Chapter Forty-Two
I wake with a start as I hear loud banging and shouting noises coming from downstairs. It’s light outside but it’s still early. A combination of hungover and exhausted, it takes all my energy to jump out of bed. I’m still only wearing my underwear, but there’s no time to grab anything, this sounds like an emergency.
I rush into the living room without a second thought. Obviously I was never going to be able to take on a burglar, but I’m even less equipped for what I come face to face with: Si attacking Adam.
‘You arsehole, you fucking arsehole,’ Si yells as he throws random items from the living room at Adam, who bats them away and tries to reason with Si.
‘Si, what’s going on?’ I ask.
He sounds sort of drunk, but something has definitely made him angry.
He slowly turns to face me with a look of pure rage on his face. I look to Adam for an explanation, and that’s when I realise why Si is so angry.
Poor Adam has no idea, but there are fake tan marks all over his body. Adam’s eyes narrow as he clocks the corresponding white marks on my skin. What he doesn’t know is that Si is all too familiar with my adventures in fake tan.
‘Si, I can explain,’ I say as he approaches me.
I'm not sure what’s worse, the brown marks I left around Adam’s body that clearly show I wrapped my arms and legs around him, or the white patch of skin that stretches from my mouth to my knickers, coupled with the fact that Adam has fake tan marks all around his own mouth.
‘You had sex with my brother’ Si shouts. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Okay, give her some space,’ Adam says as he grabs Si by the shoulder. Drunk and furious, Si takes a swing for Adam, which Adam easily dodges causing Si to fall through the coffee table. I rush over to help him, offering him my hand to pull him up from the broken glass, and to check his body for cuts but he slaps my hand away.
‘Just get out of my house, Leah,’ he says quietly. I hesitate for a moment, which only makes him shout. ‘Now! You’ve done enough damage.’
‘It’s okay, go,’ Adam tells me. ‘I’ll make sure he’s okay. He’s drunk, he’ll be calmer when he’s sober.’
‘Okay just, be careful,’ I tell him.
Alone in the hallway together, we risk a peck on the lips.
I run upstairs, throw on some clothes, and head outside.
There’s only one person I can think of to call right now…