The Promise

When I arrived back at the house it was pitch black. I was surrounded by the silence that I wasn’t used to. Normally I was in the presence of four men. My head was spinning and I desperately wanted to laugh, but part of me was still sober enough to know that they were sleeping and I would wake them.

I crept into my bed and slept.

 

When the light invaded my room I woke up. My head felt like there were little men inside drilling away at my skull with a hammer. It was painful, but a pleasant distraction from the pain in the rest of my body. Carefully getting dressed, I successfully managed to tie my hair in a bobble before coming down stairs and seeing two plates of breakfast sitting seductively on a table. Suddenly I became hungry and without a moment’s hesitation I sat down and tucked into a gorgeous plate of beans on toast.

Warren appeared with a pan, looking at me with confusion.

“Where’s Allan?”

I was too hungry for my manners and spoke with toast in my mouth. In any other situation I would have been horrified, but like I said, I had been in the presence of four men, and for a long time too.

“I drank him into a coma. The bar owner took him in for the night.”

“Ah,” he said. He looked at the plate opposite me. “I guess I won’t say no to seconds then.”

Sitting down at the table he happily tucked into more food.

Apart from us the house looked empty. Joe usually spoke to the people in the town while Will went running as part of his exercise plan, but it seemed too early for that.

“So how was he last night?”

I knew he was referring to the way he acted last night, but I didn’t want to talk about him in a negative light.

“You know, just typical Allan.”

“Allen has never sulked that much before.”

I wanted to challenge Warren, anger rose in me which appeared from nowhere, but I couldn’t do it. Warren meant no harm, he was just constantly curious, like a newborn puppy. But every once in a while you get tired of their persistence to gossip or spill the news, and I didn’t think he could keep a secret which was a betrayal of his leader.

Instead I filled my mouth with beans on toast and mimed that I couldn’t talk. He simply shrugged.

“Did he tell you why he behaved that way?”

I told him he hadn’t. Warren said nothing.

I looked at him curiously. When he saw my expression he shook his head.

“It’s nothing.”

“What?”

Warren shook his head. I kicked him under the table. He screamed.

“I was just wondering if he told you how he feels.”

I waited but he didn’t finish the sentence.

“About what Warren?”

“How he feels about you.”

Quickly I found myself blushing.

“Nothing’s going on.”

He laughed. Getting up, Warren took our plates and walked over to the sink to clean them. I stayed where I was. I wanted to change the subject, but part of me was curious.

“What do you know that I don’t? He’s my best friend Warren.”

When he saw my face was serious he laughed even harder.

“Lyd, you basically have the relationship without the sex.” Fire burned in my cheeks. I wanted the conversation to stop. There was no other subject that came to mind, my mind was blank. Instead I watched him as he scrubbed the dishes and found the dish towel to dry them. As he was drying them he kept sneaking glances at me and laughing hysterically.

A banging sound came from outside. Warren dropped the dish in shock, watching the door swinging open to see a drunk Allen walking inside. He sat down, put his head in his hands and moaned. Warren burst out laughing again and walked towards him.

“Wakey wakey.”

Allan whacked him, making Warren jump backwards out of his reach.

“I’m going outside. I’ll leave you two alone.”

He winked at me while I glared at him. When he left I looked at Allan properly. His dishevelled hair looked even more of a mess than ever. There were bags under his eyes and his lips were dry. I went to get him some water. When I came back he was looking at me.

“You didn’t tell anyone about what we talked about last night.”

I corrected him.

“What you talked about, and no.”

There was a pause, made awkward by what Warren had said. I knew it was lies, but when you get thoughts in your head you tend to believe them, no matter how ridiculous they seem.

Allan made no motion, only groaning occasionally.

“Stop being such a girl,” I said.

He looked up and managed a pity laugh.

“You had a rough day last night, when you weren’t looking I drank double so you could win the drinking game.”

I laughed. “Oh right, so we’re going with that are we?”

A smile appeared around the edge of his lips. He lifted his head up and slowly leaned back in his chair. Looking around, he nodded to himself, deep in thought.

“So is Joe playing hero then?”

I stared at him blankly. His hands rose in the air defensively.

“Hey, just asking.”

I got up, walking out of the house and outside. A few moments later and he walked by my side, one hand clutching at his head. I smirked.

“I’m sorry.”

We kept walking. Further and further into the town, people walking past us greeted us with smiles. Smiling back and saying hello, I turned to Allan.

“We’re heroes too.” I paused. Looking around, some people admittedly didn’t recognise us and moved on without acknowledging us. “But this is better. The Sheriff and his guards can pick Joe from a line up, but he can’t with us. We get the glory here and the safety there.”

His eyebrow raised slightly, but he shrugged and smiled in response.

“Why are you suddenly like this?” I asked.

“I’m just tired of it all. Pretending to be his equal when we’re clearly not.”

“We are Allan.”

I walked off in another direction. Again, he caught up with me. We walked in silence for a few minutes. When we had gone in a circle, around the town and back to our house, we stood at the front door for a while.

“Just promise me that you won’t do anything.”

Allan looked at me, then sighing and looking in the air expressionless.

“For you.”

“That’s all I ask.”

He forced a smile, though concern was still in his eyes. With our conversation over, he walked back inside.