Chapter 12: The Ute

Noah read the messages three times standing on the footpath.

A car went past and honked at him for being in the way of nothing.

He rang Damian.

It was twenty to eight in New South Wales.

In Perth it was twenty to five in the morning.

It rang six times.

"Noah?" Damian's voice was thick with sleep. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Did you tell Brodie I came onto you?"

Silence.

Noah heard a door shut, and Damian's breathing change.

"What?"

"In the car. Did you tell him I came onto you while you couldn't walk? That you didn't know how to tell me no?"

"No. Noah, no. I never said that. I'd never say that."

"He says you did."

"He's lying."

"Then what did you say?"

Damian didn't answer straight away.

That was the answer.

"He asked me," Damian said. "In the car, the whole way to the airport. He kept asking."

"And?"

"And I said there was nothing. That you were my roommate and you'd been looking after me and he should drop it."

Noah sat down on the low brick wall outside the post office.

"You promised," he said.

"I know."

"In the shower. You promised me you'd never say I was nothing."

"I know. I know I did."

Damian's voice cracked.

"I panicked. He was right there and I panicked. I'm sorry."

Noah watched an old man hose the footpath outside the bakery across the road.

"He's threatening me, Damian," he said. "He says he'll tell the team what I am."

"I'll ring him."

"And say what? That it's nothing again?"

Damian went quiet.

"I'm not leaving," Noah said. "I took the caretaker job. I'm here till February."

"You didn't get on the coach?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to stay. That's all. I wanted to."

Noah heard him breathe out, long and shaky.

"Can I ring you tonight?" Damian said.