“Oh my God!” Laura exclaims, and Guy screams too, as a dozen little pink bodies twitch in the sudden light. It’s not a single rat, it’s an actual nest of them.
Chapter Twelve
It was me that had to deal with the nest in the end. No one else would go near it. I used an old cardboard beer box – the kind that carries twelve large cans – and cut down two sides to make a kind of scoop, with a fold-down lid. Then I put gloves on, cleared away the few bits of trash still covering it up, and slid the box gently under the nest. You could hear the little babies squeaking and chirping, but only just because Laura and Claire were squealing three times as loud. Sarah helped me close the box, and wrap tape around it to seal it. Then we carefully cleared up the rest of the trash, expecting to see the adult rats any moment, but they weren’t there. We found a little gap in the skirting, so I guess they escaped under the floor that way. I blocked the hole up so they couldn’t come back. We weren’t sure what to do with the nest though. Jimbo and Guy wanted to dump it down the drain, but Laura wouldn’t let them, and my suggestion to find a safe place somewhere in the wild was good in theory, but not much help in the middle of a city. In the end, Sarah and I carried it together to a park, while the others watched out that no one saw what we were doing. We slid it under some bushes and built up a little protective bank of sticks and leaves. I don’t suppose they’ll survive, but at least they have a chance.
And maybe you’d think, after all that, and spending the rest of the day finally getting the kitchen looking almost as clean as when we moved in, we might want to cook something in it, but maybe we were all a bit wary, hygienically speaking, and anyway, none of us had any food in. So instead we agreed to go out, together, for a proper meal out. I guess we were all feeling that we’d actually bonded a bit. And somewhere along the line I remembered the text from Amber, and I asked if it was OK for her to come along. The moment I mentioned her, Guy was all over the idea, and even though Laura looked a bit dubious for a second or two – because (in case you haven’t guessed) she’s obviously trying to get together with Jimbo, and doesn’t want the competition, she obviously sensed the mood too, and didn’t want to spoil it. So I text Amber and tell her to come as well.
After that it’s really hard to get anywhere near the bathroom, since the girls are in there getting ready. Actually, the girls and Guy, who’s just as bad. Jimbo sits in the lounge and drinks beer and watches sports on TV. It’s hooked up to the internet, so he’s able to get this really obscure hockey channel, and he tries to explain to me what the attraction is, although I have to admit he fails.
At about eight we all go out, to a pizza place. Amber comes along with one of the girls from her apartment, a girl called Susie, so there’s eight of us around the table. And it’s fun, in a kind of ordinary way. It’s fun to recount the story of the rat’s nest to Amber and Susie, who are both horrified. Then Jimbo talks about hockey club, and all the drinking they do, and Guy tries to flirt with Amber, who isn’t having any of it. I talk to Sarah a bit, and decide she’d be nice if I wasn’t more interested in Lily. But to be honest, the whole evening has that high-school feel I talked about before, only it’s not quite, it’s like we’re all morphing from being just high-school students, into something a bit more grown-up, but it’s like we’re still playing at it, rather than it being who we really are. It’s still not quite what I dreamed about when I thought of going to college.
Afterwards we work out the bill so that everyone pays for what they had, and then we go on to a bar. It’s super crowded and we kind of all stand together, drinking and not able to say too much because it’s so loud, but the same sort of things happen, and after an hour of that Susie goes home, and I’m about to as well, until Jimbo starts hassling for us to go to a club. I’m not going to, but Amber says yes, so we go to one that’s supposed to be really awesome, but really it’s a bit mixed. First we have to line up outside for a half hour, and when we get to the front they complain about my shoes, which are perfectly sensible waterproof walking shoes, and not sneakers at all, like the man suggests. It’s Amber who gets him to let us in (it cost twenty dollars mind), and inside it’s so loud you can’t speak at all. Jimbo and Guy buy drinks and stand by the bar but the girls dance. I’m not sure who to join, until Amber grabs me and leads me onto the dance floor. I’m not much of a dancer usually, but she’s good at making me relax – or maybe it’s the beer. Anyway, after a few minutes of feeling a bit self-conscious, I forget about people watching, and just do what Amber does. And Sarah too. And for about an hour we’re just there, laughing and bouncing and jigging around, as the place fills up around us.
Chapter Thirteen
The next morning is fun too. I get up, and I have a bit of a headache, but not
