Essex Dogs - a Blur fanfiction

Chapter 1

"Oh man, it's pretty late out. I should get home soon," said 18-year-old university freshman Graham Coxon. Once again, Graham was out late. It was the third time this week coming home from the local pub, and maybe he was going out too often. His band just finished playing and he had a lot on his mind. Just some girl trouble again. As long as his grades were okay, it shouldn't matter.

The year was 1976. It was right at the beginning of exam time for the University of Essex, after the fall semester. Like many of his friends, young Graham Coxon was new to Colchester. He came from Sheffield, in Yorkshire, and it was his first time away from home. He and roommate Braxton Rowley were not the best of friends. He was getting annoyed by Graham's constant nights out.

Graham was always a pretty smart kid. Good grades, good looks, and good talent. He played a killer guitar, and even started his own band at uni. He had a small pub group with friends Steven Townes and Cooper Rodes, called The Windtops, with very little success.

Graham had one thing in mind: winning Carmen Wale's heart. Since school started, he had a crush on a girl he was desperate to talk to. The problem was: she was into bad boys. The leather jacket, hardcore smoking, motorcycle riding, blasting Pink Floyd kind of bad boys. Graham was far from being a bad boy. He could just forget it. Sure, his guitar playing was cool and all, but she was always taken before Graham could get his chance. Carmen Wale was quite a popular girl.

The afternoon before this particular night in January, Graham was hanging out with Steven and Cooper on the school quad. He was feeling a little down thinking about Carmen. He wanted to ask her out on several occasions, but she was always with someone else or already asked. Her steady on-and-off was a footballer named Jimmy Norfield.

Graham HATED Jimmy Norfield. They attended school in Sheffield together, and Jimmy always bullied Graham in school. They always had some kind of a romantic rivalry going on. Graham would start dating or talking to a girl, and Jimmy would find some way of ruining it. This time was going to be different in Graham's mind. This time, he would be the one getting the girl in the end. he just didn't know how.

Steven's advice: "Toughen up, Graham. You're too soft-skinned."

Cooper's advice: "Just be yourself, man. Chicks dig guys who are real."

"But that's the thing. I am being myself, maybe she just doesn't like what she sees."

"It doesn't hurt to try. Well, after tonight's show, talk to her."

"Steve. What if she has someone new already? You know she just dumped that Jimmy Norfield again."

"You'd do a much better job than him, anyway. You can do it!"

So he did it. The Windtops had a fairly good show at their usual watering hole down the road from school, and Graham had a few shots. It was Saturday night, so he had plenty of time before he had to go back to his dorm.

He got lucky - Carmen showed up to the show. Boy, was she pretty! Legs were killin', and his eyes! Why close them when they were opened too wide? (A/N: In case you were wondering, these are the lyrics to Graham Coxon's "Don't Let Your Man Know".) She was just too pretty for him to think straight.

Tonight, Graham was fueled by a couple shots of whiskey, so he was sure to get the girl this time! He swaggered over to her, leaning up against the bar and getting close to her.

She looked over. "Oh, hey Graham!" she said. She knew Graham from one of her classes, but they never really spoke. "Great show tonight!"

"Glad you could come out, sweet pea," Graham answered. What was he thinking?! He and Carmen had only spoken once, maybe twice, before and all of a sudden she was "sweet pea"?

Carmen was a little confused. "Uh, Graham? Are you drunk?"

"Are you gorgeous? That answer is yes!" It was already over. Graham's chances at getting Carmen were non-existent now. "Eh, Carmen. Let me ask you this."

She was all ears.

"Ever thought about being my girlfriend?"

"What?!" she shouted. "Are you bloody mad, Graham? I would never go out with you, are you even kidding me right now? You just stroll over here, all drunk, and think I would want to go out with you. Really? Think hard about it."

Graham knew he had really screwed things up now. "Besides," she continued, "I already have a boyfriend." Jimmy Norfield walked out of the men's room and put his big, leather-covered arm around her waist. He dwarfed her and Graham in size and height.

"Hey, sweet cakes," Jimmy said. "This scumbag bothering you?"

"No, no, not at all!" Graham knew where to draw the line, and he had crossed it. Once again, his window of opportunity with Carmen Wale was closed. As he watched her walk away under Jimmy's arm that looked like it could crush her at any moment, he couldn't help but wonder why he had been so stupid.

He left the pub soon after to head back to school. He looked down at his watch under the street lamp and was shocked by the time. 10:30 PM. He needed to hurry back to school soon.

He was walking along this dark road leading back to school, one he was quite familiar walking down at night. Just a couple miles from school, he sat down beside a building on a box to rest his legs and think. Carmen was still on his mind.

Suddenly, he felt two pairs of hands pull him through the window of this strange building he was leaning against. One pair covered his eyes and mouth and the other pulled him down. In this dark basement, he could barely see two figures: one had long hair, and the other had short red hair, from what he could tell.

"Shhhh," the red-haired figure advised. "Don't worry young man. We won't hurt you."

"It's okay, we'll just take you to our boss and send you on your way," the long-haired figure said.

"How.. how did you find me? How did you know I was sitting there?" Graham was quite confused.

"Boss said he thought he heard a noise. He wanted us to check it out."

Okay, Graham thought to himself. I wasn't ready to go home, anyway.