Life's a Dreamboat - 3. Chapter 3

‘So, it’s a penguin,’ she turns her phone around.

Thomas smiles and laughs a little at the picture. ‘Oh. Nice.’

Sharon pulls her phone back smiling, tapping away.

She has been showing off the different pictures in her phone after the conversation got a little dry. Thomas isn’t trying to be dry though. He is usually more sociable than this.

He takes a sip of his bottle of beer and looks around the restaurant. It isn’t a fancy restaurant, it is a little quirky with funny pictures of chefs on the walls, the menu has some good deals on it for burgers and pastas so they both have ordered a pizza each.

The place is bright and cheerful with the hustle of families enjoying their meals, friends hanging out in the booths, the waitresses going around the tables with large trays.

Smells of fresh food being cooked fill the busy restaurant. It is busy yet where Thomas and Sharon are sat, in their small booth with a small lit lamp, the noise doesn’t reach them that much.

Thomas sort of wish it did, that way he can blame his sudden bad social skills on the fact he can’t hear Sharon.

But he can hear and she is good, she keeps the conversation flowing, she is funny, she is cute. She laughs and her smile is small and picture perfect.

But it doesn’t light up her whole face the way Zack’s smile did.

It is his first night away from Zack. Zack had actively encouraged Thomas to enjoy himself on this night.

Thomas looks at the clock on the wall. It is seven forty-five. Usually, he would be at Zack’s wrapping up stuff on the laptop and making some soup. Listening to Zack talk about his favourite films and making age jokes, even though, there is only a few years different between them. How the time always flies.

On that thought, Thomas drinks up the rest of his beer, he nods at Sharon, who is still half way through her cocktail, ‘Want another? My treat?’

‘Um, sure,’ she replies, nodding, giving another small smile, ‘Same one please.’

Thomas tries to get hold of a waitress but can’t get anyone’s attention. He sees that the bar is actually next to the kitchen.

Standing up, he says, ‘I’ll go to the bar, see if they can bring them over or something.’

He walks over. The bar is lit a bit brighter, there are two young barmen standing, chatting with each other, leaning against the bar. They are laughing and have a little speaker on in the background, blasting some music.

They see Thomas emerge and pause their conversation, and only turned their speaker down slightly.

‘What can I get you?’ one of them says.

‘Bottle of that red beer please and a, um, martini.’

The barman nods, before making the drinks, ‘Want me to bring them to the table you’re at?’

‘Yeah.’

Thomas caught hold of the music playing on the speaker. Buzzocks, Ever fallen in Love.

Something inside Thomas twitches as he listens to the lyrics.

‘Can I have a shot of whisky, please,’ he calls. ‘I’ll have the shot before I go to the table.’

‘Not want two?’

Thomas pauses, and hears the song lyrics again.

‘And if I start a commotion, I’ll only end up losing you and that’s worse.’

‘Yeah,’ Thomas says over the lyrics. ‘I’ll have two shots please.’

The barman brings the two shots over and then walks away to make the rest of the drinks.

‘Ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have fallen in love with.’

Thomas throws back both shots, the shots instantly burn insane fire to his throat, he almost coughs up hard. But he clears his throat out loud.

Stupid song getting to him. It’s just a song. So stupid.

He comes back to the table and sees that the pizzas had arrived and Sharon has politely waited for him to come back.

She is so sweet. He feels like such a fake.

Later on, after a few more drinks, he walks Sharon home.

He is hungry and gets another pizza on the way home. The whisky and the bottles of beer he had afterward the shots has gone to his head and he is catching himself slurring a little.

He didn’t know if Sharon had noticed or not or maybe he had got another away with it. As he takes his pizza out of the takeaway place, he feels a little wild fire in him. Of something daring. Fun.

He gets his phone out. It is sometime after eleven, maybe nearly midnight, Thomas didn’t quite catch it but without thinking he rings the one person that has mentally blocked him on his date.

The phone rings a few times and it goes to voicemail.

Thomas sighs, the dejection slamming him hard as he ends the call.

So stupid. Not cool. Dumb idea.

He puts his phone back into his pocket before starting his walk home with his pizza box in hand. He opens the box and takes a slice of pizza out while he is walking. He nearly walks into a lamppost and then a trashcan as he tries to eat with a messy stained face.

Then his phone vibrates in his pocket. He stops, wiping his face with the back of his hand and closes the box. The ground feels a little shaky so he leans back against a wall and takes his phone out.

He grins as he puts the phone to his ear, ‘Hey.’

‘Hey,’ Zack says. ‘Everything okay? I am so sorry I missed your call.’

‘Yeah, it’s fine,’ Thomas tries to clear his throat so it doesn’t sound like he is slurring too much. ‘Sorry to bother you.’

‘You’re not bothering me at all, Thomas,’ Zack says. ‘You had fun on your date?’

‘Yeah,’ Thomas pauses, looking at the pizza box in his hand. ‘Um, work stuff all sorted?’

‘You don’t need to ask about that,’ Zack laughs. ‘I told you, enjoy your time off, you deserve it.’

Thomas clicks his tongue, ‘I’ve, um, I’ve got some pizza. Is it too late for me to come over? We can share.’

‘I’ve only just managed soup,’ chuckles Zack.

‘Oh,’ Thomas fees such embarrassment, his cheeks even flush. ‘You’re right. Sorry.’

‘I can always try a slice or two, though,’ Zack replies, his voice soft. ‘You can come over if you want.’

‘I won’t be bothering you?’

‘It’s a Friday night, Thomas, I know I’m not that wild but I’m not that dull either. Come over.’

It takes about twenty minutes but Thomas manages to stumble to Zack’s apartment.

Zack answers the door in his blue pyjamas, they are new but hang nicely on him. Thomas doesn’t want to register that thought and comes barging through with his pizza box dangling from his hand.

Zack laughs as Thomas goes to the kitchen to put the pizza box down.

‘Had fun?’ Zack appears in the kitchen with a grin.

That grin.

Thomas turns around and says, ‘I’m not a lightweight you know, well, maybe I am. But that’s the smell.’

‘Smell?’ Zack raises his eyebrow in amusement.

‘I had a couple of drinks tonight.’

‘With Sharon?’

With hazy eyes, Thomas looks to the ground, ‘Yeah. Sure.’

Zack goes over to the pizza box and opens it up. He laughs out loud, ‘Dude, I know I said I would only have slice or two, but you’ve only left literally two slices in here to share between us.’

Thomas giggles a little and wipes at his face, ‘I’m a greedy employee.’

Zack laughs out louder to this, and walks around Thomas, he pauses and looks at Thomas’s t-shirt, ‘Could have tried to reach your mouth first, man.’

Thomas looks down and sees the slimy red stains and grease stains on his pink t-shirt. He already bought the t-shirt; it is brand new. He did try to impress Sharon on that date but that just went completely went down the drain.

Thomas just shrugs, his eyes feeling heavy, ‘I’m a natural slob.’

Zack gets some plates out, he hands one too Thomas, ‘Well, I will enjoy my one slice, thank you for bring that slice round for me.’

‘Free pizza, all work places like ‘em, right,’ laughs Thomas as they sit on the couch. Zack puts the TV on and a random film comes on.

‘This is the one I was telling you about,’ Zack takes a small bit of the pizza slice. ‘About the wrestler, Mickey Rourke is in it.’

Thomas nods, ‘About maintaining that job despite it all.’

Thomas eyes feel so heavy. The house smell is something so familiar to him, the couch feels like home and the sounds of Zack talking feels so comforting.

It is now the next morning and Thomas wakes up to intense pain to his head. Pulsing pain. His eyes hurt when they open. He is lying down on the sofa with a thin blanket over him.

His body aches as he lifts himself up. He looks around.

Zack’s place.

Oh.

Oh no.

He sits up, taking the blanket off him and rubbing his face hard. He feels physically quite rough, his face feels harsh and his skin is very dry.

He sniffs out loud, the pain is almost swallowing him whole of his thoughts.

‘Morning,’

Thomas panics and whips around his shoulder, Zack emerges in his dressing gown with two hot cups.

‘Didn’t know if you want one,’ Zack offers the cup and Thomas’ shaking hands gets it.

‘I’ll be out soon.’

‘Take your time, there’s no rush.’

Thomas pauses and takes a sip of the coffee. It is sweet and then his stomach rumbles, reminding him of all that pizza.

‘I shouldn’t have come round, please, just accept my…’

‘It’s fine, Thomas, you were fine,’ Zack sits next to him. ‘Don’t beat yourself up. It was sweet, you were worried. There’s nothing for you to be anxious about.’

‘I need to not mix drinks ever again,’ groans Thomas.

‘Never say never,’ winks Zack.

Thomas sips his drink and looks around the room. On the coffee table he sees the open envelopes and letters folded up, and then he remembers the conversation they had on Monday.

‘Operation is now next week,’ Thomas says out loud. Then a whamming of guilt hits him. ‘I definitely shouldn’t have come round. You need to rest.’

‘I’m not an eighty-year-old man, Thomas,’ Zack teased. ‘I know I am older than you but not that older, It’s fine. Just stop worrying about it. You had the decency to call before you came round, I said yes, there’s nothing more to it.’

Thomas then feels around for his phone.

‘Oh,’ Zack gets up and passes him the phone. ‘It fell out you pocket so I put it on the shelf for you.’

Thomas smiles as he puts in his code to get into his phone.

He sips his drink as his poor eyes squint at the already dark screen. The phone needs charging.

A message comes up from unknown number.

‘Mom and dad said they will still forgive you, stop being a drama queen, it’s embarrassing, Sophie. Your other managers need to know the truth.’

Adam.

Thomas sighs, rolling his eyes and puts his phone away. Thomas thought he had blocked Adam but Adam must have other ways to get to him.

He is never going to leave him alone.

Thomas blinks and nudges Zack’s shoulder, ‘Do you need help packing anything for next week? Like an overnight bag for the hospital or anything?’