A&E

Life was very dull without Slam and Dave, I had to say. I still had to do all the normal stuff like counselling and eating and gossiping but it was so lonely nowadays when I was so used to then both entertaining me all day. It had only been a few days, I guessed, and I knew Slam would probably find a way in soon, but until then life was dull.

Hendy, on the other hand, revelled in his absence. Although people were still mad at him, he was restored as hospital pin-up and had cheered up considerably. Unless you mentioned Slam of course.

And now I was terrified because I was floating there on the edge of a swimming pool being watched over by a lifeguard til Hendy came out. Why did he rope me in to stuff like this when I didn’t feel ready? I was feeling lazy, and though I wanted to get fit and healthy again, I really couldn’t be bothered with all this physio shit.

And the worst thing was that it was a public pool. Although it wasn’t particularly full and no one was really paying attention to me, I was still conscious that I was in public, out of the hospital for the first time and people were probably looking at me. And what if I did something embarrassing like nearly drown? I was so paranoid about people that I didn’t want to look at my surroundings myself, and soak up what I hadn’t seen in a long time. The car journey had been short but I’d fallen asleep even then and now I was tired even just sitting on the floaty thing trying to get used to the water.

I paddled my feet in the water until I heard the volume of the room decrease suddenly and I hoped I wasn’t doing something stupid. I looked round but they weren’t looking at me. It was Hendy, walking out of the changing rooms in his Speedos, buff and brown with his clipboard. I glared at him to try and avoid dealing with any jealous feelings. I’d been in a daze before but now I realised that I was in a public pool in trunks. What must my body look like?

I look down, seeing my ribs stick out disgustingly. My stomach was weird and discoloured, and I stared at it in gross fascination, comparing the pale, sickly colour of my skin to the sparkling water. My skin was flaking and felt like it would rip. My body had hardened into an odd shape, like I was bloated. I was so tiny and insignificant compared to Hendy, and even compared to the stick-thin lifeguard girl who was now eyeing up Hendy. What must she think of me? There was a time I was confident with girls and we’d had a laugh until I’d got self-conscious.

She gave a tinkling laugh as Hendy dropped into the water and smiled up at her, “I’ll take it from here Caroline, thanks for your help!”

She smiled at him and waved at me before retreating to her distant post on the other side of the pool. Now I felt even more self-conscious, alone with Hendy. I tried to remind myself that he’d seen it all before, but now people were checking him out and it drew attention to me.

“Now now have you got used to the pool yet?” Hendy turned to me briefly before going back to make notes on his clipboard by the edge of the pool.

“I’m practically wrinkly,” I said sarcastically, “Can I get out now? What were you doing in there anyway, having gay sex in the changing rooms?”

“No you can’t get out, we haven’t even started yet!”

“You didn’t answer,” I pointed out, “Anyway aren’t you supposed to like ease me in or something? Not just chuck me in an expect me to be able to do ten lengths.”

“I’m not expecting you to do anything,” he said.

“Oh I see, you knew I was a failure from the start then!”

He sighed, “Don’t be difficult.”

I smirked at him, then as soon as he turned to make another note, I dived headfirst into the water and off the float. I could swim anyway, so I should be able to handle it, shouldn’t I? Either way, should give him a good scare. I ducked underwater and heard him call my name urgently, diving under himself. I hid behind someone doing a length, then dived under again as soon as I saw him come up for breath. I charged forward and grabbed his legs, pulling him under, then I swam off, enjoying myself far too much.

“Come here you big bastard!” I heard him puff as he swam after me with strong, powerful strokes. He may be strong and fast, but I was a wily one and ducked under, dodging and hiding behind people.

Me, the guy who’d been immobile for so long in hospital. And I was swimming effortlessly, fast, away from Hendy. I stopped as I thought about this. Then I realised I was in the deep end and panicked. How had I been swimming so well? How had I-and I’d stopped and now I was actually falling in and I’d have to be rescued by Hendy and everything was going pretty swirly and nearly black, and I didn’t know if it was rushing in my ears or just the water, but I definitely couldn’t hear anyone anymore.

But I didn’t care. I was used to being looked after now, and I didn’t care either way. If I died, so what, if I lived, so what? There were strong arms pulling me up now, and I knew somehow that they were Hendy’s, but I couldn’t be bothered to open my eyes and see if this was true. Or to see the inevitable eyes on me, pitying and whatever. He was talking to me now, seeing if I was awake and breathing, but who cared if I didn’t reply? But then I felt him lean over me and I heard mouth-to-mouth floating around- eww! I sat up suddenly and sprayed all the water out of my mouth, grinning at Hendy.

“Hi Hendy!” I said chirpily, “Look you’ve had your romp in the changing rooms already, so would you mind getting off me please?”

A few people tittered in the background as they went back to the pool, and Caroline suppressed a grin as she went back to her duties. Hendy looked a bit pink. “I think it’s time we went bac-”

“Oh no, I’m going right back in!” I exclaimed. I knew I couldn’t dive in because I couldn’t even stand on my own two feet properly yet, but how had I swam? Was my immobility psychological then? Either way, I just flopped back into the pool. Things were easier in water with the freedom to move my legs as I pleased while on the ground I just couldn’t bring myself to move.

There was silence around the pool, and some scattered giggles. I broke the surface, wondering if they were laughing at me, or something Hendy had done but when I followed the direction of their gazes, I saw Slam.

Hendy looked furious and walked right up to him, poking him in the chest with his clipboard, “Look young man, I have warned you before about disrupting my patient’s recovery!”

Slam shrugged and threw a careless grin at his new circle of fangirls, “Why would you wear Speedos Hendy?” The girls tittered and squeaked when he smirked at them again. He himself was in swimming shorts, his great body on display for all the girls, and guys, let’s face it- to look at.

“Slam, get ou-”

“This is a public pool Hendy,” Slam said calmly. He turned his back on him and walked up to Caroline instead, “Hey Caz, how’s Trenty boy?”

Caroline, who’d been enjoying drooling over Slam like everyone else now looked alarmed, “I’m sure he’s fine, not that I would know,” she didn’t meet his eye and played with her whistle.

Slam made an effortless dive into the pool beside me, “Hey, I didn’t think you could move let alone swim mate! How’s it going?”

I looked around expecting to see Hendy warning Slam off me again but instead he’d stalked over to the seats in the corner and seemed to be looking behind them, “What’s up there then?”

Slam swam back to surface, towing my float with him while Hendy now looked furious. He was standing hands on hips, towering over some people, “Marina! Natalie! What is the meaning of this? What d’you think you’re doing?”

“This is a public pool Seb,” Nat pointed out, ducking under his arm, making him turn around.

Marina ducked under his other arm, coffee in hand, running in our direction, “Slam! Where are your co-” then she stopped short at Slam, “Slam! You’re....wet!”

“Yeah this is a pool love,” Slam said with a smile.

Marina, over the initial shock and delight of an almost-naked wet Slam, tapped her foot impatiently, “Where are they Slam?”

He laughed appreciatively, “Oh they’re in the changing rooms, they’ll be out in a mo. JP just accidentally went in the wrong ones and caused quite a stir among the girlies!”

Marina giggled then put a hand over mouth while Nat rolled her eyes, “Can’t you have a Stumpy or Minton lookalike cousin Slam?”

I got off the float and sat on the edge, helped by Slam, who raised his eyebrows at her, “You can’t pick and choose who they look like Wingham!”

Hendy came back into our circle, replacing a phone in his bag and looking pleased with himself, “Right, that’s enough nonsense girls, get back to the hospital now. You have work to do which doesn’t include lounging by pools admiring hot-” he looked at Slam, “admiring men.” He looked at Marina, who was smiling at Caroline, “Or women!”

“I’m not gay!” Marina protested.

Nat burst out laughing and coughed out a “Sure!” Then she frowned at Hendy, “But it’s our break now, we need a bit of time to relax!”

Marina was craning her neck, trying to get a glimpse into the guys’ changing rooms, “And what better way than to-”

“Sorted ladies,” Hendy looked too happy, “I just phone ahead and found a couple of people who are quite willing to switch breaks with you, so they’ve been changed,” he made a vamoosh gesture, “So back to work!”

Nat rolled her eyes and sighed, but Marina was rooted to the spot, outraged, “UHA! You’re sending me back to work just cause you’re jealous I’m checking out Slam and his cousins! If they ever come out that is!!”

“Checking me out, eh M!” Slam waggled his eyebrows at her.

“You won’t be seeing any French cousins today sweetheart,” Hendy said smirking, “Now back to work like a good girl! You have my office to clean and my records to file!”

“UHA!” Marina turned to Slam, “Bring your cousins when you next visit!”

“Um Slam’s banned!” I pointed out.

“Send your cousins Slam!!” Marina said, unperturbed. “Please?!”

Hendy tapped his foot, “Sorry Marina,” he said smiling over-sweetly, then he turned to Slam, “But your cousins are banned too!”

*

“Yeah it was a comfortable life,” I admitted, “I really enjoyed it in the suburbs being well-off and attractive and all. And living in that kind of neighbourhood where everyone does well and you can leave your back doors open? Of course, who knows where my parents have moved now.”

“So you think you used to be attractive then?”

Trust him to follow up on that. I sighed, “Well yeah. I mean we all were. I suppose. I don’t really know, what is attractive? Girls used to like me, and I used to be confident with them, that’s all I know.”

“And how many serious relationships did you have?”

“Well I had a few of those fun ones until the end of secondary school really, those never count, they never last long. Had a couple of girlfriends, end of school, college kind of time. One or two in uni. Then-” My mouth clamped shut.

“Then?” Hendy probed gently.

“Nothing,” I said firmly, blocking out all thoughts of her from my head. We always reached a point where I was about to mention her and I stopped. Hendy knew this well by now.
He didn’t get any further, “So what about guy mates? What kind of guys did you hang around with?”

“Well it’s weird, I mean guys don’t have cliques like girls do, but even then there wasn’t much difference between the guys considering the neighbourhood we grew up in. I mean we were all all-rounders really. Ask Slam, he grew up in a similar neighbourhood, our childhoods were probably exactly the same!”

Hendy nodded, “So what kind of guys were you?”

“We were all at the good schools so no one was dumb really. We were all pretty extra-curricular, that’s the way it is. I mean I was in a million teams at school and college and even uni, footie, rugby, cricket, so many. And then I was into my music and cars and bikes and stuff from my brother.”

“And what kind of guys did you like hanging out with?”

The phrasing of the question confused me, “Uhh well we were all the same really. We were fun and confident and loud. And pretty sweet, I reckon so.” I frowned, “What relevance does this have, why would you want to know what type of guy I prefer?”

Hendy looked troubled, “And then today when you nearly had another bad accident-” he seemed to be having a conversation with himself. “What would I have done?”

I waved my hand in front of his face, “Hendy? What the fuck?!”

He exhaled slowly, then looked at me, suddenly alert, “It’s just that I-kind of-I really like you.” He leant over, his lips gently touching mine.

I wasn’t strong, but I shoved him as hard as I could in the chest, “What the fuck Hendy?!” I shouted in a strangled voice, while he sprang away and started hurriedly apologising. “No! Get away from me, I don’t ever want to see you again!!”