Me and You

lonely boy

The morning after the Liverpool gig I remembered mine and Van's conversation before Sam picked us up. I sat in my bed confused, but amused at the same time. Van had only had two pints and I was surprised to hear him complimenting me in such a cheesy way. My cheeks grew redder the more I thought about last night.

I think I might've fallen asleep on him. Again. I don't remember much from then to waking up on Patrick in Sam's car.

Three days later and they were playing in Manchester again, and I had the day off work so I'd invited Van round. I don't know what we'd be doing, but I wanted to catch up before he leaves again. He happily accepted my invitation, saying that as long as I make him a brew he'll be round for 11. Due to a gig on the night and having to do soundcheck and stuff, he had to come early since he'd have to leave about 4.

I decided to tidy downstairs up a bit due to the beer bottles everywhere from Sam and his mates. And 'a bit' means 'a bit': I pushed some books into the corner with my foot, put the DVD's that were on the floor back into a box and removed the coats from the 'coat couch' and put them in the cupboard or on the end of the bannister. Then, I got bored and put The Office on and made myself a brew.

Dead on 11, there was a rap at the door and I opened up to Van in his usual black jeans and a t-shirt, which was surprising. He smiled at me brightly and I returned it before inviting him in. It was the first time Van had been to my house, where I'd been to his many o'times.

"Y'alright mate?" I asked, as he awkwardly stood by the couch making me chuckle, "sit down."

"Yeah, buzzing for this gig tonight," he said, taking a seat and getting comfortable, "how you doing?"

"I'm class, yeah, d'ya want that brew then?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at him and passing him the remote for the telly as he nodded in response.

I descended into the kitchen and put the kettle on, shouting through to Van if he wanted a biscuit. I'd had tea with Van more times than I care to remember by now, and by now I know how he likes his tea. As I ducked down to get the milk out of the fridge, I heard footsteps and turned around to Van leaning on the counter next to the two mugs.

"Nowt on the telly," he said, grinning at me as I approached him with the milk in my hand, "What're we gonna do then?"

"I dunno," I shrugged, pouring the milk into the cups, "what do you want to do?"

"What do you want to do?" Van smirked, knowing it'd get on my nerves. I rolled my eyes and looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "We could watch a film?" he suggested, caving beneath my disgruntled stare.

"Yeah, alright."

We returned to the living room with cups of tea in our hands as I pointed him to the cupboard of all the DVD's. I took a seat on the couch as Van observed the cabinet, scanning the shelves for a film that we'd both agree on.

He was getting closer to the bottom few shelves; or the Punishment Shelves, as Sam and I always called them as they were like montages of us doing daft things from about 6 months old and upwards. Every year, my dad adds onto them and puts them on the telly when the whole family is round for birthdays or when we've been little shits and friends are over. For example, the DVD titled "Kate '93" is about 2 minutes long, then "Kate '94" is about 4 minutes long as it's the footage from 1993 + 1994 and so on.

"What are these?" Van asked, pointing to the black DVD boxes on the bottom shelves.

"Embarrassing," I replied, standing up and joining him at the cupboard to prevent him from picking one up.

"Why?" He stood up straight, smirking down at me. When I looked up at him with a laugh, I was surprised to see his face just a couple of inches from mine. I guess he was too. Van held my gaze for a few seconds before leaning back against the wall and I cleared my throat and sat on the arm of the couch so that our personal space was restored.