Kieran's Pride by Liam Livings

Kieran's Pride by Liam Livings

Author:Liam Livings [Livings, Liam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-08T16:00:00+00:00


***

Soon afterwards, I tried to talk to Jo about how irresponsible he’d been, how he’d left me with no option but to come back and look after him. He maintained he’d done nothing wrong. “People do it all the time, no problems.”

“But you knew I wouldn’t leave you.”

“I knew you’d look after me, isn’t that what friends are for? Best friends.” He looked innocently directly into my eyes. “If you’d got really drunk you would have trusted me to look after you, wouldn’t you?”

“Well yeah, but that’s a bit different.”

He looked away nonchalantly.“How?”

“Illegal for a start.”

“Details. I’m talking principles.” He turned to look me in the eye.

Principles, now that’s where it all got a bit confusing. Jo explained that the basic principle behind a friendship was looking after each other, and how that trumped everything else. And that’s what made our friendship so perfect, addictive, yet at the same time confusing and painful.

We gave each other space over the next few days. I reflected on Jo’s argument about the principles of friendship. Jo continued shopping.

One evening he walked over to where I was eating alone, carrying armfuls of shopping bags. “How much longer are you going to keep this up?”

“Don’t know what you mean.” I shrugged and still didn’t make eye contact.

“Pull the other one, it’s got bells on. I apologised didn’t I? We had fun that night didn’t we?”

“Once I realised you weren’t going to die.” Still no eye contact.

“Kiss and make up?” He held out his arms to hug me.

I put my cutlery down and leant in for a hug. Did he apologise? Did he actually say sorry? I didn’t want to spoil the moment, so I filed that thought for later.

“I know what we should do before we leave. Everyone goes on about kangaroos in Australia, but what about these quokkas? No one back home will have heard of them, something to impress people with once we’re home.”

I shrugged, still thinking about when to open the apology file.

“Come on, it’ll be fun. Mini kangaroos, a boat trip to an island, what’s not to like?”

On the boat I looked at the sun, trying to memorise its heat and the gentle sea spray against my skin, leaving salt marks. Jo talked about what we should do once on the island, the best places to spot the quokkas, and where to eat. All gleaned from the friendly Swede at the YHA reception. He was evidently a very talented man.

Like the sea spray, I let his words wash over me.

I opened my eyes and walked over to a man I’d spotted before I’d drifted off. Pleased he was still there, and still staring at me, I held out my hand to introduce myself. Blond curly haired Clyde worked on the island’s cafe and offered to show me the best bits of the island. He lived in Perth, but hadn’t yet been replaced by the robots as he didn’t once mention how amazing the city was, much to my surprise.

Jo held out his hand to introduce himself: “I’m Jo, we’re together.



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