Stay

“Claire? Do you wanna go for a walk or something?” said Amy from the kitchen. I was sat in the lounge staring at the blank TV screen.

“No,” I said.

“Do you wanna watch a movie?”

“No.”

“Do you-?”

“No,” I said before she even finished. I listened as she put down what she was doing and came into the lounge. I didn’t look up as she sat down next to me, I just stared straight ahead.

“Claire, I know it’s hard but… look I still don’t quite know what’s happened. Do you wanna talk?” said Amy.

“I don’t know,” I said taking my eyes from the TV screen and down to my knees.

“I won’t force you but I can’t help if I don’t know the whole story,” she said. When I told Amy I needed a place to stay I’d said it was because I was being forced out of the house by management and that was all. I didn’t give another reason.

“I don’t know if you can help anyway,” I said quietly.

“I could… try,” she said weakly and I realised I probably wasn’t making this any easier for her.

There was a long, tense pause before I said, “Harry and I had to break up.”

And once again I couldn’t stop the tears that began to fall.

“Oh, Claire, I’m sorry,” said Amy as she put an arm around me.

“But that’s not all,” I said and it all began to come out, everything that had happened at the meeting everything management had said, everything that we were made to do and the fact that neither of us wanted it.

“That’s… that’s fucking messed up,” said Amy once I’d told her. “Who does that?”

“I-I don’t know,” I said as I was now in hysterics.

“That is most unjust thing I’ve ever heard. This is supposed to be a free country.”

“I know but the contract…” I said.

“Didn’t they put this in the contract?”

“They did but they didn’t specify this type of publicity.”

“I swear, I will go punch in those fucking pigs’ faces if they try anything else!” said Amy standing up suddenly, clenching her fists but I pulled her back down before she could move any further.

“Amy, you can’t,” I said.

“But this is unprofessional for such a company, Claire. This could be in all the boys’ contracts. To think Simon-“

“It wasn’t Simon, it was Modest.”

“But isn’t Simon the top dog?”

“He is but… I don’t even understand it myself.”

“What is wrong with this world?”

“I don’t know.”

We both sat there in silence for a while and I could tell Amy was fuming. She knew a lot about legal stuff and was all for everyone having their rights. She was passionate about it, you could say.

“I’ll make some soup, that can sometimes help,” said Amy getting up, patting me on the back and going into the kitchen. I listened as she began to heat the soup.

She was right, it was unjust and unprofessional but that didn’t mean I knew what to do to stop it. I still didn’t have a clue. They’d made it really hard and I’m sure that it wasn’t by accident. I’d heard people complaining about how management was horrible and had so much control over the boys. Honestly I didn’t ever have a problem with them until now. I’d always thought they’d had the boys’ best interests at heart but now I could see both sides of the argument. They really were quite cunning and controlling.

“Soup’s ready,” said Amy as she carried two mugs in and sat down next to me again, passing me one of the mugs.

“Thanks,” I said, taking it from her.

“You ok?” she said, looking at me as I sipped the soup.

“Yeah,” I said quietly.

“No you’re not… but you will be,” she said as she started on her own mug.

After a while she asked, “I don’t mean to be insensitive but… why did you guys agree to it in the first place?”

“The contract,” I said simply.

“But you know they could be called up for that. It’s illegal to use a contract against someone if what the person is being made to do isn’t stated in the contract in question,” she said.

“I… I didn’t know that.”

“But you could have come to me about it. You know I’m training to be a lawyer.”

“I didn’t think to,” I said, looking at my knees.

“Oh, no I’m sorry I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just, you know I’m always here for you and I want to help and…”

“I know, Amy, its ok.”

“We can fix this. You don’t have to live this way.”

“It’s too late now.”

“But we could –“

“It doesn’t matter,” I said, standing up. “Thanks for the soup.”

And I left Amy sitting on the couch. I felt bad doing so, I mean, I know she was only trying to help but I didn’t want to think about it right now. It had all happened so fast and I’d been thinking far too much about it since it happened that it was just becoming too much. I washed my mug out and put it away before going to the spare room, which was now mine. I closed the door, lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling trying to clear my head. But however hard I tried; Harry always came into the forefront of my mind. I reached for my phone, which was sat on the bedside table and checked for any messages. None… as expected. I went down the list of old messages from Harry and began to read them. How could everything go from perfect to the complete opposite so fast?

Notes