Skins: Endgame

Chapter 6

"Emergency" - "Yes, an ambulance, please."

Freddie, quite like Effy, was in some kind of shock as he spoke into the phone.

Nearly 2 minutes ago, Cook and a complete stranger stumbled into his house, struggling to carry Effy. Freddie jumped to aid and together, they carried her to the couch and tenderly placed her on it.

Afterwards, Cook and the stranger seemed to deliberately be keeping their distance from each other. Freddie could sense tension: his first impression was that the guy was just one of Cooks dealer friends. But now he guessed he had been wrong. There was something familiar about him though, like he'd seen his face many times before, but couldn't place it...

"It's for my girlf... my friend," continued Freddie to the paramedics on the other line. "She's not right, I don't - she's been sectioned before. Yeah, it's 82 Peveril Road. That's the one, yeah, ok."

Cook and Tony were deliberately ignoring eye contact with each other. During this, Cook had gazed around and noticed that Freddie seemed to have packed some bags. "You fucking skipping out on me, man?"

Freddie was about to ask who the stranger was before Cook's question caught him off guard. Signing, he turned to face Cook. "Yeah, I'm leaving, I was going to go tonight."

Cook got to his feet. "You were going to fuck off? Leave her?"

"Cook, she broke my heart man," said Freddie.

"She broke my heart as well," replied Cook. "You broke my heart. I bet you've broken hers at some point. So what are we gonna do? Are we just three losers screwing each other forever?"

"For the record," interjected the stranger, "she never broke my heart. Nor me with her.

Freddie now regarded this man with a lot more importance. Clearly he wasn't just nobody. He just said neither he nor Effy broke each other's heart. Again he almost asked who he was, but Cook loudly interrupted. "OR... Are we something better than that? Fuck, mate, grow up. Cos I'm done here."

Cook started to head to the front door.

"Cook."

Cook turned around to face Freddie.

"Thanks for bringing her to me."

Cook smiled. "Where the fuck else would I bring her? Don't screw it up."

He started to leave but as he passed by the stranger, the stranger abruptly stood in Cooks way, blocking his exit.

"Oi. You are in my way," snarled Cook.

"Oh?" Replied the stranger with a cheeky grin. "I hadn't noticed."

Cook, now with both of them not wanting to break eye contact, addressed Freddy without looking away.

"Sorry I forgot to introduce you two. Tony, this is Freddie. Freddie, this is Tony. Tony Stonem. Effy's big brother."

Freddie now understood everything in an instant. No wonder Tony has looked so familiar, he'd seen pictures of him in Effys house. Anthea must have called him when Effy began to take a turn for the worst.

He also understood where this tension with Cook was coming from, which made him frightened. Tony had been in the previous generation that attended Roundview College before Freddie, Cook and JJ started. He had more or less ran the group of friends he hung around with. Effy had revealed what they got up to, Tony in particular. Based on what Effy said, he had quite a manipulative streak. There had been an incident involving the leaking of pictures of the sister of his ex girlfriend's new boyfriend at the time. Tony had been prepared to go to any lengths to get his ex back and he had done so.

Freddie continued to watch, now in awe, as he fully took in the reality of the situation in front of him. For better or for worse, Cook had been this generation's Tony. And like Tony before him, both had quite a reputation stemming from their actions. Two legends from two different eras were colliding in Freddie Mclair's living room, neither one wanting to back down.... If the situation hadn't been so life threatening, he could have taken some private pleasure at witnessing such a situation first hand.

It was a deadlock. Neither of the two wanted to move. Finally, Cook, with a face like thunder, sidestepped around Tony.

Tony, as ever, kept his satisfaction behind his face, but inside he laughed hard. Cook wasn't a pushover by any means and he was of the opinion that Cook would be a problem for him if the two got into a legitimate fight. But Tony was clever. He knew that Cook had been having issues with Freddy. Anthea briefly touched upon it and Tony had sensed it when the two of them had just spoke about Effy breaking their heart. Tony correctly guessed that she had driven a wedge between their friendship. He also correctly guessed that the two had began building bridges again. Cook, already mentally drained from the night's events with Effy, wouldn't have attacked him inside Freddie's house over Effy, at the expense of potentially re-burning those bridges. Because of this, he couldn't resist humiliating him in front of Freddie.

Caution. Caution was a virtue here, Tony thought. He knew that he couldn't just walk up to Cook and start a fight. Aside from Cook being a tough opponent, simply fighting him wasn't good enough and it was also far too distant from his past methods. He'd develop plans for handling Cook alright, in addition to his other unfinished business. Seeing as he was here and had a week away from College, he figured he may as well kill two birds with one stone. Cook would learn a lesson from messing with his sister, as would-

"Hey..."

Tony was snapped out of his inner thoughts as Freddie spoke to him.

"The ambulance is here." Indeed, they could hear sirens just outside.

"Thank God," Tony replied. "I should say it's nice meeting you by the way, even under these circumstances. Mum tells me you too are really close."

Freddy looked down at Effy. "We were close. Once. But now, I just don't know..."

Tony didn't have any time to reply. The paramedics had entered the room.