Meeting, continued

A few days later, I was walking back home from a day’s lectures and as I turned the corner into my street, I saw Martin emerge from my house. He cast a quick glance in my direction, but I’m nor sure he recognised me. He looked a bit worried about something, turned away from my front door and began walking away in the other direction.

I stepped inside the hall and saw Zoe sitting in the lounge, watching television. “What was up with Martin?” I asked. “He seemed totally preoccupied by something.”

My question had obviously caught her by surprise, because she wasn’t able to suppress a quick giggle. She hugged a cushion closer to herself, trying to cover her mouth with it. “Nothing,” she squeaked.

I laughed and shook my head. I knew I didn’t need to ask again. I walked into the kitchen and started making myself a cup of tea. Sure enough, after a few moments, Zoe bounced in behind me. "You're evil, you are," she said, jabbing me in the back with a finger.

I was doing my best not to make eye contact with her. I knew that was the best way of encouraging her to talk. "Why?"

"'Cause you've just made me be really mean to Martin."

I gave her a brief, quizzical look.

"You know the other day, yeah," she continued, "when you told Mike that Martin fancies him?"

I nodded.

"Well... I just told Martin that Mike fancies HIM!"

I couldn't stop myself from laughing briefly. "Why?" I asked.

"Oh come on! You said it'd be a good laugh. You should've seen his face. He looked so... so upset, like he'd hurt somebody."

I tried to put my most disapproving look on my face. "Zoe! For God's sake! You shouldn't go mucking about like that, not when someone really IS gay!"

"But he's not!"

"How d'you know?"

"'Cause I asked him."

"What, you just came out with it and said, 'Are you gay?'"

"Well.... yeah, basically." Her brow was beginning to furrow now. "He was totally okay about it. I just told him that Mike really likes him and I said something like, 'Is there anything I should tell Mike?'"

This time, I couldn't stop a loud guffaw from bursting out of me. "Oh my God! You didn't!"

"Well, yeah, I did. And he just said, 'Well, I'm not gay, if that's what you mean.' And I think that's when he started feeling a bit uncomfortable, so he made up some excuse about why he had to go."

"God, Zoe, you've probably traumatised him or something."

She laughed briefly, but then looked worried again. "Shall I... shall I give him a ring afterwards and tell him I was joking?"

"No!" I shouted. Then I lowered my voice. "No, there's no need for that, is there? I mean, if he really isn't gay, then no-one's being hurt by any of this."

Zoe was staring into my face, waiting to see what I'd say next.

"I reckon we should just leave things as they are," I said. "It's only a practical joke, isn't it? If we never say anything about it again, then it'll all just go away."

But of course, it didn't go away. Over the next few weeks, whenever we were with Mike, we teased him about the heart palpitations he was giving Martin every time his name was mentioned. And every time we bumped into Martin - which seemed to be happening more and more - we'd throw in the odd comment about how Mike was sorry he'd missed him or how Mike really liked his new trainers or how Mike was wondering if he'd seen the latest Almodovar.

Looking back on it all now, it all seems... well, 'childish' somehow doesn't even begin to describe it. Odd word, childish. I mean, is this the kind of thing that children really do. Maybe we tend to use the word 'childish' to describe such behaviour because it's a way of kidding ourselves that actually, 'adultish' would be a much more accurate word.

Anyway, we kept teasing and passing comments and making eyes and hiding behind giggles, until finally we decided to have a house party and to invite both Mike and Martin.