We're Not Strangers Anymore

Chapter Twenty Five - Reconciliation

It had been two days since the argument, and for the first time in a long time, Jamie Manley found himself eating lunch alone.
He bit into today's lunch, which was a lukewarm egg and mayonnaise sandwich on brown bread.
As he ate, Jamie had a moment of deep thought: I shouldn't have said what I said the other night. But then again, Charlie shouldn't have said what he said, either.
Charlie Broomer walked into the canteen, girlfriend on his left arm, spotting his friend's table from a mile off.
Here we go, Charlie thought to himself, Jamie's over there. Should probably go and talk to him at some point.
They both scanned the canteen suspiciously in an attempt to avoid one another's judgemental gaze. After a brief period of immature pretending, Charlie Broomer approached the table of Jamie Manley.
'Are you busy?' Charlie asked, sounding genuine and sincere.
Jamie took one look at his half-eaten sandwich and then one look at Emily, nodding slowly as if full of suspicion.
'Look, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for the other night. I'm sorry for us falling out, that is, but I'm not sorry for what I said. I shouldn't have said it the way I did.'
Jamie raised his eyebrows patronisingly, tucking his chair in to the canteen table.
'Mate, come on,' Charlie continued, 'this is serious stuff.'
After a few seconds had passed, Jamie decided to give his friend an answer. The answer in question, however, was fuelled by an almost lethal amount of stubbornness.
'Yeah, I accept your apology. Now can I finish my sandwich?'
Charlie sat down, and Emily followed closely behind.
'Does she need to be present?' Jamie asked, passing a judgemental look towards his best friend's girlfriend. She returned a smile, seeming relatively unfazed.
'Jamie, don't be like that. Look, the other week when you were off school, I spoke to Emily about what I saw. It's not right, Jamie. Something is going on, and we need to get to the bottom of it.'
'Oh yeah,' quipped Jamie, 'let's just become big, bad police officers, kicking down the doors of any basement that we see! Good idea!'
'Jamie, snap out of it,' said Charlie, his tone changing to a serious one. 'I'm telling the truth you know, I really can't stress that enough. I saw that boy in your basement, and I've got reason to believe that it's Bercow's son. I'm not going mad, I know I'm not.'
Jamie scoffed, rolling his eyes and shrugging the whole thing off.
'So, you think that you saw a little boy in my basement, have I got that right?'
'Yes,' said Charlie, letting out a sigh of relief. He finally felt like he had gotten somewhere, and this was truly a feeling like no other. 'Jamie, please, just take on board what I'm saying. I've been having these—'
'These what?'
'Mate, please don't interrupt, just let me explain. After seeing it, the.. that boy, in the basement, I've.. well, I've started having nightmares. I can't fucking sleep at night, Jamie, I just can't do it. I was walking back from yours, couple of weeks ago or somethin', and that's when I saw him.. standing there, pinned to the wall, dead as nightfall. At least, I think he was dead. Please, we need to go down there, okay? I don't care how we do it, we just need to.'
Jamie sat forward in his chair, suddenly seeming interested. 'Look, I'm sorry for what I said the other day Charlie, yeah? I'm sorry, I am. But I'm still not sure that I believe you, and I'm going to need to see it for my own eyes.'
'That's fine,' said Charlie, 'don't worry about it. But next week, maybe Friday when school finishes up for the weekend, we'll go down there. I'm busy the rest of the week, homework to catch up on. Please, though.. you have to believe me.'
Charlie began to tear up, and all of a sudden Jamie felt awful inside.
'Charl, brother, I'm sorry. It's just.. it's a lot to take in, like you say. We'll go down Friday, all right? You can come over, maybe straight from school if y'like, and we'll go down to the basement and investigate. It very well could've just been a ray of light that you saw, or something like that, I dunno..'
Charlie looked up at his friend, who was now smiling a sympathetic but terrified smile. The image of Mr Manley floated into his mind, a man who had stood on the doorstep of his own home with great amounts of pride, all whilst guarding a terrifying secret - a secret that Charlie was going to uncover.
Finally, he thought to himself carefully, I'm gonna get to the bottom of what I saw in that basement.