Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Mercury rifled through the House's DVD collection. It had been pouring down all day and the kids were fractious to say the least.

"I want something with action in," Eddie said. "Nothing soppy."

"Ugh," Brooke replied. "No superheroes. They're so tired."

"Yeah, that's why they're the number-one films all the time," Eddie fired back.

Mercury stood, holding a DVD. "Enough squabbling. How about this?"

Eddie and Brooke looked at him.

" Titanic ? That's ancient," Brooke said.

"Anything from this century?" Eddie added.

"Fine," Mercury said, putting it down. "You choose. I surrender."

Hassan came in. "Can we watch Jurassic Park ?"

Eddie and Brooke both cheered.

"You set it up," Mercury said. "Give me five minutes."

Nick was grinning in the doorway. Mercury followed him through into the office.

"You don't mind me watching a movie with the kids, do you?" Mercury asked. "I've done two logbooks today."

"Course not," Nick replied. "You're amazing with them, you know. Have you ever thought about making it a career? You know, when you're done with the old community service?"

Mercury hadn't. He had been planning how to relaunch his channels now that he had lost the hideous ankle jewellery.

What if he didn't have to resume things exactly as he'd left them? It was food for thought.

"I hadn't," he replied. "Do you think they'd let me? I have a criminal record."

"Hey, when I got out of prison, I never expected I'd find myself here. It took a lot of hoop jumping, but I made it."

Mercury let the office door shut behind him. "I'd love to kiss you right now," he said. "I know I can't. Fucking hell, it's hard to fight it sometimes."

Nick laughed. "You're only human."

"Funny guy."

"How about coming to mine after work?" Nick asked. "Stay over. You can kiss me as many times as you like then."

Mercury leant against his desk. "Now that's way too much temptation for me to refuse. I'll need to go home after work to get some things."

"Go now if you like," Nick said. "I'll watch dinosaurs with that lot."

"Sure?"

Surreptitiously, Mercury reached down and ran his fingertip along Nick's hand.

"I'm sure. Be back as soon as you can."

Mercury dashed through the front door. He wanted to be at Nick's in record time. His cock ached at the prospect of Nick's lips around it.

"Oh, hello."

Madeline appeared in the kitchen doorway.

"Hi. I'm in and out. I'm staying at Nick's."

"Is that right?" Madeline said with a grin.

"Yes, it is."

"You like him. I can tell."

Mercury dropped his bag. "Yeah, I do."

"Come and have a drink with your mum," Madeline said. "You can spare the time, can't you?"

It took extreme willpower for Mercury not to bolt upstairs and get his things. Yet he didn't want to push her away.

"One sparkling water then I'm out of here."

"Fine," she replied.

They walked through into the kitchen. Sunlight streamed in through the conservatory. Mercury saw it all through a different lens now. A mixture of guilt and appreciation swirled inside him.

Madeline poured their drinks.

"Go on then," she said. "Tell me why he's having this effect on you. Don't get me wrong, I like him very much. It's just I've never seen you like this. You're always so controlled."

"Controlled? Do you mean a heart of ice?"

Madeline handed him a glass. "Of course not. Don't take it the wrong way. I am loving seeing you so happy. I am intrigued why this man."

They wandered through into the conservatory. Mercury shifted his mother's discarded script and flopped down on the sofa. She curled up on the chaise longue.

"I think it's how he turned his life around. I truly respect him."

Madeline frowned. "Turned his life around? How?"

A seed of doubt lodged in Mercury's stomach. "Oh, nothing much. A few bad decisions when he was little. That's all."

"That isn't all, is it?"

"Mother, what is this? An interrogation? We're only seeing each other. It's nothing major."

He got up. Closely followed by Madeline who sprang off the chaise longue like a panther. "You're keeping something from me, Mercury Morrison. You've never been able to lie. Out with it."

"Nick's history is his business."

"And mine. I'll ask Jessica to sweep the web or whatever it is. I would rather it came from you."

Mercury wrestled his arm free. "Fucking hell. He spent a little time in prison."

"How long?"

"A year."

"For what?"

"He got in with a bunch of nasty people when he left school. They had him delivering and being security. The police caught him with a gun."

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Madeline said, running her hands through her hair. "Delivering drugs, I suppose?"

Mercury had had enough of this conversation. "I don't think it would be Christmas cards, no."

Madeline gave him a glare that could be straight from one of her lesser-successful movies. "I suppose there's no point in me telling you to finish it."

"None whatsoever. It was years ago and he's running a youth project, for fuck's sake. Can't you see the good in that?"

She stared deeply into his eyes before smiling.

"I will have to try, darling," she said, squeezing his hands. "It's a shock, that's all. Listen, I'll speak to Jessica about how we manage it, should you want to go down that road."

Of course she would be primarily worried for her public image. Selfless Madeline Morrison.

"We're a long way from that," Mercury said. "I'd like to bring him to your lunch. When you get to know him properly, you'll see what I see."

Madeline smiled weakly and very unconvincingly. "Then that's what we'll do."

Mercury kissed her on the cheek and took the bottle of champagne. "Thanks."

"Cheeky shit," she said with a laugh.

He went to go but she pulled him close.

"I only want what's best for you, Mercury. That's all I've ever wanted."

What she thought was best for him more like. Mercury wasn't about to get into all that. He had somewhere to be and bottle of champagne to drink.

"What's cooking, good looking?" Mercury asked as he followed Nick down the hallway.

The smells coming from the kitchen were amazing.

"Jerk chicken, rice and salad. Just like my mother taught me."

"I'd love to meet her," Mercury said, running his hands up Nick's back and resting them on his shoulder. "I bet she's different to my mother."

"Just a bit."

The kitchen was the same size as at the House although filled with a mishmash of furniture. There were some pictures on the wall of Nick with friends on holidays.

"I don't know much about your life other than next door," Mercury said, staring at them. "Who are these?"

Nick glanced over his shoulder. "Oh, my cousins. We all went to Jamaica to visit our grandmother. She's eighty-five years old and still going strong. Have you ever been?"

Mercury nodded. "Yeah, me and Mum went on a Caribbean cruise once. She had met Steve Franklin…"

"Oh God, I forgot she went out with him."

Steve Franklin was an American comic his mother had dated for a year. Unfortunately, he had saved the funny side of his personality for the big screen.

"Yeah. He spent most of his waking hours studying the ratings for his movies. So boring."

Nick turned from the cooker and took Mercury in his hands. "At least you were bored in luxury. My parents worked most of the time. Me and my three brothers were hungry."

Mercury frowned. "Who cared for you?"

"Drink?" Nick asked clearly deflecting Mercury's question.

"I shamelessly stole a bottle of fizz right out of my mother's hand. Let me. Finish your story."

Nick sat at the kitchen table. "It's a bit heavy, I'll warn you."

Mercury grabbed two glasses from the drainer. "I can handle it. I've been typing up logbooks for weeks."

Nick laid his hands out on the table. "When I was about eight, we lived in a ground floor flat. The whole building had been a house before they converted. There was barely enough room to swing a cat."

Mercury sat opposite Nick. "Five of you?"

"Yeah, me and my brothers had one bedroom. Mum and Dad had the other. Two guys lived above us."

"Oh yeah?" Mercury said, raising an eyebrow.

"Correct, they were a couple. George and Wayne. George made costumes for the West End and Wayne worked in computers or something like that."

Mercury popped the cork.

"George worked at home most of the time," Nick continued. "All we heard was that sewing machine going. When they found out that Mum and Dad were struggling with childcare, he became our unofficial nanny."

Mercury poured them both generous glasses of champagne. "I bet that made things easier when you came out," Mercury said.

"Not exactly," he explained. "Two years later, Wayne got sick."

There were no prizes for guessing what was coming next. "AIDS?" Mercury asked.

With tears in his eyes, Nick nodded. "Yeah. They were making massive progress with medication. It was still a death sentence, though. He didn't last the year."

Mercury reached across and took Nick's hand. "Fuck, I'm so sorry. And George?"

"He hung on another six months. It was awful. The weight he lost. Mum cared for him. Well, we all did."

Several of Madeline's friends had died from AIDS-related complications. It had mainly happened before Mercury was born. They were photographs and stories rather than actual people.

"I had already figured out I was the same as them," Nick said. "It terrified me. So, I pushed it deep down. I couldn't put my mother through that."

Mercury frowned. "What did you do?"

"You know what I did. I played the hardman instead. Fat lot of good it did me. The night before I was in court, I told my parents and guess what?"

"They already suspected."

Nick nodded. "What a fucking waste of time."

They sat in silence for a second. The pan bubbling away.

"Seems a bit inappropriate to have champagne," Mercury said.

"No way," Nick replied, grabbing his glass. "Let's drink to Wayne and George."

"Wayne and George," Mercury repeated, taking hold of his own.

They clinked and took sips. The bubbles exploded on his tongue. Every part of him wanted to throw his arms around Nick and never let go.

"I'm so sorry, Nick," Mercury said. "That sounds horrific."

Nick wiped his eye. "Yeah. I guess it was a bit easier for you?"

"Madeline Morrison couldn't have been happier," Mercury said. "She had the ultimate accessory plus would never have to compete with another woman for my affection."

He realised he shouldn't make light of it. What Nick had been through was awful.

"My father has barely spoken to me since but he's a twat. Thinks he can judge me. Do you know the real reason why my mother left him? This didn't get into any of the books."

"If you want to tell me."

Mercury found that he did want to tell him. He hid behind the lucky-rich-kid image most of the time.

"We lived in LA until I was eight. Such an amazing city when you're a kid. Theme parks, sunshine, beach. One day, Mum was making us breakfast in the kitchen. We assumed that Dad had stayed out again. I'd left my Buzz Lightyear figure in the den. When I went to get him, I found my dad, buck naked on the couch with two girls. They were fast asleep or out cold."

"Shit," Nick replied.

"That's not the worst bit. They'd left all sorts of shit out on the table. Needles, spoons, the usual crap. I picked up a syringe and took it through to Mum to ask what it was. We were gone by the end of the next week."

Nick sat back. "That's awful. Good on your mother for walking. How come she didn't name and shame him?"

Mercury smiled. "Because Madeline Morrison knows the value of everything. When she released her first autobiography, my dad was in the middle of his very public rehab."

"I remember that. He made a film about it, didn't he?"

"Certainly did. The publicity machine had spun a tale that he'd had a terrible upbringing full of trauma. When he got wind Mum might release her side, that would put him right in the shit."

"How did they resolve it?"

"Let's say, I get an annual payment for the rest of my life. Mum also insisted that I had a relationship with my grandmother. She wanted me to have that special love. She never had anything to do with my scumbag dad again."

Nick exhaled. "Just goes to show. We never know the true story."

"Definitely not," Mercury replied. "You thought you were getting a very different person from the one you got."

Nick leant over the table and kissed Mercury. "I'm not complaining. It's nice having you here. I know it's not what you're used to. It means a lot."

Mercury shook his head. "You still don't get it. I love it here. It's a home. I'm only a lodger in my mother's house. It didn't bother me before because I was so focused on being out and about. Since the curfew…I don't know, things feel different."

Nick kissed Mercury's knuckles. "Move in across the road and I'll cook jerk chicken for you every day."

"I'm not sure I'm cut out for this actual area. No offence. I think I'm going to spend a bit of time finding one that I am suited to. Where's the harm?"

"Sounds exciting to me."

"Yeah. Me too."

Mercury's life had careened off in a direction he never expected. He didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Yet, he had to find out. Nick's words about him working with kids similar to those at Bodhi House were never far from his thoughts.

The idea that he could make a difference in the world was an attractive one. He couldn't quite see himself as a social worker. There had to be something he could do. Mercury made a mental note to discuss it properly with Nick. Preferably when they were in each other's arms.

Opportunities seemed to be presenting themselves every day. Mercury made a vow he wouldn't waste any of them.