An unlikely friendship

part 11

Dec wept quietly to himself for a good ten minutes,sat on the cold doorstep,not even bothering to ring the doorbells to the other flats,even if someone was in to let him in through the front door of the building,he still wouldn't be able to get into his actual flat,so what would be the point?Just sitting in a cold hallway for God knows how long certainly didn't appeal.

Eventually he dried his eyes,took a swig from the bottle of water that he still had from Eddie and started to think logically about a solution.

There was only one solution.

Ant!

Dec had no idea if Ant was coming into the office as it was a Saturday,but knowing what a workaholic Ant was,it was very likely.

So Dec started making his way to the office,more walking was the last thing he wanted to be doing right now,but what choice did he have?

He just took it slow and steady and not too long after,he arrived at his and Ant's place of work.

But another problem was that there was no one on reception at the weekends.

He didn't have a key card,so even if Ant was in the office,Dec didn't know how to get to him.

He stared blankly at the building for a moment,before running his hand firmly up and down the row of buzzers in the hope that there might be someone somewhere in the building who would hear him and let him in.

Luckily that was the case.

The building was made up of several businesses and offices and inevitably,Ant wasn't the only one working on a Saturday.

The person who let Dec in had seen him in passing during the week,so wasn't worried about giving him entrance.

"Don't ask" Dec mumbled as the man stared at Dec's shoeless foot.

After thanking the guy,Dec made his way up to where he knew Ant would be.

"Dec?" Ant stated surprised.

Dec smiled kind of nervously at his friend,as Ant looked him up and down.

"What the hell has happened to you?" Ant asked "you look dreadful...and where's your shoe?"

"Locked myself out" Dec muttered.

"What?" Ant asked confused "when?er...how?last thing I heard,you were safely tucked up in bed"

"Um...well...I...umm" Dec stuttered.

He stared at Ant's concerned face.

"Seriously Declan" Ant frowned "you're worrying me,Nick told me he had taken you home,so what the hell happened between then and now?"

Dec could only carry on staring at Ant,trying desperately to find the right words.

But he couldn't!

Looking at Ant's concerned face,how could Dec tell him what one of his closest friends had done?His business partner...his long term buddy...how could he break his heart after everything Ant had done for him?

"Well...I...um" Dec still couldn't find the words that he wanted to say.

"You were pretty drunk last night" Ant pointed out "guess you're not used to drinking anymore"

"Yeah" Dec nodded.

"I guess you must have got up again after Nick took you home" Ant tried to put the pieces together "and in your drunken stupor,you must have gone out again"

"Yeah" Dec replied,quite relieved at the fact that Ant was putting words in his mouth "I must have,how stupid am I eh?"

"Where did you go?" Ant asked concerned.