A case for the defence

Up until that moment, Holly had been in a good mood. The sun had been shining for three days and the promise of spring was in the air. Connor was home for a week and that meant she could sleep easily at night not worrying that he was shagging some whore at university. She loved him, but she didn’t trust him. She had no proof that he slept around but she had no proof that he didn’t either. But for now, she could put that out of her mind. She had him home and that was all that mattered.

“I made you a cup of tea,” Holly said as she came into the room smiling and holding two mugs.

“Watch out!” Connor yelled, but it was too late. Holly’s bare feet had landed into something soft and hairy and squelching and horrible. The tea wobbled in her hands, waves going over the sides of the mugs.

She looked down to see twenty or thirty dead caterpillars squelched into the carpet.

“What the fuck?” she cried, dropping the mugs and waving her arms in the air like she really did care. “They’re on my feet.”

Holly looked at Connor, tears on her face. Why on earth was wrong with him? She’d just stood on an army of caterpillars and thrown tea all over herself and he was still lying on the sofa staring at the scene in front of him.

“Connor?” Holly was still standing with one food in the air surrounded by split tea and corpses.

“Oh sorry.”

Too late he stood up but instead of comforting her or finding something for her to wipe her feet on, he picked up the one surviving caterpillar and carefully and transported it to the backdoor and safety.

“Connor!” Holly couldn’t believe her eyes, had he really gone to the aid of an insect over her?

“Did you know they were there?” she asked when she’d eventually cleaned herself and the mess up.

“Yeah, they were in an arrowhead formation, really weird.”

“And you didn’t think to get rid of them?”

“They weren’t doing any harm.”

“No but they were right in the middle of the carpet. It was pretty obvious someone would step on them.

Connor shrugged like he was auditioning for the Italian football team.

Meanwhile, Holly felt a strange sadness at the realisation that the man she loved was a completely insensitive, selfish idiot.