Anything {Catfish & the Bottlemen}

10

I rolled over, coming to. "Morning, sunshine," I heard a voice, and I jumped out of my skin. I rolled back over, then saw Van's face close to mine; slowly remembering the events of last night.

The date. Darren. The... touching. Then Van. Sweet, sweet Van, coming to save the day, once again. "Morning," I smiled, stifling my yawn so he didn't have to witness my morning breath. I sat up, resting against my headboard, then Van sat himself on the end of my bed and passed me a steaming mug. Smiling, I took the mug appreciatively. "Thank you," I said, my voice raspy, "how did you sleep?" I asked him, concerned that he'd spent the night probably freezing his backside off. "Well, your couch is surprisingly comfy; but that was the least of my priorities, I just wanted to make you feel safe." He replied, looking at me, me with my head bowed, "well it worked." We looked at each other, and I wanted to lean over and kiss him, like the good old days when we'd play out this exact scenario on a morning.

"You'd better get off, then. Make your excuses about what happened last night," I suggested, hoping he'd shut me down. I was right. "Nonsense, love; I'm not going anywhere," he replied. I grabbed his hand and he squeezed. "Crap!" I exclaimed, suddenly rushing to get out of bed, "I've got to be at work in a bit." Van grabbed my by the waist and pulled me back onto my bed. "No, you don't. I rang your boss and explained that you'd fallen down ill, but you'd be in tomorrow without fail." Hearing those words made my day, so I relaxed back into my mattress. "Cheers," I said, for what felt like the thousandth time in the last 12 hours.
"What d'you fancy doing today then, love?" Van asked, his hand still lingering on my waist. I shrugged, "not fussed, but I'll drive myself insane sitting here all day," hinting that I wanted to go out somewhere. He got that. "Right, I'll be back in 20 minutes. Be ready, then we'll go on an adventure," he said, kissing me on the forehead and running out of my room, closing the door behind him.

I put on a simple outfit, my stripy pants and a crop top and my doc martens. I threw my hair into a ponytail, the strands still curly from last night's antics. Then I remembered the coffee still sitting on my bedside table so I gulped that down and checked my phone; it'd been 20 minutes. I sent Van a cheeky text: I'm ready, it's been 20 minutes, you're not here, therefore I win ;). My phone buzzed back instantly with an im outside x. I slipped my phone into my pocket, grabbed a fiver and ran downstairs then straight outside, and got into Van's car.

—

"Where are you taking me?" I asked, after 40 minutes of driving. We were nowhere near anything so we must have a while to go, too. He tapped his nose, "that's a secret." I rolled my eyes, although he couldn't see. Being back in this car, driving fast down the roads, brought back all the memories of our breakup. "Van... what's happening to us?" I asked the question that's been the elephant in the room since he picked me up last night. "We'll talk about that soon, we're nearly there." A thousand questions were racing through my mind and then I realised where he was taking me.

Before I knew it the sign came into view. 'Farmer John's Barn and Play Area.' He'd brought me to where we had our first date. My heart melted, but my stomach went wild. "Wh.. why've you brought me here?" I asked. "Em, I wanted to bring you here to show you how much you mean to me," he replied as we pulled round into the car park, and Van concentrated as he reversed into a spot. When we stopped I got straight out of the car, not wanting to linger in the awkward environment. Van walked round to me and asked for my hand. I gave him it. We walked up to the entrance and I stood back whilst Van bought two wristbands; giving us full access to the grounds. He grabbed my hand and we walked together.

Minutes, hours, passed, and we talked like there was no tomorrow. I caught Van up on everything he'd missed, I even told him stuff I'd kept from him during our relationship. He told me things, about the band and the album and how his music was coming along. "Will you play me something, Van?" I asked, as we stopped and sat at a bench. He nodded, "we can go back to my house and I'll sing you a song me and the boys wrote the other day." We smiled, I rested my head on his shoulder. "What's it called?" I asked. He stared into my eyes and replied "anything." The night of the breakup came back into my head and a tear rolled down my eyes; Van was quick to wipe it away, "I know," he whispered, nodding and bumping our foreheads. We stayed like that for a minute, then stood up and walked around, continuing our date.

We finally got back into Van's car after hours of walking around, talking, laughing... reminiscing. He looked at me, "where now?" He asked. I looked back and replied "your place."

—

Back at Van's, we sat in his room, him with his guitar on his lap, me sat on the floor leaning against his cupboard. "Play me Anything." I asked. He smiled and strummed on his guitar.

Then he started singing.

"It gets difficult to talk, when you nearly deafen me 'cause you start laughing," he looked into my eyes and I giggled, "if it means that we get through." He sang, and sang, belting his heart out and occasionally looking and smiling at me.

"But if it means that we get through, then you know I'm up for anything," he finished abruptly. "I need to work on the last bit, I'm struggling to get it in, but, there." He smiled shyly. "It's about you, if you couldn't tell." I stood up, walked over to him and gently pressed my lips to his.

"I need to go, I'll let you work on your song. Anything you need, any time at all, I want you to phone me." I said, repeating the words he told me when we broke up; but changing the meaning for the better. I walked away, savouring the cute, dazed look on his face as I left.