Perfectly Dysfunctional

“That night, when we met you,” he started, more rushed than before, as if he as desperately trying to get me to see something. I nodded, “Max and Tom was first out, blah, blah, then Jay, blah, blah, but when Siva and I came out did you notice how tense Dave became?”

“I can honestly say that I didn’t, no, cos I was pretty tense myself seeing as I was y’know, meeting you all...” I said, suddenly feeling awkward and glancing to the floor. But not before I saw the hint of a smirk on his face. I blushed and stared harder at the tiled floor.

“Right, well he did, and you notice when his phone rang, how he’d had his hand in his pocket the whole time? And he buggered off pretty hastily, I think. I mean, if it were me who was with you, I’d have at least offered you a ride home or something, y’know?” A smile tugged at the corner of my lip but I refused to let it show, “And then literally ten seconds after he left there’s a gunshot, and your shoulder’s been ripped open by a bullet wound. But your shoulder was right in front of my heart. Call me crazy, Jenny, but I honestly believe he was aiming for me... Well, ‘whoever it was’ was aiming for me.”

“I’m sorry Nath, but that isn’t gonna be enough to convince me...” I trailed off and his eyes snapped to mine again.

“You’re not convinced because I’m not done yet. So the next day, after I took you home and we got ready and stuff, we went to that pub place, yeah, met everyone there. Now, your arm had been bandaged up for all of what, twelve hours? You weren’t out of the hospital like, two or three hours yet, and the minute you go up to that bar, he knows you’ve been shot.” He was saying this in a tone that suggested he didn’t believe a word of it, “Rumours about it my arse, by the way,” he added, “No one knew it happened until a couple more days after it when fans started seeing you with us all the time.”

“That’s true-” I started but was shushed. I stared hard at him but let him continue anyway.

“Yeah, so, you had went up to get both our drinks, and my guess is he saw us two come in late and spiked one, thinking that’d be the one that you’d give me. But then I went up to get Siva’s coke, and he assumed that one was for me and spiked that one too, and, unfortunately, you got the spiked one, and so did Siva... Instead of me.”

“Don’t be stupid, Nath, no one’s out to get you-”

“You don’t get it, do you?” he cut me off.

I shook my head, “I’m afraid I don’t, no.”

“He used you to get back at me! He’s still using you! And if you were back in London he’d be using you then; he’d have you wrapped round his finger, Jenny!”

I stood up, “So you’re telling me that the first friend I made in London is actually a psycho who’s been out to get you since high school, because what, you didn’t help him when he was being bullied? And that now he’s using me to get to you? Sorry Nathan, but-”

“But what Jenny? There’s no other way to explain this! He randomly shows up after however many years of not seeing him, and the night he shows up again you get shot right where my heart would’ve been if you hadn’t been standing there. You saw how scared he got when he realized the next day that you’d been shot and then how scared he got when he realized he’d fucked up. He was the only other person to touch any of our drinks! Hell Jenny, the police wanted a fucking picture of him, he’s practically a fucking suspect already!”

I was silent as I processed all this. I wanted to believe Nathan so much. I mean, so far he hadn’t lied to me about anything else but this, and I’d known him longer now and spoke to him more often now than I had Dave. “Jenny, please try and see things my way, it may not be the truth, but it’s a damn good-fitting theory, and even you can’t deny that.”

“Well, it still doesn’t explain the bus crash, does it?” I said quietly. I was starting to get a little scared now. Nathan seemed so certain, so sincere, but I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it... It all seemed a little too... American... Or perhaps a little too CSI... It just didn’t feel like we had a psycho on the loose chasing after us up and down the country. But I guess how does that feel anyway?

“It doesn’t have to just yet; there’s enough there already for you to know that I’m right, that I’m not lying.”

“You lied about all this until now.” I pointed out, almost inaudibly, and nearly instantly regretted it.

“Jenny, look at me,” he pulled my chin up a little, “Apart from this, I’ve never lied to you, and the only reason I lied about this was to try and keep you safe. But quite obviously, that failed, so now you know about it.” He straightened up a little and cleared his throat. “Hey, promise me something... Even if you decide you don’t believe me, just... be extra careful when you’re out and about on your own, okay?”

I nodded, not trusting my voice again. I had a gut feeling, a horrible, horrible gut feeling that Nathan was right, but I just didn’t want to believe it. After all, everything he had said about the ‘evidence’ pointing to Dave made perfect sense. I started to feel sick and sat back down again putting my head in my hands and leaning forward a little. I felt the bed dip right behind me and soon Nathan's arms were draped around my waist, his chin leaning on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Jenny.”

“Don’t be, it’s not your fault, is it?” I said and heard my phone ringing. Assuming it would be Emma calling I smiled and reached into my pocket to answer my phone.

“Please tell her that I haven’t killed you. There’s no need for her to come all the way out to Nottingham to beat the shit outta me,” I heard the smirk in Nathan's voice and knew he’d heard at least some of what she’d said earlier.

I smiled, “I think me answering will be enough for her just now; but expect an earful from her at one point,” I said as I hit answer, “Hello?”

“Hey, long time, no speak,” I felt my heart stop and an ice cold feeling shoot through my veins at the sound of the voice and immediately straightened up, throwing my bad shoulder into Nathan’s jaw in the process, and threw my phone against the wall. I watched it shatter and pulled my knees up to my chest. Nathan scooped me up and sat me across his lap, pulling my head towards his chest and stroking my hair.

Well one thing’s for sure, if I acted like that when he called, at least I now knew who I believed.