In Pieces Read Online Free PDF

sunshine.
    â€˜He’s posh then, is he?’ cracked Jimmy, but Brenda didn’t smile.
    â€˜You don’t need to come if you don’t want to. Nobody’s forcing you. But it’s you who’s missing out if you don’t.’
    â€˜Only joking. Course we’ll come. Won’t we, Si?’
    â€˜Well, I’d been thinking of starting back soon,’ Si muttered dubiously.
    Brenda made a face. She’d always thought Si was a bit wet. But quite sweet all the same. Not that she gave any credence to those in the bar who suggested that Jimmy and Si were queer. She knew Jimmy wasn’t for a start. And Si, always so repressed, distant, too clever by half—she half-fancied him really. He was different. At least he wasn’t on the dole.
    â€˜No, come on! You don’t need to stay long if you don’t want to. Time to party, eh, Si?’ And as usual Si couldn’t be bothered to object. Jimmy won the day.
    â€˜Yeah, suppose so. Why not?’
    ~
    Two hours later Si found himself in a party from hell pressed in on all sides by strangers’ sweating bodies, drinking an unhealthy-looking cocktail through a straw and discussing television with a boring stranger. Brenda, Jimmy and everyone else he knew had disappeared. What am I doing here? I hate parties, why did I agree to come? he wondered.
    He abandoned the loquacious girl who’d cornered him, even though she was still in full flow about the sad demise of the TV dinner. He went in search of Jimmy and found him near a table straining under the weight of a large metal bucket containing bottles of beer and icy water.
    â€˜I scored two today against Tranmere,’ Jimmy boasted as Si came within hearing range. ‘It’s only a matter of time before one of the big clubs spots me and then I’m away…’ He’d been celebrating those two goals all night, but the wafer-thin, pallid girl didn’t seem to mind. She listened absent-mindedly.
    The goals had become more spectacular during the evening with each telling. The tap in from a goal-keeping mistake had, after a few more drinks, become a volley from ten yards. Now it had become an overhead bicycle kick from the edge of the box into the top right hand corner. Amazing, thought Si. Nobody else seemed to notice or care that the truth had been lost somewhere between The Feathers and the party.
    â€˜Baby, we should go someplace else,’ Jimmy intoned. He seemed not to have noticed Si, standing beside him.
    â€˜Do you know I’m a supermodel?’ Si tried not to look surprised. It was true that she did have a strange, haunting quality to her, but how could she be a model—she was all skin and bones?
    â€˜Yes, baby. Sure do. You’ve told me four times already.’ Jimmy flashed his killer smile and Si looked away, his stomach turning. Sometimes Jimmy was too much. Even for Si, who had known him all his life. Even as a kid, when they were playing soccer in the street and the ball had gone off course, destroying someone’s rosebed, even then Jimmy had charmed himself out of trouble. Often it had been Si sent to retrieve the ball and to receive the abuse, while Jimmy and the others snickered around next-door’s hedge.
    But Si kept these thoughts to himself. He knew that at the end of the day Jimmy was the only real mate he had. The only one who would put himself out, any time, any place, to help him out. For example, dashing across the world to get him out of jail when his smuggling project went wrong—not that he’d got a smuggling project yet. But if he were to, then Si knew he could rely on Jimmy. Yes, Jimmy’s smarmy sweet-talk and loyalty would come in handy as they blasted their way out of the dank cells and abseiled to freedom.
    So, gratefully thinking how Jimmy had risked his all to get him out of jail, he forgot his rancour. ‘D’you want a drink, you two?’
    â€˜Hey, Si, where’ve you