“It’s okay,” Rebecca told him. “We just want your brother to leave us alone.”
“Yes,” said Andrew. “It all needs to stop, right now. We’re innocent people.”
The older woman re-entered the room with a tray full of steaming mugs. The one she handed to Davie had a Bart Simpson design. “I added sugar. Is that okay?”
Davie nodded and thanked her, but then said, “I need to go home.”
“Okay,” Andrew nodded. “Just drink your tea and we’ll get going. I just wanted you to meet my girls first.”
“Why?”
“So that you can tell your brother that we’re real people he’s hurting.”
“He knows that.”
“Does he? Because maybe things don’t seem as real if you don’t know the person you’re having ‘fun’ with.”
Davie shrugged. “I know what you’re doing, but I don’t think it will work. I’m sorry.”
“Can you not do anything at all, Davie?” asked the older woman.
Davie shook his head. “Frankie doesn’t listen to anyone, least of all me. I think…I think he enjoys hurting people.”
Andrew nodded. “Like Charlie?”
Davie looked down at the brown liquid in his mug and watched it steam. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just want to go home. If you take me know, I won’t tell Frankie about what happened.”
Andrew raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you threatening me?”
Davie shrugged. “Guess I am. Frankie has got it in for you. If he hears that you ran me over, I don’t know what he’d do.”
“So why would you want to tell him if it will cause more trouble?”
Davie stood up, shocked at his own impulses, and flung his mug of tea aside, adding to the stains on the carpet. “Because you won’t let me the-fuck go! I’ve asked you nicely. Now let me fucking leave, right now, you get me?” Davie felt woozy, but continued anyway. “I’ll walk home from here and not say a thing, but if you keep me here any longer than you’ll pay.”
Andrew’s eyes saddened as they looked at him. He stood up and nodded. “Okay, son. It’s a shame because I thought better of you. Guess I had it wrong.”
Davie couldn’t understand why, but tears began to beat at the back of his eyelids. His head was spinning and his emotions were all messed up.
Must have something to do with this bloody concussion.
Andrew had been correct when he said knowing a victim makes things more real. It genuinely upset Davie to see the effects his brother’s behaviour had had on these people, but it was none of his business. Frankie was family. Frankie was his brother. This man in front of him was just a stranger.
Davie yanked open the door to the hallway and stepped outside, trying to control his breathing as it threatened to get out of control. He entered the porch and waited for Andrew to come and unlock the front door. It was not Andrew, however, that came to join him. It was Rebecca.
“Hi,” she said to him.
Davie gave a half-smile. “Hey,” he said back. “I’m sorry about all this shit my brother’s brought down on you, but it’s nothing to do with me.”
Rebecca smiled at him and nodded, then reached out a hand and touched his shoulder. “It’s okay. I know you can’t do anything about it. It was shitty of my dad to corner you like that, but he’s just trying to protect us, you know?”
Davie didn’t want to get into it anymore, he just wanted to leave. He found himself giving an answer, though. “I understand why he did it and I’m not going to tell anyone. Just let me out, okay?”
Rebecca obliged. She produced a key from her pocket and shimmied past him. Her body felt warm against his as she brushed past. Davie felt dizzy again. She unlocked the door for him and stood aside.
“Thanks,” he told her, taking one last look at her – sad that they would not speak again after this. Just as he stepped out onto the pathway, she put a hand out and stopped him. “It’s okay, you know?”
“What’s okay?”