Pip & Hartley

"H... Hartley! ... H...Hartley!"

"... W...what? Pip?! It's 2 am. What're you doing here?" 

"I n...needed t..to t..talk t...to you."

"I have a phone." 

"In p...person. Can I c...come up? Please?" 

"S...sure. I'll unlock the door."

"I can t...take the d..drain pipe." 

"No, you won't, Billy Loomis. The last thing I need is the neighbours talking. Let me just throw some clothes on." 

"Be quick. It b...bloody freezing out h...here."

"Alright, alright, I'm coming."

 

"Thanks." 

"Did you not bring a coat?" 

"No."

"It's 3 degrees in the middle of winter. No wonder you're "bloody freezing". Here, let's get you warmed up."

"Thanks, Hart...tley." 

"You want a drink?" 

"Is that alr..right?" 

"What do you want?" 

"Hot chocolate?" 

"I only have instant."

"T...that's alright." 

"I'll get that now. Take a seat."

"Thanks... A...Anywhere?" 

"Just not the far end—that's Marco's spot. He doesn't like anyone else sitting there."

"Fair. H...How's he doing?"

"Yeah, he's fine. Hating school though." 

"I bet." 

"He's been struggling a lot. You know, twice he was removed from class for "disruption" because he got excited and stimmed after completing a particularly difficult history test."

"For g...goodness' sake." 

"Mum was livid."

"I bet." 

"So parents' evening is going to be fun."

"W...when's that?" 

"Next Thursday. So I'll be babysitting."

"Y...you want a h...hand with that?" 

"You don't have to have a reason to come over, mate." 

"I know. But... do you?"

"No. I can look after Marco just fine. But I would like you here." 

"Thanks... ... ... I ... S...something hap...ppened at work t...today."

"Oh? What happened?"

"Okay, so I was work...king the till when one of the c...customers mocked me for my s..s...stutter. She said that I w...was wasting her time and asked why I wasn't talking p..properly. She even suggested that I was s..some kind of div...erssity hire." 

"I ... I ... What the fuck?!" 

"S...s...sorry." 

"No. It's not you who should be apologising. What the fuck? Who even says that to someone?" 

"I hear it a lot. Mocking my s...s...stutter. B...but first time it has been used in a p...profes...sional setting. That I know of. It jus...t made me feel so s...shit."

"Come here. You look like you can use a hug."

"That w...would be nice." 

"I'm sorry you had to deal with that. What did Aaron say when you told him?" 

"We... we... we broke up. Turns out he was c...cheating on me with some b...bear from Nidre. Saw the Grindr n...notification this evening w...while getting ready to go out for d...dinner." 

"... ... ... Seriously?... No... No, I'm not going to say it. I'm not." 

"You s...saw it coming?" 

"... ... ... I've never liked him, mate. I always thought him to be a pretentious, arrogant cock." 

"N...never?" 

"Not really. Got bad vibes off him very early on. But he made you happy, so... sorry. This is about you, not him." 

"I h...honestly thought he w...was the one." 

"I'm sorry, mate. You deserve so much better than that." 

"T..today's not been a good d...day." 

"No."

"C...can I stay over t...tonight?" 

"Of course you can. Tell you what, it's cliché, but why don't we break out the ice cream, tissues and Titanic?" 

"T... thanks, Hartley." 

"No worries, mate."