I'd Like to be Somebody Else

Chapter 48

We went to the Roskilde Festival in Denmark on the 30th.

"What are you reading there?" I asked Liam, who was sat reading an actual book. "Didn't know you could read." I joked.

"Er, what's it called?" he looked at the cover, holding his place in the book. "Er, Becoming A Daddy."

"Good read?" I sat next to him.

"Not really but I nicked it from Noel so..." he shrugged.

I had no idea Noel had bought baby books. "You had to find out what the fuss is about?" I suggested. "When did he buy it?"

"Got some lacky to get it after we left sheep shagger country."

"That's proper mean." I couldn't help laughing. "What have you learnt?" I sat with him.

"Well not once has it mentioned beating the shit out of your kids or generally friggin' bullying them so I guess we're going to have to not do that." he tried to casually reference his parenting but even he couldn't hide how much damage it had caused them.

"You, Noel and Paul are nothing like him. You turned out to be amazing, caring lads that I'm so grateful to know." I leant my head against his shoulder. "At least you know exactly how not to raise a family."

"How's this having a baby thing going anyway?" he asked as he put the book down and put his arm around me.

"When I'm not ridiculously tired or wanting to eat weird as fuck food and all that it's actually pretty good." I smiled. "How's this going to be an uncle thing going?"

"Part of me wishes that book applied to me..."

"Your dick?" I stuck my tongue out at him childishly.

"No, I'm being serious, somewhere in here." he tapped a finger on the temple of his forehead. "Just being honest."

"I don't deserve you and you deserve someone who only wants you. There's thousands of girls, especially fan girls who want that."

"Cheap, dirty shags that I can't remember days later." he described fangirls. "If we got what we deserved I'd have grown up with rich parents in a massive house, not being a thieving little twat."

"I get the impression rich parents, massive house people are actually really miserable but thieving little twats grow up to be lively lads with plenty of character."

"If I've got so much character, why won't you be with me?"

"I'm carrying your brother's baby for a start. We didn't work, I went off with your brother. I'm grateful you can still stand being in the same room as me."

He grabbed the scrunchie from my ponytail and used it to tie my wrists together.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I asked as I gave him a strange look and held my wrists in place.

"Just shut up a minute." he said impatiently.

He started playing air piano and hummed a tune before he started singing. "Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try."

I tried to work out why I was being sung to while being rubbishly tied up.

"No hell below us. Above us only sky." he continued.

John Lennon's Imagine. I vaguely remembered Noel telling me Liam would tie me to a chair and play every Beatles and John Lennon tune if he found out I didn't know them.

"He told you?" It was so long ago, I didn't know how it wasn't long forgotten.

"Said I should do it to make you fall for me cos you'd find it clever and funny and stuff. Show you how I feel and that."