Quicklinks:
|
Great Writing - Home > Short S. > Best mates
| READING ROOM | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| COMMUNITY | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
| ABOUT GREAT WRITING | ||
|---|---|---|
|
| WORK AWAITING REVIEW |
|---|
|
| GW IS... |
|---|
|
Great Writing creative writing community is designed to prompt ideas
and provide inspiration and motivation within aspiring and amateur
authors. Whatever your topic; from love poetry to Doctor Who or Harry
Potter fan fiction, Great Writing's online writing group is where you
can make new friends and improve your creative writing. |
| WHO'S ONLINE |
|---|
| We have 1913 guests online and 8 members online |
Shorts
| print friendly version | |
| Best mates | |
| By teddy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 29 December 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
would be more than grateful for any kind of feedback on this. Many thanks. Steve was just about to leave the office when he felt his mobile vibrating inside his back pocket. ‘Hello, Roger.’ he answered the call. ‘How you doing, mate?’ ‘Not too bad, thanks.’ Roger’s husky voice emerged from the other end. ‘Listen, Steve, fancy a pint tonight?’ Steve hesitated for a second: it was Friday and he’d already promised Maggie to take her to the cinema that night. ‘Is everything ok, Roge? You don’t sound too happy.’ he asked. ‘Well, I’ve got a bit of a problem and I need some advice. I thought you might be able to help.’ Steve glanced at his wristwatch: it was just gone five o’clock. Well, what the heck, the movie wasn’t due to start until eight, there was plenty of time for a quick one. At the end of the day, Roger was his best mate, and, if he needed him, then there he was, ready to give him his support. ‘No problem, mate. I’ll see you, shall we say…let me think…about half five-ish, in the local?’ he made his mind up. ‘Cheers, mate, I owe you one. See you in half an hour.’ a grateful Roger thanked him. At promptly twenty seven minutes past five, Steve was entering an unsurprisingly jam packed Nag’s Head. After a few moments look over the crowd gathered in the pub, he spotted Roger at the bar, absently staring at the glass in front of him. ‘Hello, Roge.’ he approached him. ‘You’re alright, mate?’ he shook his hand. ‘Hi, Steve. Good to see you, mate. How’s Maggie?’ ‘Yeah, she’s fine. How’s work?’ ‘Not too bad. Boring, as usual. What you having?’ ‘Pint of Stella, cheers.’ ‘What’s the matter, Roge?’ Steve asked after the barmaid handed him over his drink. ‘Hum,’ Roger cleared his throat, ‘I don’t even know how to say this...I think Emma’s been having an affair.’ ‘What?’ Steve nearly spat out the mouthful of beer sipped the second before. ‘Shu’ up! Emma? Having an affair? Nooo, not in a million years.’ ‘I’m being serious, Steve.’ Roger gave him a bothered look. ‘How did this come about? Bloody hell, Roge, she’s just had your baby.’ ‘That’s the problem, mate. I’m not sure anymore little Tony’s mine.’ ‘You are joking, aren’t you?’ ‘No, not really. You see, I found some emails on her laptop the other day from this geezer….now don’t laugh, Steve, but, fucking hell, what kind of brains a woman could have to let someone who calls himself sexyrabbit69 shag her? Anyway, some of these emails go quite a while back, before Tony was conceived. Now, if this prick’s been screwing her ever since, how the fuck would I know if the kid’s mine? I mean, even back then I was quite surprised when she told me she was pregnant. We’d been always careful. But then I thought, well, accidents happen.’ ‘Oh, come on, mate. You’re being paranoid here. She’s been probably having some stupid internet fling, I mean, we’re all into this sort of things these days, aren’t we? With all these chat rooms and all that stuff.’ ‘Yeah, this is what she said when I asked her. But to me it sounds more serious than that. Anyway, I’m thinking of having a paternity test done, Steve.’ There was lots of smoke floating above people's heads and the lack of proper ventilation was making the air stale and the room quite stuffy. Steve slid two fingers inside his clammy shirt collar, loosening it up to allow his neck to cool down. ‘Bloody hell…did you talk to Emma about it?’ ‘No, not yet.’ ‘Hmmm,' Steve rubbed his chin thoughtfully, 'see, Roge, you have to be careful with this, it's kind of sensitive stuff. You never know how she’d react…what if you’re wrong? She might not ever forgive for doing that. You know how women are.’ ‘Yeah, I know, I’ve been thinking about it. That’s why I wanted to talk to you first, thought you might come up with some ideas.’ ‘Well, ok, I personally think you’re exaggerating.’ Steve sympathetically looked at Roger. ‘Emma loves you, she’d never mess you around, not like that anyway. But, if you’re really so doubtful and so unhappy with the situation, then there might be a way of doing it without her finding out.’ * ‘Steeeve! What the hell is this?’ an angry voice confronted him as he entered the house the following Tuesday night. ‘What is what?’ his eyes followed the frantic movements of the hand agitating a brown envelope in his face. ‘This!’ Maggie pushed the suspicious item under his nose. ‘Have you been shagging some tart behind my back?’ she exploded furiously loud. ‘DNA paternity test kit’ he read on the piece of paper Maggie produced from inside the envelope. ‘Oh, this? Don’t be silly, Maggie.’ he laughed. ‘It’s not for me, it’s for Roger.’ ‘Oh yeah, so how come it’s addressed to you? And…what do you mean, it’s for Roger?’ ‘Come here, you silly thing.’ he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her towards him. ‘Now, this is between you and me. I promised Roger I won’t say a word to anyone, so make sure you keep quiet about it, ok?’ he looked her in the eyes. ‘He’s convinced Emma’s been cheating on him. And he thinks little Tony might not be his.’ ‘What?’ Maggie’s eyes increased their size in amazement. ‘You must be joking!’ ‘Well, I do hope so. Roger’s very upset about the whole thing so I offered to help him. He doesn’t want her to know about this just in case he’s making a fuss out of nothing.’ ‘Oh, ok, I understand. Poor bloke,’ Maggie sighed compassionately, ‘I can imagine how he feels.’ ‘Yeah, tell me about it. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.’ * A week later, Roger was nervously staring at the envelope placed on the table in front of him. ‘Come on, open it.’ Steve encouraged him, taking another mouthful of beer. ‘I don’t know if I can. What if…’ ‘Roge, just do it. You need to know.’ ‘Ok.’ Roger took a deep breath before picking up the envelope. ‘Fucking hell.’ he felt his hands trembling while holding it, ‘this is hard, mate.’ Steve gave him a friendly tap on the shoulder. ‘Go on, be brave.’ ‘Ok, ok, I will…this is it.’ Roger brusquely tore the top edge of the envelope. He extracted its contents and examined it carefully for a few moments. ‘Well?’ Steve asked impatiently. ‘Phew!’ the back of Roger’s hand wiped off the tiny droplets of sweat covering his forehead. ‘Thank God for that.’ his mouth indulged in a big cheery smile. ‘See? I told you there’s nothing to worry about.’ Steve grinned at him satisfied. ‘Cheers, Steve, you’re a diamond. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.’ ‘Don’t mention it, mate. That’s what mates are for, eh?’ ‘I’d better take this outside.’ Steve quickly picked up his phone when it started ringing few minutes later. ‘It’s Maggie. I don’t want her to know I’m the pub, I promised to take her to the movies tonight. Be back in a sec.’ ‘Sure, mate.’ ‘Hello, babe.’ Steve answered the call once outside. ‘How did it go?’ ‘No problems, everything’s sorted.’ ‘Thank God for that.’ a deep sigh made its way through the phone line. ‘How’s Roger?’ ‘Happy as Larry. Bet he’s gonna get hammered tonight.’ ‘Steve, make sure he gets home safely, will you?’ ‘Course, babe. Better go back inside, he’s waiting for me. Miss you.’ ‘Miss you too. Bye, Steve.’ ‘Bye, babe.’ Steve entered the pub smirking happily. Sexyrabbit69 might have sounded like a stupid nickname to Roger, but Emma thought it was cute. He decided to keep it.
Only registered users can rate and write comments. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Previous item
|
Next item
|
|---|