Chapter Text
It was a Monday, so The Hail Mary wasn’t open, but in preparation for the week ahead SImon decided to go in and sort a few things out. Evie was happy to accompany him, always ecstatic to go into a bar 10 years before she was legally allowed. She sat at the bar with her homework out in front of her, swinging her legs and singing out of tune to the music playing in her headphones.
Simon moved around the space, stocking the bar and giving it a quick deep clean. The bar was small, with nearly too many tables and chairs cluttering the floor. He wiped them all one by one, trying to scrub the permanent stickiness from the wooden surfaces. He then mopped the floor and finished all of the chores that they always put off (emptying the fly traps, grease traps and rat traps). Once the manual labor was done, he brought his laptop over to the bar to join Evie. They sat side by side working wordlessly, Evie’s playlist filling the room.
“Rena wasn’t in school today.” Evie broke the silence.
“Oh yeah? Maybe I’ll give Olesyaa ring, make sure she’s okay.”
—---
Tuesday was the hardest to find cover for in Beth’s absence, as it was usually only her, Simon and Tyler. He’d scraped some cover together so that Seb came in, but he had university until 5 so they’d have to open without him. This was fine, as Evie had an afterschool club and then she was staying at Rena’s for the night. He arrived at 2.30 to receive the drinks order and stock the shelves, then Tyler arrived at 3 so that they could open on time.
The Tuesday afternoon regulars trickled in- 2 gruff middle aged men who worked the morning shift at the post office and drank in the corner with very little to say to anyone who appeared around them and odd groups of college students with nothing better to do. They handled it okay just the two of them for a while, pouring pints and talking about the girl Tyler just broke up with because he was so busy at the moment.
Simon responded sincerely, but genuinely couldn’t figure out what Tyler spent his time doing when he wasn’t at the bar. He’d dropped out of college a year in and floated around hospitality jobs until Mark hired him a few months before he turned 21.
“He can wash glasses!” Mark had said when Simon questioned this choice.
“You don’t need a 20 year old stoner who can’t legally serve customers hanging around the bar, it’s a waste of money.” He’d argued back.
“His mum’s a friend of mine, apparently he can’t hold a job down, I’m just helping him out.”
“I wonder why.”
Tyler had proved his worth pretty quickly and after 4 months of washing glasses and mopping he turned 21 and was able to serve. He was good at his job because he could talk to anyone but wouldn’t take any shit. He was charismatic and funny and had a constant stream of girlfriends coming in and out of his life. Evie really liked him, he played cards with her in the back office when Simon didn’t have any other options.
“5 jagerbombs please!” a giggly voice came from the bar, which Simon was facing away from to check his texts. He turned and was greeted with a large group of women with crowns and sashes and matching t-shirts. A bachelorette party. On a Tuesday. Of course.
He poured the 5 jagerbombs, then 3 pina coladas, then 4 espresso martinis, then a bottle of prosecco.
“How do you do that?” One of the women slurred, she was probably in her late 20s with short blonde hair and lipstick smudged across her mouth.
“Do what?” Simon responded, dryly. He knew exactly what she meant.
“Pour all of the drinks with… one arm ?!” she continued.
He finished pouring the glass of prosecco, put the bottle down and slid the glass towards her arm which was leaning on the bar, revealing a small cursive tattoo on her wrist.
“Like that.”
“I- I meant,” she stammered, giggling awkwardly, “Uhhhm”
“If you’d excuse me.” Simon could feel his phone ringing in his pocket. Saved by the bell. “Hey Oleysa,”
“Simon I’m so sorry.” He could hear her voice cracking down the phone, she’d clearly been crying.
“Hey hey, what’s happened?” He covered his other ear with his shoulder and scurried into the back office.
“It’s Rena,” Olesyacleared her throat, “She’s had to go into surgery.”
Simon knew a lot about Rena’s medical history, as him and Evie had gone through a lot of it with them, picking up Rena’s brother from school when the rest of the family was in hospital, letting Evie sit on her bed as they played with toys, paying no mind to the tubes running in and out of one of the girls.
She’d been doing so much better recently however, so much so that Olesyaand Lisa had enrolled her into a mainstream middle school and their hospital visits had become more routine than emergency.
“I’m so sorry Oleysa, what happened?”
Olesyaran him through the surgery, a small procedure on her left kidney. Not life-threatening, but still terrifying.
“She’ll be okay, it’s going to be okay,” he comforted through the phone, becoming more and more aware of the crowd growing around the bar out of the corner of his eye.
“I’m so sorry I should have left you know sooner, we can’t pick up Evie from school.”
Of course. He swallowed, trying not to stress out too much. She had enough going on.
“Please don’t worry, I’ll sort something out with Ava. Let me know how it all goes.”
It was 4:10. Even if he got a hold of Ava she probably wouldn’t be able to leave in time. But the increase in Tuesday afternoon drinkers was too much for Tyler to handle by himself, so he gave it a go anyway.
“Hi, it’s Ava, leave a message!” A recorded voice came from his phone.
“Fuck.” he muttered, trying again.
This time it rang a few times, then her real voice came through.
“Simon? Are you okay?”
“Are you around? Now?” He scrambled.
“No, I'm at my sister’s house, are you okay?”
“Yes, don’t worry, have fun.” He responded, hanging up on her abruptly. Her sister lived at least an hour away, that was no use.
“Si?” Tyler called from the bar, “One of the kegs is out and it’s quite busy.”
Fuck! Fuck. There was a solution somewhere here. He put his hand over his face, breathing deeply. He could hear the blood pumping in his ears. Emerging from the office, a rough plan in his mind, he walked over to Tyler.
“Can you go and change the keg, and on your way put a message on the groupchat saying I will give $30 or whatever days off they want to the first person who can come in and work the next 2 hours?” He paused, “Or any one of your friends.”
Tyler looked at him blankly, but sensing the stress radiating off his reasonably scary manager he nodded and scurried down the stairs, pulling his phone out as he went.
“Who’s waiting to be served?” Simon turned to the mob.
“Could I get 2 pints and a glass of white wine?” a group asked. Simon nodded sharply and reached down to pour the wine. His head was still pounding and he could feel himself shaking slightly. He poured the pints more clumsily than usual, splashing a significant amount down his shirt.
Pouring pints one-handed was a struggle on a good day, which this definitely was not. He placed them in front of the group and pushed the card machine to the bald man who had ordered. He then turned to pick up the wine bottle.
“We ordered a wine too,” the man questioned.
Simon said nothing, holding back a flood of expletives, and lifted the wine bottle up.
“Oh.”
He faced away from them, staring at the bottle he’d placed on the far bar, glass next to it. His vision started blurring and his hand was still tremouring. He bit down on his lip to concentrate, face growing redder. The bottle was a screw cap, luckily, so he undid it shakily and lifted it above the glass.
“Is that white?” The man’s sharp voice cut through the hammering in Simon’s head and startled him, causing the bottle to drop and smash the wine glass into his hand.
“FUCK.” He yelped, jumping backwards.
Tyler reemerged, phone in hand and a grin on his face. It dropped when he saw the blood coming from his boss’ hand and spilling over the bar. Everyone in the bar was looking over, some gathering around to see what had caused the commotion. The bald man was apologising profusely, but Simon had shut it out.
“Shit Simon, are you okay?” Tyler ran over and grabbed a tea towel, pressing it to the open wound, “Rose is on her way. Go into the office.”
Simon nodded and held his hand to his stomach, wincing in pain.
Ryland wasn’t sure how to start the email. He wanted to make sure it sounded serious, but not more serious than it was. He didn’t even know how serious it was himself. Harry hadn’t specifically asked to talk to anyone, but he thought it would be good to get the ball rolling, he knew how long it took to organise school counseling and he wasn’t going to make the kid wait.
He remembered sitting in a cold, grey room in his own middle school, talking to a cold, grey woman about his ‘problems at home’ as if it was the house itself that was responsible. He’d answer in singular words and chew at his fingernails until they bled.
Deciding that the email could wait until tomorrow as his mind was already swimming a bit too much, he shut his laptop and went through to the gym where the girls football team were practicing.
Rocky was coaching them, a surprisingly good coach for a physics teacher. Grace sat on the bench and watched as he ran around, demonstrating different drills. He laughed when Roxy kicked a ball between Rocky’s legs and cheered when one team scored a goal. ‘Supervising’ the girls’ football practice was Grace’s easiest job, as Rocky knew exactly what to do and it was fun watching him get beaten by 11 year olds. As practice wound to a close, he made his way out to the car park to greet the first of the parents and sign the girls out.
“Rena’s mum was supposed to take me home, so I don’t know.” Evie responded to Grace’s question.
“Hmm okay, I’ll ask Mr E to call your uncle in a second.” Grace nodded with concern, his eyebrows furrowed. It was 4:45 and the rest of the girls had emptied the car park where they were standing. He was scanning the building behind him, trying to see if Rocky was still inside, when a familiar car pulled in across from them. Simon emerged, a red tea towel wrapped around his singular hand. He looked angrier than normal as he walked towards them with long strides. As he came closer, Grace noticed that the tea towel was not red but in fact soaked in blood.
“Si!” Evie shouted, not noticing it at first but then cocking her head to one side, “What happened to your hand?”
Simon grunted in response, waving her off with his gripped fist. “It’s nothing, sorry I’m so late.”
His eyes caught Ryland’s, who was standing with his mouth slightly open. It slammed shut when he noticed the glare holding his gaze. “That is not nothing!” He blurted before he could stop himself. Simon’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.
“Can I- can I take a look? I’m first aid trained, I promise.” Grace’s hand reached out instinctively. Simon retreated, twisting his body away from the teacher. He then paused, looking the man up and down, seemingly considering some options. He then caught Evie’s worried eyes.
“If you must.” He grumbled.
Ryland led the two of them to his classroom, knowing the nurses office would be shut by now. He pulled out the green first aid kit from under his desk and pulled an extra chair up. Simon begrudgingly sat down.
Grace sat next to him and put his hand out again. Tentatively, Simon pulled his arm away from his chest and towards the teacher. He carefully freed his hand from the tea towel, which stuck to his wrist in places that the blood had dried. Simon winced in response, but didn’t look away, watching the two vertical slices on his palm become revealed.
“Jeeez Louiiise.” Grace said, teacher vocabulary still in effect.
“Eugh!” came Evie’s voice, as she retreated back towards the tables to avoid the sight.
Assessing the situation, Grace opened the first aid box and looked at the options. First he selected an anti bacterial wipe and ripped open the top of the paper sachet.
“This might be a bit cold.” He said, gently wiping around the injuries. Simon had a rough hand, with the callouses of someone who’d spent a long time doing manual labour. His fingernails were clipped short and neat and he wore a leather braided bracelet which Grace hadn’t noticed before, but was now splattered with blood.
“How did this happen?” He asked calmly and softly, not looking up to the man’s stony face.
“Wine glass.” He muttered, breathing sharply through his teeth when Grace hit the edge of one of the cuts. He finished up cleaning and went rifling through the box for a bandage.
“Well it’s a good thing there’s no glass left in the cuts. Plus they’re not too deep so I doubt you’ll need stitches.”
Simon nodded solemnly and looked over to Evie, who was chewing on the corner of her thumb as she sat at the nearest desk. Grace chose a large white plaster and unwrapped it. Simon raised his eyebrows in response. “It’s a bit much, but the palm is really annoying to put plasters on.” Grace explained.
He laid it over the cuts and smoothed it over the wrinkles and callouses of the other man’s hand, feeling the warmth through the plaster and into his fingertips. He pressed it around onto the back of his hand so they were nearly holding hands. He blushed slightly and retracted his hand, looking up awkwardly. Simon had been staring straight at him. They made eye contact briefly, accidentally, before Grace looked over to Evie with a smile.
“All fixed up! You can take him home now, and make sure he’s not getting up to any more trouble!”
Evie giggled at this and stood up, looking very relieved. Grace stood up to join her, awkwardly scrunching up the wrapper and throwing it in the bin. Shakily, Simon stood up too, pushing the chair he was sitting in over to where it came from.
“No, I can do that!”
Simon didn’t listen and positioned the chair carefully behind the table at the front. “Thank you.” He said, avoiding Grace’s gaze slightly.
“No worries,” Grace smiled, “I have a lot of practice, kids fall over just as much as you’d expect.”
Simon’s expression softened slightly, the closest to a smile since he arrived. “I can imagine.”
They walked silently back to the car park, then over to Simon’s car.
“Are you sure you’re okay to drive home?” Grace asked.
“I got here okay.” Simon said with a shrug.
“How did you do that?” Evie asked, amazed.
“Skill and determination.” he responded, patting her on the head.
Grace watched with a small smile. “See you tomorrow Evie.”
“Bye Dr. Grace!”
Simon nodded at him and slid into the car. He waved awkwardly as they disappeared out of the car park. What a weird afternoon.