Consumed

“Time to think or some space?”

“Or cock. More precisely… The cocks of other men….”

“Lara isn’t like that.”

“Push comes to shove all women are like that.”

“Even Charlotte?”

Michael didn’t say anything. He liked to believe Charlotte was different from the other women and, in his mind, she was; something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. In the early days of their friendship, he thought she gave off a different vibe because she was a lesbian. As time went on, he realised this wasn’t the case.

“I just think,” Joel continued, “she needs space because I let her down so badly. That won’t be hard to forget. Or forgive. And I don’t expect her to make it easy for me but… Hopefully, in time, we can get back to what we had.”

Michael didn’t say anything. He took another drag on his cigarette. As he exhaled the smoke, he threw the butt across the road.

“Nothing to say?” asked Joel.

“Me? Like what?”

“We’ve been friends for years. Just thought… Just thought you might have something to say or some advice or something…”

Michael shook his head, “I just hope it all works out for you,” he said. “You talk about anything else?”

Joel shook his head.

“Where the hell are they?” Michael asked. He looked past Joel, down the road in the direction he expected the tow-truck to appear.

“What are you not telling me?” Joel asked Michael. The sheepish look, Michael was desperately trying to hide, was too obvious for even a blind person to miss. “What is it?”

“What? Nothing,” said Michael doing his best to avoid eye contact.

“You’re lying. What is it? What? Tell me.”

“Nothing…”

“There’s nothing? We’ve been friends for years, more than I can remember, God only knows why. I know when you’re hiding something. It’s written all over your face!”

“I’m just tired… Like you were crabby because you’re tired… I guess I look… Look like I’m hiding something when I’m tired?”

“That’s bullshit! What is it?” Joel persisted.

“Nothing. Come on, if there was something, I’d tell you.”

“We were talking about Lara and you started to… That’s it!”

“What?” asked Michael, a flash of panic on his face.

“You don’t want me going back out with her,” said Joel, with a smug look on his face.

“Yes, yes… That’s it.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why don’t you want me going back out with her? You think it’s a mistake? You think I shouldn’t?” Joel continued.

“What? No. No, it’s not that at all…”

“It’s because he hit on me,” said Lara. Joel and Michael both jumped at the sound of her voice; neither of them had heard Lara approach them as they were so engrossed in their conversation — as well as keeping an eye out for the tow-truck.

“He… He what?” asked Joel.

“He hit on me,” Lara repeated. “The day you sent me that text message…”

“This true?” Joel turned to Michael with a look of disgust on his face.

“Well… I wouldn’t say it happened like that…” Michael knew, out of everything he had ever annoyed Joel with, this would be the thing that killed their friendship — something he wanted to avoid.

“You hit on her?”

“He did,” Lara confirmed.

“What did you say to her?” asked Joel.

“I just thought,” Michael thought on his feet to find the perfect excuse, “I just thought she might have been suicidal… She loved you, man. She loved you.”

“Suicidal?” asked Lara — almost offended. “You think I’d kill myself over him? I’m that weak? Fuck you…”

“I thought you might have wanted to go out and have a laugh… Take your mind off things,” Michael butted in, trying his best at doing all round damage control. “I was trying to be a friend!”

Lara reached into her pocket and pulled out her mobile phone. “Trying to be a friend?” she asked. She started to flick through her messages.

Michael remembered the message he sent her. Another flash of panic across his face. “Well, obviously… If you were feeling low… I mean you could have read more into it.”

“Makes sense,” said Joel.

“And fuck you too,” said Lara — still frantically flicking through her messages. “Here… Here it is.” She handed the phone to Michael, “Does that ring any bells to you?”

Michael didn’t say anything.

“Show me,” said Joel.

“Okay, so… I think I remember sending it now… Yes… I was drunk. Definitely drunk. Extremely… And very… Disgustingly drunk. In fact, how I didn’t end up in hospital that night… With permanent liver damage is…”

“Show me the text message, Michael.” He didn’t wait for Michael to do as instructed, he simply reached across and snatched the phone from his hands. “Drunk?”

“Definitely.”

“You sent the message at two in the afternoon,” Joel showed him the message again.

“Alcoholic! That’s me.”

“You’re a piece of shit, really. How have we been friends for so long? How have I not seen this before? Truly. A piece of shit.”

“Ah, come on, man… You dumped her. Fair game.”

“You tried to fuck my girlfriend and that’s all you can say?”

“She wasn’t your girlfriend when I tried to fuck her, to be fair. And when you were together… I never once thought about it. Because friends don’t do that to each other.”