Me and You

this is the one

About a week later Amy got a call of Larry asking if she/we/squad wanted to go out for a pint with their mates. My flu had finally cleared up so I was right up for it. However, Winnie had just gone back to Newcastle for Uni so she couldn't join us.

I also had tickets to a Bombay Bicycle Club gig the night after so my weekend was looking good.

Amy and Lou came to my house so it was less hassle about getting there. The pub was only round the corner from my house, which was pretty handy. To be honest, we would've probably ended up going to the pub tonight anyway; Lou had had a fairly bad day and wanted to get pissed.

And it was her desire to get pissed that influenced us to have a couple of cans before we go. Well, Amy and I had a couple of cans; Lou had drunk about 5 in the hour leading up to 7.

We strolled into the pub, seeing Larry, Van and a couple of their mates stood at the bar with a pint in their hands. Van spotted us first and waved us over with a smile.

"Alright girls," He greeted us enthusiastically, "How yous doing?"

"Yeah, we're alright," Amy answered for us, "How're you?"

"Ah, I'm great. We had a gig last night so I'm buzzing from that," He replied, before introducing him to his friend, or band.

There was Benji, the bassist; Billy, the guitarist and Bob, the drummer.

We got a drink and sat down in a booth with the lads; it was cramped until Van pulled a chair up to the end of the booth and next to me.

"That looks weak as fuck. You need a man's drink, like beer," Van said, mocking my Cheeky Vimto.

"Mate, this is a Cheeky Vimto; Manchester's finest!" I defended, taking a drink.

"Yeah, but is it strong?"

"Well, they get me drunk pretty quickly," I said with a slight laugh, "Plus I had a couple of cans before I came here, so I'm going to be dead tomorrow."

Van laughed and I turned my head towards Lou, who seemed to be in a deep conversation with Bob. About what, I don't know, but I think I heard her say:

            "Mate, you've nrever lived until you do your big Friday shop at 2 in the morning."

More and more drinks were consumed as the night proceeded and I ended up drunkenly dancing to The Strokes with Van, insisting that he goes to the bar and order a Cheeky Vimto before I do it for him. It was blatant that Van wasn't as drunk as I was; he was still pretty drunk, but handling his drink better nonetheless.

I noticed Lou becoming more persistent to get drunk. Emptying her purse of a ten pound note at the bar was a tell-tale sign. She was even more of a lightweight than I was.

"Y'know what," I slurred to Van and he looked at with an amused face.

"What?"

"Johnny Marr in the 80s was fiiinne. To be honest, I don't think he's aged very well. Ian Brown is in the same boat."

Van dissolved in to laughter at my half cut garbling, before revealing his man crush on Mike Skinner and Julian Casablancas. To which I exclaimed that everyone has a thing for Julian, whether you're willing to admit it or not.

"Coolian is the Juliest," I said, muddling up my syllables. At this point, Van decided that I'd drunk too much, and sat me down at a table, where my propped up elbow was the only thing keeping me upright.

I couldn't even see properly, Van's face was blurred and Lou's arm looked contorted. Soon enough, I found myself in a hammered conversation with Lou about God knows what.

However, I sobered up slightly when I heard Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet playing through the speakers of the DJ booth. It was my drinking song; I knew all the words.

"Oh mate, this is my song," I exclaimed, lightly hitting Van's arm from across the table.

I stood up and slug my arm around Amy's shoulder, as we sung the words into each other's face, stumbling over our feet in a crowd of at least fifteen other bladdered folk. We started dancing, as the strangers surrounding us sang along with us.

"One, two, three, take your hand and come with me because you look so fine that I really wanna make you mine," I slurred, laughing hysterically.

"Four, five, six, come on and get your kicks, now you don't need money when you look like that honey."

-

I woke up on my bed with two other bodies sprawled across me. Sitting up slowly, due to my pounding headache, I was relieved to see it was just Lou and Amy. I pondered over whether I should get up, trying to decide whether relieving my bladder and having a good brew was worth the effort.

Having to sort through the maze of tangled legs on my bed, getting to the toilet took longer than necessary. Once my bladder was empty, I took a blanket from my wardrobe and draped it over my shoulders while I made myself a brew and got some painkillers.

I checked the time on my phone, reading 6:35 am. Seeing that there was nothing better on the telly than teleshopping and early morning chat shows, I decided to put on Austin Powers.

My second mug of tea was nearly empty and I was halfway through International Man of Mystery, when I received a text from an unknown number.

'Alright mate its Van, you were proper smashed last night, you alright?'

I turned the brightness of my phone screen down before smiling to myself, saving Van's number and texting back:

'Yeah, bit hungover like, but I've been worse'

We text for about an hour, mainly about the previous night and how drunk I was - to be fair, I probably wasn't that drunk because I can still remember everything, apart from how I got home. Seriously though, it was nice of him to stay with me. He could've spent the night with his allfriends

I told him about the Bombay Bicycle Club gig tonight and he replied:

'Mate, I love Bombay. I might try and get in as the support act.'

Which had me laughing out loud to myself; sprawled across the couch, wrapped in a blanket and eating super pasta at half 7 in the morning.

'You could just buy a ticket for a tenner.' I suggested, still chuckling to myself.

'Yeah, but I'm on the dole an' that, aren't I.'