Back at the flat, Graham’s tired eyes gazed out of the window, looking down at the streets below. His lips parted with his cigarette as smoke flared from his nostrils. Damon sat on the couch, twiddling his fingers on Gra’s guitar.
“Gra,” he murmured. “Come here, I wrote a song about you.”
Graham looked at him nervously. “What??” he breathed. He put out his cigarette and sat with Damon on the couch casually, trying not to allude to his flattered curiosity.
“Do you want me to play it for you, love?” he said almost a bit too tenderly.
“Of co— Damon of course I want you to play it for me what kind of—“
“Alright, alright I’ll play it. Alright, shut up, shut up.” Damon commanded.
Damon did a few tuning twangs on the guitar and then all at once serenaded Graham with a cacophony of discordant notes. Graham tried to cover his ears but to no avail.
“GRAHAM COXON LIKES TO GET WAAAANKED OFF ON HIS MUM’S COUCHH—“
“Oh shut up!!” Graham shouted over the lack of melody. He got up and walked back to his previous position on the windowsill and breathed a puff of the cancer stick.
Damon, who up until then sat on the couch uproariously laughing, apologized profusely.
“I’m sorry Gra, no, no listen I’ve actually written a song for you.”
Graham didn’t want to listen.
“I’m serious. I wrote it for you. It hasn’t got any words yet, but that’s because I can’t find the words to describe my feelings toward you.” his melodious voice dripped the last three words. “And also because I can’t sing and play at the same time very well.” Damon cackled sharply and Graham begrudgingly laughed along. “Listen, Graham, listen.” Damon furrowed his brow in concentration as he began to play.
This time, instead of a loud crash of noise coming from the instrument, Damon’s fingering of the instrument crescendoed to a reasonable volume. The chords he laid out were playfully seductive, as though the song would turn out to be another joke springing from Damon’s lips. But the song also made Graham feel distant, as though the notes had pushed Damon and himself apart to opposite ends of the earth. And just as Graham couldn’t take the metaphorical distance any longer, the bridge arrived, which pulled the two back together at crashing speeds. This bridge was the only bit that came close to the awful noises Damon had played before. They weren’t beautiful. They were ugly. It wasn’t melancholic sadness anymore, it was anger and passion and bittersweet intimacy. But still, Graham felt a melodic attraction toward it. It was then that the playing got soft again. But it wasn’t sad anymore. What could only be described as content tranquility and pure bliss swept through Graham. This finale felt as though it was endless, and as Damon lightly strummed the last chord, he let it resonate and hang there, just long enough that it felt like the song would truly last forever.
Graham sat speechless. Damon’s goofy grin rose from looking down at his playing hands and instead looked to the body across from him. “What’d you think?” he asked eagerly.
Graham tried to collect the words in his head, but Damon took his silence as an insult.
“You hate, it don’t you?” Damon asked looking back down at the guitar in shame.
“No, Da. I thought it was… Marvelous, truly something to marvel at.” He looked at Damon, his mind racing trying to find something more to say. “I love you, Damon. Do you know that?”
“I’m glad to hear it, Graham, I really am.” He paused. “To be quite honest with you I was having doubts about it all.” He smiled a toothy yet thankful grin, trying to lighten the mood, but it quickly faded away. “Look I… I know I can sometimes be a little rough with you..” he began again.
Graham knew where this was headed and tried to stop him. “No, naw, Damon plea—“
“No, no, listen!!” he took a deep breath. “I know sometimes I’m not the best at being gentle with you, but you put up with it and I just want you to know that I’m thankful for it, Gra. Really.”
Graham didn’t speak, but responded by smiling at him and snuggling into his arms to lie there on the couch together, still humming along to that resonated chord of Damon’s Ode to Graham.
