Nocturnal Activities - Page 8

After Nick got back to Sydney, Rachel came over. As they sat on his couch, his phone buzzed with seemingly endless texts.

‘He’s quite full on today, isn’t he?’ she said, stating the obvious.

‘I’ll probably have to go down there again tomorrow.’ Nick thought about the drive, and buying fish and chips in Nowra once more. He’d been doing that too much recently.

‘But you just got back,’ Rachel said, a whine straining her voice.

‘I know, but something’s really upset him.’

‘I was going to say something about that,’ Rachel said, as she slid closer to him. A small woman, with big, pretty brown eyes, she perched next to him with her hands on her knees. He imagined her pawing him. Instead she climbed on top of him, swooping in for a kiss.

Locked in an embrace which lasted minutes, when they finally parted, Nick remembered she had something to say. ‘You were going to say something?’

‘Nothing really.’ She coyly backed away from her earlier statement, but she still sat on top of him, her face close to his.

Her breath smelt like toothpaste and he wanted to kiss her again. ‘No say.’

She shrugged. ‘If you don’t want to—go down there again I mean—you don’t have to.’

‘I sorta do, have to,’ Nick said.

‘Do you really, though? You said yourself he’s almost thirty and can look after himself.’

‘Of course he can, but it’s not about that when he’s like this.’

‘Like what?’ She had her hands on his chest but lowered them to her side.

‘Freaking out. And usually when stuff like this happens everyone abandons him. It would be brutal if I did that to him too.’

‘But you wouldn’t be abandoning him, that’s a bit dramatic, isn’t it? I mean, if you let him deal with it on his own, you’d be helping him, wouldn’t you?’

‘Yes and no,’ Nick said.

‘Letting him stand on his own feet for a while, just for one weekend, I think that would help.’

‘I don’t know, he’s pretty bad this time. But what’s more, I’d also get a million texts,’ Nick said, trying to make light of the situation. But just as he came out with this, another message from Jeremy popped up.

Seeing this, Rachel crawled off Nick and plopped on the couch beside him. Silence ensued as she stared off into space, seemingly defeated.

Nick racked his brain about how he might get around this. Last night had been a similar story. They were supposed to meet until Jeremy started texting, and Nick had to drive south. She’d been nice about it, but Nick knew she wasn’t impressed.  

Scenarios went around in his head, until…‘What about…’

‘What?’ she said.

‘Nah, never mind,’ he said, ‘I was just thinking out loud.’

‘No what?’ She urged him to go on.

‘Nah, it’s not a good idea.’

Rachel was on her knees once more. ‘Oh, I get it. You want me to come with you, right?’

Nick sighed. He should never have gone there. What were they now, six months into their relationship? Way too soon to suggest something like this.

‘I can, if you want. I mean, he sounds a bit creepy, that he doesn’t sleep and stuff, but I think I can handle him.’

‘Maybe next time.’ He shook his head. It wasn’t just about how Jeremy never slept but also how, if they stayed there—and Jeremy would insist they did—he would likely visit them in the middle of the night. When Nick still lived at their parents' house, one evening he’d woken to their mother screaming. She’d gotten up to go to the toilet only to step on Jeremy who’d been laying beside their bed in the dark.

‘Okay,’ said Rachel, sitting back again, a frown drooping her face.

Nick’s phone buzzed with more texts. They’d ripped the excitement out of their evening. Once more Nick tried to figure out a way to solve this. He liked Rachel. She was smart and funny, and they had loads of fun together. He didn’t want to lose her.

He looked across. She had her head tilted away from him.

‘What if I just don’t go this weekend? It’s not like he needs me there all the time, and maybe you’re right about him learning to deal with instances like this on his own.’

‘But what if he really does need you?’ Rachel said, in a sulky way Nick hadn’t heard before.

‘It’s one weekend. I’ll go next weekend, and you’re not here next weekend, are you? So we should make the most of this one.’

Rachel straightened. She wasn’t kneeling beside him again, not yet. ‘Yeah, I have to go to that work thing next weekend but if you could stay this weekend...’

‘I’ll text him in a little while. And if he really needs me, I’ll call in sick Monday and go down then.’

‘Ohhhh, now that sounds like a plan.’ She crawled across and sat on top of him just like before. She stroked his cheeks and played with his lips, which he’d always found incredibly suggestive. Within seconds they were locked in another passionate embrace.  

Nick felt his phone vibrate with more messages on the couch beside him. He swatted it onto the floor. But even from there, and even as Rachel covered him in more kisses and began to remove his clothes, Nick could still hear it vibrate with text after text after text.

He wanted to be into this. He couldn’t let Rachel down again, could he?

They kept kissing.

More texts buzzed.

Rachel began to unbutton her top.

His phone vibrated again.

He pulled away. ‘Who the fuck am I kidding? I can’t leave him there alone, not when he’s like this.’

As he reached down to retrieve his phone, Rachel pouted and stood. She buttoned up her blouse and straightened her hair.

‘I’m sorry,’ Nick said, looking up at her.

‘So am I.’ Rachel scanned the room, searching for her shoes, Nick figured. They were on the other side of the couch where she’d kicked them off half an hour ago. Seeing them, she strutted over.

It was an I’m out of here and never to return sort of walk if he’d ever seen one.

Even when she was petulant, he still liked her. Sucking in a deep breath, he said ‘Why don’t you come with me?’

‘Really?!’ She turned back to him, still grumpy, but with a hint of a smile lifting her face.

‘Yeah, really. I want you to.’

‘It won’t be too weird?’

‘He’ll be weird, that’s for sure. You know some stuff about him, but I haven’t told you everything.’

‘Oh, really?!’

Nick drew in another lung full of oxygen, grabbing for her hands. ‘Well, the first thing you need to know is he’s not dangerous. It’s just little things, stuff you and I deal with all the time, can make him extremely anxious and upset, and, and…’ Nick paused.

‘Yes?’ Rachel said.

He couldn’t believe he was about to say this. ‘Well, when we get down there, you’re gonna have to stay in a hotel.’

‘Okay.’ Rachel laughed incredulously.  

‘And I, I’ll have to stay with him.’ Nick hadn’t thought about the full logistics for the trip yet. This, though, was the first and perhaps the most important one.

‘Oh wow. What does that mean?’

Holding her hands, Nick tilted his head back, and as he did, once more tried to pull a huge amount of air into his lungs.

How could he explain this?

‘Well,’ but as he said this, his phone vibrated with another text.

Nick really had to do something about Jeremy.