Chapter Text
“I know, I’m sorry, there’s just no way I can get this weekend off.”
Johnny rolls his eyes, consulting the shopping list his Nana gave him. They don’t have the exact brand of tinned tomatoes she wants, but the ones that are usually more expensive are on offer.
“Would be nice if they hired more people.” He mumbles, grabbing the expensive tin and putting it in the trolley with the rest of his shopping. He can’t get much, considering he only has his motorbike, and his top-box isn’t the biggest, but he makes sure to grab the essentials.
Kyle, his fiancé, sighs. “If only it were that easy, Johnny.” He pauses. “I still don’t see why you can’t come home for the weekend.”
Johnny takes a deep breath, resisting the urge to snap at Kyle. “I can’t leave Nana by herself, you know that.”
“It’ll just be for a couple of days, she’ll be fine.”
“No.”
“You’re out right now!”
“I’m literally ten minutes away, Kyle. You’re more than two hours away.”
“But -”
“No.” Johnny says firmly, putting a bag of tangerines in the trolley with perhaps more force than necessary. “I’m not taking that risk.”
Kyle sighs again, with a little more exasperation this time. “Alright. Fine. I’ll see what I can sort out for next weekend. Hopefully Price will get off my fucking arse.”
“I hope so. I do miss you, y’know.”
“I know. I miss you too, baby. Look, I gotta go, I need to get back to work, but I’ll call you tonight, okay?”
“Sounds good. I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Johnny takes his phone out of his hoodie pocket and ends the call with a sigh. He puts some music on to fill the silence that follows, not one to walk around with earbuds in his ears for no reason, as he finishes up his shopping.
Kyle and Johnny have this conversation at least twice a month. Kyle will promise to come and stay at Johnny’s Nana’s cottage for the weekend, but a few days before he’ll call up and make up some excuse about having to work late or pick up after everyone else or whatever. If Johnny didn’t know better, he’d think that Kyle was screwing his boss behind his back.
But they've been together for six years, engaged for three, so Kyle would never do that to him. Right?
Johnny shrugs it off, grabbing a handful of things for himself such as shampoo and toothpaste, and then he pays for his shopping and leaves the small supermarket. His Nana lives on the outskirts of a small village in the Scottish countryside, miles away from any real civilisation, but Johnny doesn’t mind - he grew up here, after all. Lived here for almost twenty years, until he finally got the balls to move to the city and try and make something of himself. It broke his heart but he had to do it, else he would’ve ended up in the same old rut as his mother and he couldn’t stand the thought of that.
As the years went by, his family drifted further and further apart, until all that was left was his Nana. And when she phoned up one day and finally admitted that she needed him to come and stay with her as she was unwell, he dropped everything for her. His job, his home, everything. Everything except Kyle. Kyle wasn’t happy, but he was there, at the beginning anyway. Johnny had thought - naively - that he’d only be there for a few weeks, just while his Nana got back on her feet again, but a few weeks turned into two months, and he never really felt the urge to leave. And now he’s rapidly approaching a year with her.
But again, he doesn’t mind. It’s peaceful out here, nicer than the city, and it’s familiar. It’s home. Sure, there are a few things missing, one of which he doesn’t like to think about if he can help it, but it’s still home to him. And he does miss Kyle, he really does, but he does have to admit that since staying with his Nana, Johnny’s realised just how much of Kyle’s life centres around work.
It’s all to save for their wedding, Kyle reminds him constantly. All for the wedding.
Sometimes, in the dead of night when he can’t sleep, Johnny wonders if there will even be a wedding.
He packs his shopping away in the top-box of his bike, and he strolls around the corner to the little bakery that Mrs Stevens owns. She smiles when he walks in, already preparing a loaf of bread and a small box of cakes for him to take home. He visits once or twice a week, and he gets the same thing every time.
“Morning, Mrs Stevens,” he says with a smile, taking the bread and cake from her and paying with his card.
“Good morning, Johnny. You keeping well?” she replies, talking to him over her shoulder as she presses some buttons on the fancy coffee machine behind the counter. Her son sent the machine to her around a year ago, but she’s never really got the hang of it. It’s fortunate then that Johnny only ever requests an Americano, no milk, no sugar. Just straight caffeine.
“I’m keeping alright, thank you.” Johnny nods, as if they don’t have this conversation twice a week. “And yourself?”
“Aye, I’m grand, love. Just grand.” She hands him his coffee, which he takes with thanks. “And Eileen?”
“Nana’s doing well, yeah. Had a few bad days over the weekend but she’s much better now, thank you.”
Mrs Stevens nods, wiping her hands on her apron. “Good to hear she’s on the mend. Well, you give her my love now, won’t you?”
“Of course I will, Mrs Stevens. Thank you.” He heads towards the door. “See you soon.”
He sips at his coffee as he makes his way back to his bike, and once he’s put the rest of his shopping in the topbox, he leans against it for a moment, checking his phone. There’s nothing else from Kyle, which is to be expected, considering he’s most likely at work, but it still stings a little when there isn’t even an apology.
Not that he’s sure what Kyle should be apologising for, exactly, other than the fact that he doesn’t seem to take his anxiety seriously. Oh, and the fact that he wants Johnny to drop everything - everything being looking after the most important person in his life - to go and see him when he won’t do the same. Oh, and -
Johnny shakes his head, finishing his coffee. He’s not in the mood to think about all that right now. He just wants to get back to Nana’s, feed the chickens, and make them both some scrambled egg on toast with the fresh eggs from earlier that morning. He bins his coffee cup before pulling his helmet on and starting up his bike.
He makes his way through the winding roads back to his Nana’s house, and for once it’s not raining. The sky is a clear blue, the sun shining high, which is rare for a spring morning such as this. He doesn’t mind, though, because it’s definitely better than rain, and it means he can sit on the back porch with Nana and read after lunch. He’s currently reading some kind of action novel with guns and explosions, and it’s a bit like all the action novels with guns and explosions he’s read, but he’s having a good time.
Johnny pulls into the driveway just over ten minutes later, gravel crunching under his tires as he approaches Nana’s small cottage. It’s the same house she’s had since he was born twenty-eight years ago, and there’s a large possibility that she’s lived in it for longer than that. There’s a car parked next to Nana’s car, one that he doesn’t recognise, and he frowns, glancing over at the living room window. Pickles, Nana’s large, ginger cat sits on the windowsill, glaring at him. It’s an expression Pickles often has, though he doesn’t usually mean anything by it. He shrugs at Pickles as he grabs the shopping from the topbox, and he takes his keys from the ignition and slots the one that belongs to the house in the front door.
He sets his shopping on the floor at his feet before taking off his helmet, putting it on the side table along with his keys.
“Nana?” he calls out, heading down the hallway towards the kitchen with the groceries.
“In here!” she replies from the living room. He gently sets the shopping down on the kitchen countertop and is about to unpack it when he hears a male voice, followed by his Nana yelling at him. Where do I recognise that voice from? “Hurry up, Johnny! Our guest is waiting!”
“Guest?” says Johnny, leaving the shopping in favour of walking into the living room. He first sees his Nana, tucked in her favourite chair with a blanket on her lap and a cup of tea in her hands. “What gue-”
He stops as he realises who’s sat on the sofa. Just as tall, just as blonde, just as handsome as he was when Johnny last saw him almost a decade ago.
His childhood best friend Simon Riley.