"It's been days since we seen Simon," Kelly notes as the three remaining ASBOs get ready in the locker room. "It's dead weird."
"What d'ya think he's up to?" Alisha asks, filing her nails with really not a lot of interest in the conversation.
"Do you think he's gone fully mental?" Curtis pipes in, offering a not particularly helpful line to the conversation while spraying on his deodorant.
"Seriously, ya guys," Kelly continued. "I'm worried about 'im. Ever since Nathan died he's been a proper mess. He gave me this DVD… I just think we owe it to 'im to find out what he's goin' through."
"Fine."
"Whatever."
Kelly still didn't think the others were being compassionate enough, but, she figured it'd be fine to leave as it was for the time being. "Tonight, then. We'll go find out where he's been."
"Where who's been?" asked the new probation worker, a tall and really creepy fella, as he walked in.
"None of ya business. Who da hell are you then?" blurted out Kelly angrily.
"I'm your new probation worker. Shaun. Anyways, I don't really give a shit what it is you're talking about, all I need from you lot is to get your bloody work done. Go an' pick up some trash and don't bother me 'til five when you leave. By the way, if you see that Simon bloke, let him know that he's getting marks for every day that he's not in."
"Whateva," Kelly shrugs as the three of them walk out of the locker room to get their day of community service in.
"Where do you think he is then?" Kelly asks as the three walk out of the community center.
"I dunno. Probably just out videotaping some random chavs or some shit." Alisha, as per usual, is relatively unengaged in the groups goings on as she types quickly into her cell phone.
"Why don't we just ask his folks where he's at?" supplies Curtis, wanting to be done with the whole ordeal.
"Hi. Mrs. Bellamy?" Kelly was speaking to the middle-aged woman that answered the door at Simon's house. The woman nodded her head. "We're looking for Simon. We're… friends of his. From the community center. We haven't seen 'im in a few days and we're worried about 'im."
I wonder if these are the nice people that Simon was telling me about. They sure don't look as pleasant as he described them. Kelly was more than a bit angered by the mental comment, but she tried her best to hide it on her face as the woman spoke again. "I haven't seen him much lately. Just at supper. He's been very quiet." I'm worried about him.
"So you don't know where he's been then?" Kelly asks again.
"He keeps saying that he's visiting a friend, but since you lot haven't seen him, I don't know where he's been."
Kelly has a sudden realization. "That's fine. Thank ya ma'am. Be seein' ya."
"There's nobody here, Kelly," protests Alisha as they walk through the graveyard to where Nathan was buried. It was true. There was no one in sight.
I'm sorry. I should've saved you. I miss you. You always noticed me more than anyone else… and I screwed it all up by not being strong enough.
"Do you lot hear that?" Kelly could barely make out the voice herself.
"Nah," replied Curtis. "Is it somebody thinkin'?"
"I dunno…" Kelly and the others were walking over to the grave when, suddenly, Alisha tripped over something. The other two looked at her with confusion, there was nothing in the place where she had tripped.
Unseen, the invisible boy leapt up from where he had sat and began to walk hurriedly away, ashamed by his presence. "Simon?" Kelly called out. "It's OK! We're worried about you! You don't have ta hide from us!"
Simon reappeared, head down and tears still on his face, but not falling from his eyes. Kelly came over to hug him and the other two just looked up compassionately.
Oh… Oh, yeah, baby… There it is! Right on the edge now.
"What the shit?!" Kelly stepped back and gave Simon a slap. "'Ere I am tryin' ta be all nice an' shit and you just think some pervy sex thoughts?"
"What? I didn't think anything!"
Slow it down. Slow it down… BLAMO!
"Nathan?" Kelly turns her head toward the grave as if to better hear the mental voice. "Ya guys, I think Nathan's alive."
The ASBOs make quick work of digging up the coffin, having done their fair share of grave digging in the past. Plopping the coffin onto the ground, Simon and Curtis pry open the lid, revealing Nathan's corpse.
"He's dead," says Curtis sympathetically to Kelly.
"I heard him," Kelly responds, still sure she's right. "I think he was knocking one out."
"That does sound like him," Simon says, siding with Kelly, but not wanting to get his hopes up too much.
Alisha doesn't want to, but she acts as the voice of reason. "Maybe you just wanted to hear him. He's gone."
Tears begin to well up in Simon's eyes again and Kelly reaches down to touch Nathan's pale and lifeless face. Everyone's heart slows in the sobriety of the moment. Then, just as everyone has truly given up on this being real, Nathan screams up from the bed of the coffin and gives everyone a proper start.
"What the fuck!" yells Curtis as Nathan begins to laugh.
Everyone looks down on him in disbelief and he just smirks and says, "You should see the looks on your faces. Classic! Hey, guess what? I'm immortal! Can you believe this shit? I told you I had a power. Looks like they saved the best for last, huh? Immortality. That's off the A-list."
Kelly steps toward him and starts to hit him repeatedly as she yells, "You stupid wanker!" Nathan protests to the abuse, but Kelly retorts with another yell. "I thought you were dead!"
She finally slows down and hears him thinking. I thought I'd never see her again.
Kelly's face softens and she asks calmly, "So, if you're not dead, how come you smell so bad?"
"I appear to have shat myself," he announces proudly as most of them groan at his grotesqueness.
"Were you havin' a wank in there?" Alisha asks, disgusted.
"Yeah, so what if I was? A man can't enjoy a quick shuffle in his own coffin?" Nathan struts around the group. "It's not like I was expectin' any visitors. And you," his head turns towards Simon, "you little freak. What was all that on the roof of the community center?"
Simon gulped, taken aback by the sudden external confrontation of what he had been struggling with since the day of the funeral. "I- I was trying to save you."
"Well! You failed. Spectacularly, didn't you?" The look on Nathan's face made the pale boy want to crawl into a hole somewhere and cry until he died of dehydration. But, knowing it would only make any chance he had with the group vanish, he held everything at bay. "I need to eat. Has anyone got a kebab?"
Simon's face alit with an opportunity for repentance. "Do you want some… chewing gum?" It was all he had on him, but it was more than anyone else had at the moment.
"Tutti-frutti?" Nathan said judgmentally.
"I like it," Simon shrugged and held it out meekly. Nathan snatched it from his hand and ripped open the package as the pale boy turned his head back to front and clenched his jaw to keep from falling apart.
"Man, that was a bad scene in there," Nathan started up again as he took the gum out. "I thought I was gonna starve to death."
"You're immortal," Curtis said condescendingly. "You can't starve to death."
Everyone had parted ways after they fixed up the now empty grave site so it didn't look as though they'd dug it up. The invisible boy, unnoticed, followed Nathan, making sure he would be okay. He followed to Nathan's mum's house and then back to the community center.
He watched as the immortal lad put together his makeshift bed and laid down to sleep, only to get up again five minutes later, saunter down to the storage room, break in, drink a substantial amount of liquor, and return to sleep. The invisible boy sat on the floor for some time watching; just hoping that the other would roll over, smile warmly at him, and call him some demeaning name.
Sure, it wasn't the most normal (or healthy) desire, but it was what Nathan did, and it made the invisible boy feel noticed - appreciated - like he only felt when the other young offender was looking at him.
A/N: Hooray :) I got another chapter done! Now that Nathan's dug up, I can finally get this show moving. Also, I know it seems like the Nathan/Kelly pairing is still developing in this fic, but, hand to god, it's not. You'll see ;) Anyways, thanks for reading; Please review :D