Overlap

Van

Sound City wasn't the end of our festival run, really it was supposed to be the start.
That had gone on hold though the second I'd set eyes on Eponine standi standing there in the mud, calling out to me with rain stained features. Not that I'd told the lads about that decision.

It had of course been Bondy who'd laid all his cards on the table and given Mark and our management the ultimatum.

They either gave him the week to settle things or he disappeared anyway, and wouldn't they rather know when he was coming back?

"Try keep me here and I'll just stop answering your calls... I know the lids all understand," he had shrugged at the first sign of a frown on marks face. And he was right. We did.
He could have more than a week for her as far as I was concerned. Irrational as my thoughts may have been at the time, all of them frazzled at the sight of her, all of them burnt out the minute I'd put my arm around her and felt her nestle into my chest on that little backroom settee, I still had a plan.

Because I knew what we could getaway with realistically.
A day or two for Bondy to move her back in. No mention of whether I could go with him, whether he could have any help.
But if John was busy and he couldn't make rehearsals then what was the point in rehearsing at all. So if Bond could go then I could go too, and once we'd gone they'd have no way to control us.
If two days wasn't enough I could twist it to three.

And perhaps this time I could convince her to come with us when we left London.

Bondy got her drunk after the show, rosy drunk on red wine and then everything else. Anything he could find. They'd gotten drunk together, made us listen to Roxy Music, made us dance with them down a hill somewhere in Liverpool looking for the last venue which would be open all night, singing More Than This because it was their favourite song and "Don't pretend you don't love it when we do this," as Nina had smirked and said with a teasing sort of light glowing in her eyes.

"I love it when you do this," i murmured to her, flashing her a smirk as I brushed past her and ahead to our friends.
She'd been smiling at me over her shoulder, the tip of her nose and the curve of her lips catching the glow of a streetlamp.
So pretty she'd left me struggling to swallow down my feelings for her.
Feelings I was certain tonight, I couldn't keep pretending I didn't feel.

Even after I'd passed her by all that was on my mind was her smile, making it stay. Making her stay.

So I did something stupid, in a desperate bid to make her laugh, I jumped on our Benjis back, nearly sending us both flying into the road. Not caring when my mate started swearing, grinning, but having a go, because her laughter glistened in the night and it was lovely. It was all I cared about temporarily.

"What the fuck Van," grinned Benji shaking me off with a laugh of his own. It wasn't exactly unusual for me to do something like that, it just wasn't usually Blakes that I targetted.

"Sorry lid, thought you were Bondy like," i smiled at him sheepishly and offered him an apology cigarette whilst he shook his head in disbelief.

"More chance of mistakin our Bob was Bondy than you have me Van," he grinned, calling me an idiot, probably secretly knowing exactly why I'd done it, because Blakes knew me better than almost anybody.
Whenever Nina was around he'd manage to catch me out and I could tell that he could tell.

He could definitely tell now.

I tried not to turn around when he looked back at her over his shoulder, but it was difficult not to follow his gaze when I knew what he would see.
Sleepy Eponine half held up by her brother, half holding her brother up too. The two of them tripping over their laces, his eyes on the ground, hers gazing at the street she stumbled down as if it was the prettiest street she'd ever seen.