bittersweet - graham coxon

II

23rd February 1995

It had been weeks since the Chicago gig, weeks since Graham Coxon was able to see the face of the woman who had single-handedly managed to stick her image in her head ever since she decided to pick up and leave. Which he didn't blame her for, by the way. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that touring with Blur can become tiring, especially when you have one Damon Albarn taking your ear off the entire time, teasing you about something you've heard a million times before from the press.

He tried to put himself in her shoes for a little, and that's what made him so hesitant about calling her again. He thought maybe she'd be better off without him in short, because she certainly seemed happy in America. With her job that paid good money, and her boyfriend who seemed almost a little too normal, Arwen Rylee was living the life she had always dreamed of.

But he decided to in the end, because he was selfish, after all, and he wanted to talk to her. It took him a while to build up the courage to even dial the fucking phone number she had scribbled onto a torn piece of paper, cooped up in his flat in London, holding the thing to his ear as his hands hovered over the digit pad.

Then he finally did it, at the speed of light as well, listening to the phone trill gently, before she eventually picked up on the third ring, "Hello?"

"Hey- um, is this Arwen Rylee?" He asked, knowing full well it was her speaking. He thought acting like he didn't recognise her voice would make him seem almost cooler in a way.

"Yes, speaking. Graham? Is that you?"

He bit the inside of his cheek nervously, "Hi."

"Hey... how much is this call costing you? It can't be cheap."

He slumped a little further back into his sofa, yanking the phone closer to him, "I'm not sure. It's fine, either way. How are you? Sorry I didn't call earlier."

"I'm grading art history papers at the minute... some of my students are such little arses. I think only two of the six kids I'm tutoring actually studied for the test I gave them." She rolled her eyes, sighing, "Are you still on tour?"

"No. We just finished a week ago. Until June." He murmurs down the line, pushing his glasses up with his pointer finger, "When does your term finish?"

She knew what he was implying, and it almost made her feel bad to say the next thing, "Not for a while..." She trailed off, pausing to think, "But I'm coming to London next week. One of my students is international, and his parents are paying me a ridiculous amount of money for in person tutoring. I'll be staying with them for two weeks or so. Do you guys have a gig in that time?"

He frowned, thinking to himself, "No. But could I come see you? You could stay in my flat..." He looked around the mess of it, and spotted the single bedroom in the entire place, "Or not. It's a bit of a tip at the minute." He added with a slight mumble.

She laughed a little, the sound echoing through the line and making him smile a bit, "Did you never move out of that place? Jesus, Graham. That place is such a shithole! I'm sure you're making enough to live in a better apartment."

"It's comfortable living, Arwen. I don't need a four-bedroom house when there's only one of me."

"No women? I would've thought you would've paired up with somebody by now, since everyone else seems to be," She mused, smirking, "I've heard Damon has even found somebody. Him and Justine call it quits?"

Graham groans, rolling his eyes from the subject change, "Yeah, because he's obsessed with Lillian. You know, the pretty one from Oasis?"

"Why don't you chase her as well?"