As the car headed to the traffic lights, indicator light flashing, Naomi was still thinking about Camilla’s knowing look from the back window, a look that had said friend, my foot. She wondered when she’d be forced into a confession. Camilla would not dutifully wait until her weekly phoning time of six on Friday. Not now the warning look had been doled out.
Henry was still waving as the car turned and merged into thick city traffic out of sight, at which point Nathan took Naomi’s hand.
‘I’m really sorry,’ Naomi said, her muscles finally unlocking. She found her head ached. She realised she was breathing easily for the first time in hours. ‘Obviously, if I’d known they were coming –’
Nathan threw his head back and laughed. ‘That was good fun,’ he said.
‘Fun? I can think of a few ways to describe my mum, but not fun.’
‘Honestly, I enjoy a challenge,’ he said. ‘Did you see her face when she found out my age and that I work for a temp agency? She couldn’t believe that someone with a first class degree in philosophy, of all useless things, would be willing to sell mobile phones to save up for travelling.’
Naomi relived the double blow she’d taken during lunch. She learned that Nathan planned to travel and realised it gave him something in common with Annabel. He’d leave when he had enough money. She’d been forced to react as if she already knew the details and didn’t mind at all. Annabel, who’d made sure she was sitting directly opposite Nathan, had engaged him in minutes of conversation about her travelling plans, and his. Naomi had hated the way that, sitting by Nathan’s right side, she’d had to sit through Annabel eating seductively and giving him the full force of her artistically made-up blue eyes. The fact that Nathan had ignored the outrageous flirting and had paid far more attention to Naomi and to trying to say something that was acceptable to Camilla, had been the only consolation.
Ordeal over, she turned to walk back to her room with Nathan, hero of the hour.
‘Annabel seemed to like you, even if you weren’t exactly a hit with my mum.’ Naomi was attempting to sound casual, but she was fishing.
‘You think?’
‘You don’t carry a white stick.’
‘I was being sarcastic,’ Nathan laughed. ‘Don’t get me wrong, Annie’s great, but she’s definitely not my type.’
Naomi felt a stone lighter. ‘Really?’
‘Really. I hope I made that clear to Annabel. Her ego is strong enough to take it. To be honest, I thought it was obvious we were together, but she still wanted to steal the limelight, which I thought was a bit mean. Didn’t you?’
The relief was indescribable. Naomi shrugged. ‘I’m used to it. I always forgive her for those things,’ she said, feeling suddenly generous.
‘You’re incredible, you know that?’
Naomi soaked up the compliment without finding a reply. She knew she’d review all the things Nathan had said, later on. She replayed the words to make sure she had them right, and stored them carefully.
When they arrived at the reception door, Naomi took her card from her pocket. ‘You never told me you were planning to travel,’ she said, unlocking the door, hoping her voice sounded light and enquiring.
‘Come with me,’ he said immediately. ‘I mean it.’
Naomi hid the surprise. ‘I can’t. I’m committed to my course until next June.’
‘I’ll wait,’ Nathan said, pressing the hand he was still holding. They walked through the reception and into the paved courtyard and strolled toward A Block. ‘Let’s go together. I’d rather have company.’
‘You’re asking me to go away with you next summer and this is only our second date?’
Naomi found herself imagining announcing to Camilla that she was planning to go away with Nathan.
Nathan stopped walking and pulled her in front of him. Taking hold of her other hand as well as the one he already owned, he looked into her eyes. The usual music spewed from the open windows. ‘Didn’t you hear me?’ he asked.
‘Hear what? Sorry I was a bit distracted.’
‘I said I’m sorry.’
‘What for?’
‘Scaring you off.’
Naomi studied his eyes, noticing the length of his dark eyelashes. ‘You didn’t. It’s not that.’
He released her left hand to run his fingers through her hair, pushing it off her face. She fought not to shut her eyes. ‘Let me guess. Your mum?’
Naomi nodded. Nathan gathered her into a hug.
‘In future, we’ll deal with her together,’ he said into her ear.
‘So my mum didn’t scare you off then?’
He pulled back to look at her. For a few seconds, the only communication was close eye contact. Naomi lowered her eyes to his lips, remembering how they felt and how they made her burn inside. Stunned by the urge to kiss him again, she didn’t move.
‘I think she’s probably quite warm beneath all that ice,’ Nathan said.
Naomi laughed. ‘She is.’
Nathan’s expression turned serious. ‘Listen, I can invite you to come away with me after two dates because I know how I feel about you. And I’ve told you that when I commit, I commit. I’m in love with you, Naomi, and I don’t care who knows. I’ll shout it from the top floor window if you want me to.’
Naomi broke into a broad smile. ‘That won’t be necessary.’
‘Sing it in my best opera voice?’ Naomi giggled. ‘I don’t say those things to every girl I meet, you know.’
Despite Nathan’s comments, Naomi was still struggling to shake off Annabel’s infectious laugh and the witty comments she’d made around the table that were still breaking into her thoughts along with the glossy lipstick. ‘Have there been many?’
‘Girls?’ He hesitated. ‘A couple.’
‘A couple as in literally two, or a couple as in you’ve lost count?’
He managed a tight smile, but it was strained. At the same time, it started to rain. ‘A couple as in literally two. That is, I’ve had two serious girlfriends, the second I was engaged to.’
‘Really?’ Naomi said, her heart feeling the effect, taking a noticeable dip that she hoped wasn’t showing in her face. ‘When?’
‘Two years ago.’ Nathan continued to look at her with his incredible eyes, but they lost focus while his mind was busy swimming with memories. Naomi waited patiently until he returned. The rain was getting heavier.
‘Do you still love her?’ she asked, realising too late she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
Nathan didn’t answer the question. He glanced at the sky. ‘Let’s get back to your room. I really need to talk to you about someone and here’s not the place.’
<><><>
‘I’m Naomi’s friend. Her close friend,’ Camilla mimicked from the back seat of the car, which she was sharing with magazines, scarves, jackets and empty McDonald cartons and lids pierced with straws. Camilla had spent the whole of the outgoing journey listing her complaints about the state of the car. ‘Do I look like I was born yesterday, Henry?’
Henry didn’t need to answer. Annabel would hijack the conversation and defend Naomi without him needing to get involved. October marked the fourth month of Annabel being at home fulltime after sitting A levels. With no plans to go university or get a job until she went away, and with Naomi having left, the bickering at home was almost constant. Only mornings were blissful, while Annabel slept.
Henry folded his fingers together, straddling them across his stomach. His eyelids felt heavy. Big meals always made him drowsy, especially mid-afternoon where he usually suffered an energy dip and gave in to it. It had become a guilty pleasure. It would have been a pleasure without the guilt if it hadn’t been an irritation to Camilla. She’d added it to her barrel of ammunition that she fired at him at random times, dependent upon her mood.
‘How do you know he wasn’t a friend?’ Annabel asked, tilting her head, eyes searching for Camilla’s in the mirror.
‘A close friend in a few weeks? Ridiculous
.’
‘He was winding you up, which isn’t hard.’ Camilla made no comment. ‘I’d know if Naomi had a boyfriend.’
‘Loretta hasn’t mentioned it either,’ Camilla said with the familiar wait-until-I see-her edge to her voice.
Annabel bounced straight back. ‘Why would Lorie tell you? She’s like that with Naomi.’ Annabel crossed her third and fourth fingers and held them up.
‘Seeing as I pay Loretta’s wages, her loyalty should be to me. Isn’t that right, Henry?’
Henry was only barely conscious. ‘Mm.’
‘You see?’ Camilla told Annabel.
‘Dad’s half asleep. Anyway, I’m taking it that Nathan is available. And he’s really hot – ’
‘Oh no, young lady. You keep your eyes to yourself. You hear me?’
‘What do you take me for?’ Annabel said, appalled.
She should learn not to take the bait, Henry thought as a big yawn overcame him. So many times he’d tried to referee the pair of them without success. Annabel and Camilla always seemed to be such a huge disappointment to each other. It was like two different species trying to communicate, blowing the theory that only men were from Mars.
Camilla returned a few moments of silence before landing a blow. ‘It was embarrassing to watch you drool over him across the table, Annabel,’ she said in her deliberate, quiet voice that meant that she was sure she had the upper hand.
Annabel turned shrill. ‘The only really embarrassing thing was you marching into Naomi’s room and asking what Nathan was doing there.’
‘They deserved it, the pair of them. They’d been up to no good. It was written all over Naomi’s face, didn’t you see?’
‘I saw her squirming because you gave her a minging old jumper.’
‘Nonsense. He might have tried to take advantage if we hadn’t turned up when we did, might he Henry?’
‘Mm.’
Annabel collapsed into sarcastic laughter. It roused Henry from a minor drift. ‘Well he can take advantage,’ she accentuated the words, ‘of me, anytime.’
‘That’s enough,’ Camilla snapped, quieting Annabel. ‘If you’d ever been more interested in your schoolwork than in boys, you might have got decent A level results, like Naomi.’
Ouch.
‘I did get decent results,’ Annabel yelled, glaring into the back seat through her mirror. Henry stayed on the sidelines, wondering when to intervene. ‘What do you call an A, a B and a C?’
‘Mediocre,’ Camilla responded quietly as if it saddened her. ‘We’re off the subject,’ she continued. ‘Now isn’t the time for Naomi to be attached. She needs to be focussing on her music without distractions.’
‘There’s more to life than crappy ancient music,’ she shouted.
‘Not for Naomi there isn’t. And don’t use that sloppy language.’
‘Give her a break,’ Annabel said, exasperated. ‘It’s time she had a boyfriend. It would be good for her. Who’d want to do classical music all day?’
‘Naomi would.’
‘Have you ever asked her?’
‘It goes without saying.’
‘No, it doesn’t.’
Henry was becoming concerned at how much Annabel was looking in her mirror. Her gear changes were getting faster and rougher. Her reactions on the brakes were delayed.
‘I shall tell Naomi later, exactly what I think of Mr Stone,’ Camilla said, as if she was holding a conference with herself, and arriving at a satisfactory conclusion.
‘Leave her alone,’ Annabel snapped, jumping on the brakes again as orange lights became red just before she could sneak through.
‘Watch the road, petal,’ Henry said, softly.
Annabel didn’t seem to hear. Her attention was fixed in the back of the car. She looked over her shoulder now. ‘You can’t tell her what to do at eighteen.’
Camilla turned quiet and dignified, which could only mean she was sure she’d found the right solution. ‘She always listens to me,’ she said, with infuriating certainty.
A car horn beeped somewhere. ‘That’s the problem,’ Annabel said, turning her head, screeching away from the lights, convinced they must have turned green when they hadn’t. Henry tensed and crunched his invisible brakes and meant to yell, but it came too late. A silver car caught the front side of the car from the right to the dreaded sound of crunching metal, jolting them violently against locked seatbelts.
<><><>
‘What’s his name?’ Naomi asked Nathan, who’d just announced as if it was top secret that he had a brother. With only two stiff chairs in the room, they’d slumped on the bed with the light off. The rumbling sky had dimmed the room. It was warm and cosy.
‘Dan,’ Nathan said, as if his brother had already passed away or something.
For a while it was as if Nathan couldn’t find anything more to say about Dan. Naomi had been expecting to hear about an ex-girlfriend, but found herself waiting to find out something unpleasant about Dan. The silence was so meaningful and Nathan’s expression so concentrated, she didn’t dare speak.
‘He’s two years younger than me. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was seventeen.’
‘I’m sorry,’ was all Naomi could find to say. It didn’t feel like the moment to admit she understood nothing about it.
Nathan looked into her eyes before lying down on his side, head resting on one hand. ‘It’s torn the family apart.’
‘How?’
Nathan closed his eyes, held them, opened them. ‘Long story. Loads of details,’ he said, as though he barely possessed the energy to share them.
Naomi stretched out to mirror Nathan’s position, head propped on one hand, elbow bent. They were face-to-face now. ‘I’m a really good listener.’
He hesitated. ‘I’m sure you are.’ He puffed out all his breath. ‘OK, I’ll try to keep it brief.’
Nathan spent the next hour close to tears, pouring out Dan’s problems to Naomi, about how he’d fallen in with the wrong crowd and gone from being a normal happy teenager (a really generous and good looking one, at that) to meddling in drugs and alcohol and turning into another person from the carefree kid Nathan had grown up with.
At sixteen, he’d scraped five average-graded GCSEs despite his academic abilities. Dan had left school with the hope of turning his life around within a year and returning to college. It never happened. He kicked the drugs and alcohol, and even the ‘friends’ into touch, but developed tell-tale signs of paranoia and delusional thinking.
His parents were desperate. GPs were consulted, but didn’t help and Dan slumped into depression and hit a period where he never left his room for weeks. By now, he was convinced that the man with the black dog who passed the house twice a day at roughly the same times, was plotting to savagely kill him. “He always looks up at my window,” he’d told Nathan with that wild tortured look in his eyes that chilled Nathan’s blood. ‘Dan,’ Nathan had replied, ‘the poor bloke’s probably wondering why he’s always being spied on walking his dog.’ Dan couldn’t see it. And he couldn’t understand why Nathan couldn’t see it. Even from the safety of his room, Dan was still convinced his life was under threat and that he could die at any moment. Someone with a loud voice kept telling him so. With his sleep patterns all over the place, he cowered under his bedcovers in constant fear.
His parents fought about how best to handle him. Their relationship was crumbling under the strain. Nathan, despite being in the final stages of his degree and living fifty miles away, headed home as often as possible. Determined to get help, he’d searched the internet and learned as much as he could. If doctors weren’t prepared to take the time to properly assess him – anti-depressants had made things worse, if anything – and offer a diagnosis, Nathan was going to sort it before his whole family went into meltdown. He stumbled across schizophrenia. Bingo. Nathan took Dan back to the doctors and suggested it, and demanded action. Things changed from there.
Naomi’s position had given her a sore wrist,
she realised when she moved it. She adjusted and lay flat on her side, arm as a pillow.
‘Did things settle down?’ she asked Nathan.
‘Not really. He started taking anti-psychotic meds. He might have improved with the right kind of support, but my parents chucked him out when he was only eighteen.’
Naomi sat up and smoothed her hair. ‘What! Why?’
‘They said they couldn’t cope. I was doing my finals, studying hard. It was hell. Never mind what was best for Dan or me, they put themselves first.’
‘I can’t believe that.’
‘Neither could I, but they did it without consulting me.’ He shook his head, the closest to tears he’d come so far. ‘Just before I finished uni, they found him a one-bed flat about four miles away from where we live, furnished it and moved him in. That was about five years ago.’
‘How did they justify it?’
‘It isn’t justifiable is it?’ he said. ‘I think they were freaked out, couldn’t handle it. Maybe they were ashamed, or afraid, who knows? Anyway, they said that they thought independence was best for Dan and that moving him out was best for their marriage.’ He paused. ‘Well, it might have saved their marriage, but it wrecked Dan. They make me sick.’
‘Where’s Dan now?’
‘Stuck in his flat. He stumbles along, gets by. He’s still depressed and delusional, but he’s been worse.’
‘Do your parents see him?’
‘At first they did. He’s twenty-three now. They visit every month now whether he needs it or not. He survives off ready meals when he can be bothered to eat, and he’s gone back to drinking.’
Nathan went quiet.
‘That’s awful,’ Naomi eventually said.
‘I’ve thought of bringing him here to live with me, but he doesn’t respond well to change and I refuse to give my parents the excuse of opting out altogether.’ He was quiet for a bit longer. ‘So, there’re three important things you need to know, Naomi. The first is that I don’t have a relationship with my parents anymore. I moved here to Manchester from Bury once they cut Dan’s visits down. I couldn’t be around them. I had to make a stand.’
Either Side of Midnight (The Midnight Saga Book 1) Page 11
