't tell me he's handcuffed naked to
something." Patrick giggled at that thought. This sounded
intriguing. He put the phone on speaker, so Colin could enjoy the fun too and
put it on the table. "Why do you need clothes, Nick? "Because I can't catch the Metro dressed as
Cardinal Biggles!" "You could get a taxi," Patrick
suggested. "Yeah, because taxi drivers never find
people dressed as comedy cardinals amusing. Will you just get over
here?" "I dunno, Nick,
I'm very tired, and I have a bunch of stuff to do." He winked at the
grinning Colin. "I'll have a bunch of stuff to do to you if
you don't help me out. You want to wake up one morning with short hair?" "Can't you borrow something from your, ah,
host?" "That only works for the players on your
team." "Well doesn't this girl have any
house-mates?" Patrick was now determined to would drag this out as long
as possible, hearing Nick's tone growing more and more annoyed. "She has five. They're all girls too, so I
-" He got no further. Colin leapt to the table and
grabbed the phone. "We'll be right there!" He slid the phone closed with a snap and looked
at Patrick, who was staring at him. "What? We can hardly leave our brother
abandoned at Castle Anthrax, can we?" "Ah, of course not. Now call him back and
get the address, you idiot." |
© E Charles 2009