‘All the way through school?’ says Art.
‘Yeah. Kind of.’ I don’t look at him as I kick a pebble along the path. ‘They just … shut us out of everything. And then one day I heard Lizzie saying horrible things about Roo and I tried to be heroic and stand up to her and … it really didn’t work. It made things worse. After that they started taking the piss. Making jokes about … about stuff we were into. And, like, our clothes—’
‘Your clothes?’ says Art sharply. ‘They took the piss out of your clothes?’
‘Well, yeah,’ I say.
‘Shit, Annie, if I’d known that I would never …’ Art sounds genuinely perturbed. ‘I’m sorry, I thought you and me joking about clothes was just, I don’t know, our work vibe. But if it reminded you of those girls in school … Fuck. I’mreallysorry. If I’d thought for a second it might actually upset you …’
‘It doesn’t upset me.’ I mean it. ‘And it never reminds me of school. Seriously, Art, it’s fine. They were doing it to be mean. Iknow you aren’t.’ Why am I telling him all this? I don’t want him to know how pathetic I was at school. I start to backtrack a bit. ‘Anyway, it wasn’t like Roo and I were seriously bullied. I mean, it was never physical. Or even psychological, the way you hear about kids being tormented online these days. At least we didn’t have smartphones.’ I feel sick at the thought of what that would have been like.
Art stares at me. ‘McDermott, those little shits isolated you for years, just because they could. Of course that’s bullying.’
‘You don’t know what it was like,’ I say. ‘Your schooldays weren’t anything like that.’
‘No, they weren’t,’ says Art. ‘Which is why I’m so impressed.’
I stop in the middle of the path and fix him with a look. ‘Impressed? Come on, Art.’
‘You survived Lizzie Lattin and her crewandyou stayed fierce,’ says Art. ‘You can be pretty scary, you know that? You didn’t let them break you.’
I let out a snort of bitter laughter. ‘Didn’t I?’
‘Are you kidding?’ says Art. ‘You’re a lot tougher than me, McDermott. You’re hard as nails.’
Oh my God, he couldn’t be more wrong.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Art.’ I’m not in the mood to be patronised by him. Not today. Not after what he just said to Lizzie. I don’t … I don’t want him to spoil that.
‘You told me the other day that you worry about everything all the time,’ says Art. ‘But it doesn’t stop you getting stuff done. And that shows how brave you are. Do you remember that first tone meeting with Bernard? When he asked if I’d been cleaning toilets in LA? After that meeting I got back to the office and if you hadn’t come in when you did I’d have just crawled under the deskand … I don’t know. Cried, probably. The fact that you didn’t run screaming fromNorthsideon the first day proves you don’t let yourself get intimidated by anything.’
‘I don’t feel like that,’ I say. ‘Ever.’
‘Yeah, well, neither do I, a lot of the time,’ says Art. ‘Fake it till you make it. That’s showbiz, McDermott.’
When we get back to my house I put the kettle on while Art sits on the couch and looks through what we did this morning. I’ve just handed him his coffee when my phone rings.
I glance at it. ‘Sorry, it’s my sister, I’d better get this.’
‘Hey!’ says Laura. ‘I know you’re up to your eyes in work but I wanted to check if you’re still on for dinner later. And I didn’t trust you to actually see my messages so I thought I’d ring. Does around eight suit?’
I’d forgotten I was meant to be going to Laura’s tonight. But actually, our official scripts are done and I’m already so tired I doubt I’ll be able to work this evening. The prospect of just chilling in Laura and Tadhg’s lovely kitchen for a couple of hours sounds pretty good. Also Tadhg has got really into cooking since he stopped touring all the time so it’ll be the best meal I’ve had all week.
‘Hmmm …’ I say. ‘Yeah, eight is fine.’
‘Are you okay? You sound a bit weird.’
‘I’m actually with my colleague Art,’ I say. ‘We share an office atNorthside,’ I add, so he doesn’t suspect I’ve already told her anything about him.
‘Oh!’ says Laura. ‘Yourofficemate? Bring him along too.’
‘I dunno …’ Then I realise Art probably heard Laura’s invite –she does have quite a loud voice for someone so short – and I say, ‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course I’m sure. Ask him now!’
Tadhg and Laura don’t usually invite total strangers round to their house so I know exactly why she’s asking Art to dinner. But of course, I can’t make a big deal out of this in front of him. Anyway, he’ll probably say no. Why would he want to have dinner with my sister and brother-in-law?
So I turn to him and say, ‘Do you want to come to my sister’s house for dinner?’