We're Not Strangers Anymore

Chapter Forty Six - The Showdown

Mr Manley was now an inch away from Charlie, whose eyes remained firmly shut.
'You heard the boy. Upstairs, Jamie.'
Jamie Manley shook his head. 'I'm not leaving him. Get away from him, Martin.'
'Martin? I'm Martin now, am I?'
Jamie nodded, and said, 'You're no father of mine. Get away from Charlie, I'm deadly serious.'
Mr Manley's eyes didn't move from those of Charlie Broomer. He smiled drily. Out the corner of his eye, Jamie spotted a brick. It was covered in cement, but had somehow come away from the basement wall. He picked it up, muttering the words, 'If you don't get away from Charlie, I'm going to kill you.'
Still, Mr Manley's eyes did not move. 'You were always weak, Jamie. Same as your friend here, isn't that right, young Charlie?'
'I'm more of a man than you will ever be,' Charlie told Mr Manley, his body replicating the relentless sweating of his forehead and palms. 
Mr Manley let out a low cackle. Charlie recognised this as the voice from his most recent nightmare. 'Say goodnight—'
The loud sound of a skull crunching against a solid brick filled the room. Jamie took a step back, a horrified look striking his face.
Mr Manley's unconscious body hit the floor with an almost deafening thud. Charlie saw that his right hand twitched for a couple of seconds, his long, bony fingers spreading out and shaking across the floor seconds before becoming completely motionless.
The shared feeling in the room was one of relief. Mr Manley was out cold.
'You did it, Jamie,' Charlie said.
Jamie looked up at his friend, who was smiling with pride. 'No, I didn't. We did it, Charlie. We did it.' His hands were still trembling, as were Charlie's. Jamie walked over to the bottom of the wooden staircase and sat down, allowing himself to slump into the wooden beams; Charlie soon followed.
'Well, we did it Jamie. Me and you.'
Jamie lay completely still on the floor. He had begun to hyperventilate, and was struggling for breath.
'Mate? Are you okay?' Charlie asked sternly, seriously worried for his friend's physical well-being. He reached across and tapped Jamie on the shoulder as he was now slumped on the basement floor.
Jamie sat up slowly, reaching into his pocket for something.
'Yeah,' said Jamie, out of breath and visibly shaken. 'Just gasping for a cigarette.'
He rummaged around for a second or two and pulled out a red carton, and for the first time in a very long time, both boys were laughing. They laughed in unison, together. To be even more specific, their boisterous fit of giggles only calmed down when the police entered the building, taking the door completely off of it's hinges.
'Police!' a young officer shouted, hitting the door brackets with the metal toe of his boot, subsequently taking it clean off.
Charlie and Jamie looked at each other again, smiling. They were both still laughing, and the laughter didn't show any sign of fading anytime soon.
'I can't believe it,' Jamie said, sounding equally shocked and surprised. 'We fucking did it.'
There were three very possible explanations to justify their unusual bout of tittering (unusual given the circumstances, that is): nerves, pure fear, or a twisted combination of them both. But there was only one thing that truly mattered in the heart of all of this, of the madness that had occurred on this unusual evening- they were both in high spirits. And finally, for these two extraordinary schoolboys, who had faced their biggest fear head on, the nightmare was finally over. But even more importantly? They had won. And they had done it together.
Charlie began to sniffle. Jamie leaned across, tapped him on the shoulder, and asked what was wrong.
'It's just... nah, it's stupid,' he began to say.
'Charlie, just say it. Go on.'
'Well... before I met you, I always felt as if I was alone. Totally isolated from everybody else in the world. It was just the little things, you know? I'd stand up to do a presentation in class, and everyone would just start talking amongst themselves. I've gotta be honest - and I know I don't let on to much - but that fucking hurt, man.'
Jamie offered a warm smile that said, I know exactly what you mean, my fellow geeky friend.
'Charlie, that's mega nice of you to say.'
'I'm not done,' he said, trying to remember his place in the speech. 'Before I met you, I felt like I was all alone. I thought I'd never find a friend, I thought I'd just be the bully's plaything for the rest of my life, and, well... maybe I will. Maybe I will continue to be the bully's plaything, unpopular and different, coasting along and getting by as best I can. But maybe "different" is okay, and as long as I've got you by my side, I feel like I can take on anything.'
Jamie turned to face him, and Charlie began to cry whilst proudly beaming away.
'You're my brother,' he began to sob. 'And... I love you. More than anything, man.'
Jamie put his hand to his ear. He could hear the heavy footsteps of the local police force directly above them now, thudding around and shouting as they entered each of the house's many rooms individually.
'I love you too, and believe me Charlie. I feel the exact same way that you do. I never had many friends myself either, not in primary school nor secondary. So thank you... thank you for always being my friend, no matter what.'
Charlie smiled again. 'Always man. Always. Now, shall we stop being so soft, before Pillows R Us try to sign us up as official mascots?'
Jamie started to laugh so heavily that he began to wheeze, and as a result, this set Charlie off, too.
'Reckon we'll be all right, then?' Charlie asked his friend, who was now inhaling a dramatic amount of smoke from the burning cigarette.
'Yeah, of course,' he said in-between exhales. 'What about you?'
Charlie took a cigarette from the pack on the ground, lit it with Jamie's lighter, then slowly allowed himself to sink into the floor.
'Yeah,' Charlie whispered solemnly. 'I reckon we will be all right mate.'