The Untitled fic!! *finished*

[Kolakube]

Okies, heres the fic i said that I was writing with my friend who i've fallen out with, i'll update it as more is written!

[Kolakube]

“Josie Gibson.”
The girl sitting next to me turned paler than she had been a few seconds earlier, gulped nervously and stood up. She smoothed her miniskirt down and shook her long blonde hair out of her face. My stomach took a rapid nose-dive. She was tall, blonde and glamorous - the exact opposite of myself. I had brown hair and I was quite short, although I didn’t think my figure was too bad. At least I wasn’t a stick insect. Far from being dressed up, I’d gone for my favourite comfy jeans and my lucky t-shirt. Rather than wobbling around on ridiculously high strappy shoes, I’d gone for my old customised trainers with the luminous pink laces. I hadn’t realised that there would be so many other girls turning up, vying for a place.
I suppose I should explain what I was doing there. I’d seen an advert in NME for another member of ‘new pop/rock band’ which was auditioning for males and females. The audition was close to where I lived and it was on a Saturday, so I figured … what the hell? Mum drove me up and dropped me off, telling me she was going shopping and she’d pick me up when I texted her. Fair enough, I thought. I can cope with rejection. I’d been through countless auditions before this and not got through, because I wasn’t the stereotypical ‘popstar’. I didn’t have the looks. But I never let that stop me.
I nervously twiddled with my hair while I waited for Josie Gibson to emerge from the audition room. The doors and walls had apparently been soundproofed, which explained the lack of noise from within. I was the last in the line for today, although I knew there were more auditions being held in other places around the country. Sighing, I picked my guitar up and tuned it up to pass the time.
A couple of seconds later, Josie Gibson came out of the audition room, looking on the verge of tears. I gave her a smile, but she just scowled at me and ran as far as her Gucci sandals would take her.
“Emma Hodge.”
My name was checked off the list that a woman had pinned to her clipboard. I picked my guitar up and walked towards the auditioning room. As I entered the room, I noticed a white X on the floor which had obviously been done with masking tape. I guessed this was where I was supposed to stand, so I hooked my guitar strap over my head and shoulder and positioned my fingers on the fret board. I looked up at the panel and smiled nervously.
“Hi,” I said shakily. “I’m Emma.” The panel tried their best to look disinterested, but one or two of them had an intrigued look in their eye.
“And what are you going to sing for us, Emma?” a lady with a bad perm, peroxide blonde hair and far too much makeup asked.
“I’m gonna do ‘Time Of Your Life’ by Greenday,” I said. The woman nodded, and they all picked up their pens ready to make notes on me. I gulped and coughed to clear my throat, then started to pluck the strings to play the introduction to the song. I didn’t think the panel would be impressed by foul language, so I omitted the first word of the song.
By the time I’d got to the chorus, my confidence had increased. I didn’t feel like I was auditioning for a band - I just felt like I was in my bedroom practising. I could feel myself starting to grin like a lunatic.
“It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right, I hope you had the time of your life.”
A verse and a chorus - that’s what they told me before I went to line up. I did a verse and I did a chorus. Now I had to wait for their opinion. I prayed that there wasn’t a Simon Cowell wannabe on the panel. There were a couple of guys on the panel, but they looked really young - neither of them could have been older than about 18. I guessed these were the two guys who were already in the band. One had spiky black hair and didn’t look too bad, if you liked the type of guys who looked a bit arrogant. The other one had slightly longer spiky blond hair, and looked a bit like a happy chipmunk. The dark haired one was looking me up and down and sneering slightly, but the blond one leaned forward and smiled warmly.
“Do you play any other instruments?” he asked me, indicating my acoustic guitar.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding nervously. “I can play the drums and the piano as well. And I’m just starting to learn the bass guitar, but I’m not very good yet. My favourite is the guitar, though.” The blond guy turned to the woman next to him and whispered something. She nodded and scribbled something down on a piece of paper in front of her.
“Is, er … is there anything else?” I asked. They all looked at each other and the dark haired boy shrugged. I was starting to get annoyed with him. Why didn’t he say anything? The woman shook her head.
“No, that’s it,” she said. I nodded in thanks, smiled and turned to walk out of the room. As I neared the door, I heard a voice I didn’t recognise from behind me, it must have been the dark-haired boy.
“Why did you audition?”
I wasn’t sure if he meant it as a derogatory question, or whether he was actually interested. I gulped. Hundreds of suitable answers filled my head. Which one did I choose?
“Dunno, really. Just thought it’d be a laugh.”
Nice one, Emma. One ticket to the band secured. I kicked myself inwardly and tried to salvage the situation by blurting out, “And anyway, it’d be something better to do than school and homework. I’ve always wanted to perform and travel and stuff. Looks like fun.”
“Alright then,” the dark haired boy said, and leaned back in his plastic chair looking bored. “Don’t call us. We’ll call you.” I felt my shoulders sag. I didn’t think I’d done that badly, but he’d practically come out and told me that I hadn’t made it. I gave another small nod and blinked back the tears as I left the room to go back to my drab, dull existence as the class weirdo.

[Kolakube]

A couple of months later, I was sat at home doing my best to type up a French essay and getting all the tenses mixed up. I’d figured that, since I hadn’t heard from that audition by now, I never would. I gave up on the idea of going into a band and settled into my AS-level syllabus at school. As I was looking in the French-English dictionary to find the conjugation for the verb ‘to take’ in the imperfect tense, the phone rang. Great, I thought. Just the thing I need while I’m trying to concentrate.
“Mum, can you get that?” I yelled down the stairs. There was no answer.
“Mum!”
Still nothing.
“MUM!”
Growling angrily, I got up out of my chair and ran to the phone before the answering machine kicked in.
“Hello?”
“Hi, yeah, is that, er …” I heard some paper being shuffled in the background and I assumed the man on the other end didn’t actually know who he was calling. “Er … Emma?”
“Yeah, this is Emma.” I recognised his voice, but I couldn’t place where from.
“Yeah, um … this is James.”
“I don’t know anyone called James.”
“From the audition.”
“Audition?” Something in my memory stirred.
“Yeah. Audition. For the band.”
“Oh!” I cursed myself for not recognising his voice. Of course! It was the blond haired dude on the panel. The nice one. “Right. Can I help you?”
“Dunno, really … What are you doing for the next year?”
“AS-levels.”
“Right …”
“So basically nothing.”
“Ok. Cool.” He cleared his throat. “Wanna be in a band?” I frowned down at the telephone cradle. Did he just say what I thought he’d said? I could have sworn he’d just told me I was in the band, that I’d passed the audition. Nah. Couldn’t possibly be.
“What was that? Something about a band?” I figured he’d actually said something along the lines of “Wanna go see a band” … which would have been an invitation out and something that I gladly would have accepted. It would have got me away from coursework, anyway.
“Yeah. D’you wanna be in one?”
“Be IN a band?”
“Yeah. You passed the audition. Congrats and stuff.”
I think it was at that point that I actually screamed. I think James started laughing, because I could hear something reminiscent of a giggle down the phone as I was belting my lungs out.
“I take that as a yes?” he shouted down the phone. I only just heard him - not only was I screaming, I was waving the phone around at arms length and jumping up and down as well.
“Yes!” I squealed. “I’d LOVE to!”
“Great!” he said, chuckling. “You should get a letter through the post in a couple of days confirming it, like. But I thought you’d like to know now. Just do everything it says on the letter and pack some clothes. It’s gonna be a long trip.”
“Ok,” I said shakily, returning my voice to normal volume and putting the phone back next to my ear. I was shaking like a leaf and grinning from ear to ear.
“See you soon!”
“Bye!”
Click.
I dropped the phone back in its cradle and punched the air. I ran back up to my computer to e-mail everyone I knew. Next, I phoned mum’s mobile to find out where she was. Turned out she’d popped out to the corner shop for a pint of milk, bumped into an old friend and had made a spontaneous decision to go out for lunch to ‘catch up on things’. I told her the good news and she was definitely pleased for me (although I’m pretty sure she would have been much less restrained with the volume of her voice had she not been in the swankiest restaurant in town).
My next job was the phone up the school and tell them exactly where to shove their AS-Level syllabus, which I did with great relish. After that, I ran all around the house trying (and failing) to fit everything I owned into one suitcase. As I was trying to squeeze my suitcase shut, the doorbell rang. Sighing huffily, I got up from the floor where I was pushing the suitcase lid down and walked towards the door. I could see a blurred outline of a person through the misted glass, but I couldn’t tell who it was. I opened the door and was met by a very familiar face.
“James!” I exclaimed. He grinned widely and spread his arms out wide.
“Surprise!” he said, laughing. He gathered me up in a crushing hug as I tried to work out why he was here.
“What on earth are you doing here?” I asked, but I don’t think he heard me. Hardly surprising, as my face was buried in his Hawaiian shirt.
“Pardon?” he said, letting go of me so I could catch my breath.
“What are you doing here?” I repeated, gaping at him. “What’s going on?”
“I said you’d get a letter through the post. I never said where you’d be when you got the letter.” He grinned widely and winked. Stepping to the side, he pulled me onto the doorstep and gestured towards a stretch limo that was parked outside my house. I saw the kids in the house opposite gawping through the net curtains and giggled to myself.
“Ready to go?” he said.
“Nearly,” I admitted, realising my suitcase was actually packed full of all the stuff I’d need. “Just gotta shut the suitcase and let mum know where I’m going.” James nodded.
“I’ll wait here then, shall I?”
“If you want,” I shrugged as I went to the living room where my suitcase was. I quickly removed a couple of non-important things (like my entire CD collection), shut the suitcase and hauled it to the front door. James picked it up and carried it to the limo for me while I scribbled mum a quick note to tell her what had happened and left it by the phone. I shut the door and locked it behind me before running to the limo and jumping in.
Imagine my dismay when I found I was sitting opposite the arrogant black-haired boy from the audition panel. I rolled my eyes surreptitiously. Happily, I leaned backwards onto the soft leather interior, grinning like a madman. The boy stared at me as if I was an alien, and I quickly became very interested by the stitching on the arm rest.
“Ignore Matt,” James whispered to me. “He’s just annoyed that we decided to pick a girl to be the other member. He was the only one who wanted a boy.” Now that I knew the other boy’s name, I figured it would be a good idea to make some sort of conversation with him.
“So what other bands do you like?”
“Blink 182, David Bowie, Michael Jackson … stuff like that.”
“I’ve Michael’s HIStory album if you wanna borrow it.”
“Already got it.”
“Oh.” This was going to be more difficult than I thought. He clearly had it in for me and wasn’t going to give in.
“What instruments do you play?” I asked, trying again.
“Guitar.”
“Come on, Matt,” James moaned. “Try to be civil. Emma’s in the band whether you like it or not. Answering her questions with words of two syllables or less isn’t going to change that.” Matt stuck his tongue out at James. How childish, I thought. What a chauvinistic pig. He’ll be calling me a ‘babe’ next, or some other sexist crap.
Matt didn’t speak to me for the rest of the journey. He was far too wrapped up listening to his CD walkman to pay any attention to what James was telling me. James wasn’t too bad as far as guys went - he was polite, at least, which was more than could be said for Matt. And he had manners. When he smiled, his nose and eyes crinkled up, making him look even more like a happy chipmunk. I couldn’t really see him as a potential boyfriend, but he’d make a fantastic boy mate. From what I could tell about Matt, he was grumpy, rude and arrogant, but he didn’t look too bad. Occasionally he’d get a song on his walkman that I assumed he loved, because he’d grin like a maniac and headbang along to it. Once he even played air guitar. He had no inhibitions and didn’t care who knew about it - he wasn’t scared of being embarrassed. He had quite a nice smile - it gave his eyes a little sparkle. Shame he didn’t smile more often.
“Now, unfortunately, we haven’t actually got a contract yet,” James was saying, “so we haven’t got any money to spare. This means that you’re gonna have to be sharing a flat with us. Is that ok?”
“Yeah, sure,” I nodded. “One question, though - if you haven’t got any money, how come you came to pick me up in a limo?”
“Just thought we’d come and get you in style,” he laughed. “Don’t worry, we’ve got just enough to cover this.”
As he said that, the limo stopped outside a block of flats. I looked at my watch and was amazed to see that nearly three hours had passed. We’d pulled up outside a complex of about 20 flats. Considering James had said that they didn’t have very much cash, the place didn’t look too shabby. Matt quickly opened the door to the limo and got out, grabbing his walkman as he went. James tutted and sat back letting me get out first. As he got out, he grabbed my case and shut the limo door.
“Cheers mate,” he said through the drivers window as he drove off. Matt was standing at the door to the flats. He quickly keyed in a code and opened the door.
“You coming or what?” he said angrily. James rolled his eyes and looked at me apologetically.
“Honestly, he’ll get over this in a few weeks. I think he’s just pissed off because his best mate auditioned and we went for you instead of him,” he grabbed the door that Matt had let swing shut and held it open for me. As I walked past he grabbed my arm.
“Like I said before, ignore him, he’s acting like a spoilt brat.”
“I heard that,” came Matt’s voice from up the stairs. James looked at me and smirked.

[Kolakube]

As we walked in the front door of the flat, I heard one of the bedroom doors slam shut, closely followed by Blink 182, played at full volume.
“I take it that’s Matt’s room then,” I laughed, as James shut the door.
“Yeah, I honestly can’t believe him. Anyway, this is the living room,” He said kicking his shoes off, onto a pile next to the door. The room was quite spacious, with 5 doors leading off of it. Down one end there was a sofa and widescreen TV, complete with Skybox and DVD player. There was also a small, glass coffee table, a rug and a bean bag in front of the TV. Down the other end of the room there was a dining table covered in various bits of paper with numerous musical notes on and an acoustic guitar leaned next to it.
“How can you afford this place if you’re supposedly skint?” I asked, gobsmacked. James smiled.
“Our two managers, Fletch and Richard, help us out sometimes with rent and stuff. They’re cool guys. You’ll meet them soon,” he put the suitcase down next to the sofa and opened the first door. “Right, this is our kitchen, there’s only bits and bobs in the way of food, ’cause neither of us can cook. We just usually end up getting take away’s and stuff.”
“I think I can handle that!” I said, grinning. I was happy that they weren’t gonna expect me to cook. He led me out and took me into the next room.
“This is the bathroom. As you can see, it’s a bit of a mess so just shove your stuff in here and it’ll be fine.” He walked past the next room and straight into the last one. He picked up my case as he walked past it. “Right, here’s your room,” he said smiling as he opened the door. I walked inside to look around. There was a wardrobe, a desk, a mirror, some bedside cabinets and to finish it off, a double bed, which was rather exciting for me considering I’d only ever had a single bed at home. A single bed that I always fell out of due to the fact I forgot how small it was. Plus there was a big window that let lots of light through.
“Is it okay?” asked James nervously from the doorway, putting my bag down. “’Cause you can have my room if this one’s too small,” I shook my head and smiled at him
“James it’s perfect. I love it,” I said, hugging him. He looked pleased.
“Great, just feel free to do whatever you want to the walls. If you wanna paint them or change the colour or something then just ask me, I’ll help you,”
“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll just cover it in posters like I do in every room I’ve ever had.”
“Wanna watch some telly? We can put the music channels on and talk, get to know each other.” I smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, cool,” I said following him out into the living room and sitting on the sofa. I switched the TV on and automatically put it onto MTV2. James sat next to me but turned slightly so we were facing each other.
“So just tell me about yourself,” he said in a way that, if any other male had said it, I would have most probably hit them where it hurt and flounced off. Instead I giggled slightly and looked him in the eye.
“Well, you know my name, I’m 16, My birthday is the 6th July so I’m a cancer and I’m currently young, free and single. You?”
“Well I’m 17, 18 on the 13th September, making me a Virgo and, uh, I love Michael Jackson and Jaffa Cakes. Which bands do you like?” As he said that there was a violent knock on the front door. “Oh, sorry,” he said getting up and opening it. An older looking man stormed in.
“Look, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times to please keep the noise down!” he raged.
“Sorry Mr. Price. It’s Matt, he’s been having a bit of a bad day today,” said James meekly trying to sort out the situation, that was, so obviously, Matt’s fault.
“Look I don’t care if he’s had the worst day ever recorded. It doesn’t excuse the fact he’s making far too much noise and disturbing all of the neighbours. I’ve had enough of your heavy music and laddish behaviour to last me a lifetime.” He caught sight of me and caught his breath in order to start ranting again.
“And if you and this young lady are thinking of getting up to any rudities, then will you please consider others and keep the noise down.” James went slightly red and looked at me shaking his head.
“Actually, this is our new flatmate, Emma,” he said calmly. The man nodded his head at me.
“Nice to meet you. I’m sure if you don’t make as much noise as these two, then we’re going to get along fine” he said smiling one of those pervy old men smiles that made my skin squirm. He turned back to James “Right, hopefully I won’t be seeing you for a little while, please tell Matthew to turn his music down,” he said, leaving the flat. James slammed the door behind him and turned to me.
“Oh my God, I am so sorry about him. He hates us because we play our music too loud and it drowns out Classic FM,” he said smugly. He knocked on Matt’s door and sat next to me.
“What?” asked Matt flinging the door open.
“The moany bastard from upstairs has been round. He wants you to turn it down.” Matt rolled his eyes and slammed the door. I heard him turn the music down a very tiny bit and carry on with what he was doing. James turned back to me. “Anyway, you were saying?”

[Kolakube]

I’d been living with Matt and James for about a month now. Things on the Matt front hadn’t really got any better. He still spoke to me in words of no more than two syllables and still tried his hardest to leave me out of stuff that he did with James. When it came to playing through songs together, he tried his hardest to find something wrong with what I was doing and sneer with delight when he made a point out of it. Sure it was difficult and annoying but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. It was Saturday afternoon and I was sitting in my room talking to Kirsty on the phone. Since I’d moved I hadn’t really spoken to any of my friends from home. I’d just started to get to know James’ friends a bit more. Of course, Matt wouldn’t let me near any of his friends. No doubt I wasn’t cool enough or something silly like that. I never bothered to find out.
“So how is it?” asked Kirsty excitedly. I sighed.
“Well to tell the truth, some of it’s cool, but some of it is just the pits,” I said dejectedly.
“Aww, hun, why? What’s happened?” she asked, genuinely worried.
“Well, It’s just one of the other guys in the band. He’s just a complete and utter dickhead,” I sniffed. For some reason, I felt my eyes well up. I couldn’t understand it, it wasn’t really something that got to me but now, here I was, crying. I tried to will the tears away but in the end I just let them spill out, wary of the fact that my mascara was bound to run right down my cheeks to make a black puddle on either my clothes or my bed sheets.
“In what way?” asked Kirsty, now into motherly mode.
“Wel,l everything I say is wrong, everything I do is wrong, he doesn’t talk to me or socialise with me. I just does my head in and I don’t know if I can cope with it any more,” I sobbed trying to wipe my tears with my hand. I started to put it down to the fact that all of my emotions were getting mixed up with the homesickness that was, inevitably, kicking in.
“Come on, don’t cry, you’ll make me start,” she said, almost whispering. “He’s not worth it. I expect he’s jealous of you or something maybe he even fancies you,” she said giggling slightly.
“Kirsty, you and I both know that the whole, ‘Boys are nasty to you when they fancy you,’ thing is utter bull. Please don’t use that as an excuse,” I said half laughing, half making more tears roll down my face.
“Yeah, but honestly, maybe he’s just trying to find out if you’re determined, like a test.” I smiled at Kirsty’s attempts to cheer me up but I knew deep down that it was all a load of rubbish.
“So tell me about the other one then,” she said in a quick attempt to change the subject.
“Oh, James, he’s really sweet. He’s made me feel really welcome. He’s a really cool guy, great song writer and great musician. Plus great personality.” I said perking up a bit, but still feeling like crap inside.
“You see, every cloud and all that,” she said happily. Suddenly there was a huge great crash on my door.
“EMMA WILL YOU HURRY UP WITH THAT DAMN PHONE!” came Matt’s voice angrily from outside. I looked at my clock. I’d only been talking for about 5 minutes.
“What the hell is that?” asked Kirsty, confused, from the other end of the phone.
“That’s the idiot I was telling you about,” I said quickly, getting off of my bed and moving onto the floor, the side furthest away from the door.
“FOR GOD’S SAKE, I NEED TO MAKE A PHONE CALL!” he shouted again with another almighty bang.
“He sounds angry,” said Kirsty, stating the obvious. Suddenly the door to my room burst open and Matt grabbed the phone out of my hands.
“Emma, has to go now,” he said rudely to Kirsty and hit the end call button.
“MATT!” I shouted, feeling more tears well up in my eyes.
“I’ve been shouting you for ages. I need to call my girlfriend and it’s a bit more important than you having a girly heart to heart with some bitch,” he said sneering.
“Don’t you dare talk about my mates like that. You don’t know anything about them,” I said as he neared the door.
“Well if they’re anything like you then bitch seems to be a perfectly suitable description.” he said shutting the door behind him as he left. I fell back onto my bed in floods of tears. Partly due to the fact that I didn’t get to say goodbye to Kirsty, and partly due to the fact that I couldn’t believe how rude he was being to me. His attitude towards me had definitely got worse since I moved in but I’d managed to put it to the back of my mind. Now, it had all built up on itself and I couldn’t help but let it all out. About five minutes later a soft knock came on the door.
“Emma? It’s James,” came a voice softly from the other side. I quickly sat up, grabbed a magazine and wiped my eyes.
“Come in,” I shouted trying my hardest to make it look like I hadn’t been crying. The door opened slowly.
“I brought you the phone …” he trailed off when he saw me. “Have you been crying, Emma?” he said sitting down next to me. I shook my head. He looked at me and I slowly started to nod.
“I just can’t do it anymore James. I’m so sorry. I’ve tried and I thought I was on top of it but I just can’t be doing with this anymore. Maybe it’ll be best for all of us if I just go home,” I said looking at him apologetically.
“No,” he said firmly, grabbing my arm. “If you give in then he’s won. Honestly, you have to stay. There was no one else at the audition that I would have even considered letting in this band. And that includes Matt’s best mate,” he said smiling at me.
“But how am I going to cope with Matt?” I asked looking down at my hands, where I was now twiddling my thumbs.
“Please, for me. We have a laugh together. Eventually, when Matt sees sense, he’ll apologise and everything will be great.” I looked at James and smiled gratefully.
“What would I do without you eh?” I asked. I looked at my clock. It said 4:30. “I’m gonna go out okay, I’ll see you later.” I said grabbing my trainers and a jacket. I walked down the road and into the nearest tube station to catch the train to Covent Garden. There was a music shop that I’d started to visit quite often. It sold all the latest imports really cheap, so I could get all the latest American albums before they were released in the UK commercially. Me and one of the girls who worked in there, Aesha, had hit it off instantly. I decided to go and see her considering the fact I didn’t get to finish talking to Kirsty. As I arrived outside, I looked at my watch. 5:20, 10 minutes until closing time. I walked in and Aesha smiled up at me.
“How are you? I ain’t seen you for ages,” she said grabbing me and hugging me tightly.
“You saw me two days ago!” I said laughing as she let me go. Me and her had the same, part crazy, part subdued personality, the same sense of humour and we both had the same love for gossiping. Musically, we were at completely different ends of the spectrum. Whereas I would much rather sit listening to more rock based music like Blink 182 and Sum 41, she would much rather listen to the likes of Justin, 50 Cent and Misteeq. Much more Urban. Strangely enough, unlike other friendships I had, musical tastes had never really affected how much we liked each other.
“So how’s the band going? she asked as I pulled myself onto the counter.
“It’s cool. We still haven’t been signed but we’ve played to one or two company bosses who were quite impressed but said we weren’t what they’re looking for,” I said sighing.
“Well that’s a start, at least,” she said, grinning at me. I smiled and jumped down off the counter to start looking through the various CDs.
“You better sell my album when it’s released,” I said grinning.
“Oh I will. I’ll make sure it’s the only album we sell!” she said sitting on the counter and looking at the clock. “Oooh. 5:27. Can’t I just shut now?” She whined.
“What you asking me for? Just do it!”
“Okay! Sheesh. Just don’t turn into a Nike advert,” she shouted, jumping down and locking the front door to the shop. “Right, how’s the whole Matt situation going?” she asked as I jumped back up on the counter next to her. I sighed again. I’d spent many hours complaining about him to Aesha and she seemed to have the whole situation pretty much sussed.
“Worse. He cut of my phone call to my mate earlier so he could ring his girlfriend. Then told me that all of my mates were bitches even though he’s never met them. I told James I wanted to leave because it was getting me down so much, but he wouldn’t have it. He told me that he’ll think he’s won.”
“Yeah, well, he’s right. You don’t want to give up on your dream just because some guy can’t hack the fact that you might be a threat to his superiority,” she said seriously. “Just stick at it for yourself and I swear you’ll get through this. He’ll probably end up crawling to you on his hands and his knees, begging for forgiveness.”
“I doubt it.”
“Well If he does, make him sweat a bit. He deserves it after what he’s put you through,” she said sneering. I looked at my watch laughing.
“Look I better be getting home. I’ll see you soon, I might ring you as well,” I said jumping off of the counter and hugging her.
“Oh, before you go, I have something for you,” she said leaning behind the counter. She handed over a purple gift bag. “It’s a cheering up present. We just got it in today,” she smiled. I looked inside the bag.
“The new Blink album! Thank you soooooo much!” I said hugging her again.
“Just promise you stick at this,” she said as I walked to the door and unlocked it.
“Promise.” I said smiling and waving at her as I left the shop.

[Kolakube]

When I arrived home, it was just gone 7:00. I delved into my pocket, grabbing my key and unlocked the door. As I walked in I was greeted by the sight of Matt doing some rather disgusting things to a girl, who I assumed was his girlfriend, on the sofa. I groaned and shoved my shoes on the pile and unzipped my jacket.
“You know there are other people in this flat,” I said grumpily, chucking my keys on the kitchen work surface. Matt eventually came up for air.
“Why don’t you just fuck off out of things that don’t concern you?” he replied scowling at me. I noticed he had one hand placed firmly up his girlfriends skirt, with no real signs of it coming out before Christmas. I scowled back, turning away and heaving inwardly. Matt turned back to the girl, ready to let his tongue try and lick her windpipe again.
“Where’s James?” I asked innocently, going over to my bedroom door. Matt groaned and turned back to me.
“At the moment I don’t really give a damn, seeing as I’m pre-occupied in other things. But seeing as I’ve had to stop what I’m doing to answer your silly little questions, I think he went out. Now just piss off!” he shouted. I opened my bedroom door and slammed it firmly behind me. I sat back on my bed. I didn’t much fancy being in the house on my own with Matt and some girl. I grabbed the nearest magazine and laid back, reading it. After about 20 minutes I heard sobbing and the sound of the front door slam shut. I frowned to my self but carried on reading an article about Muse.
“What the hell do you think you’re playing at?” Matt yelled, storming into my bedroom. He looked absolutely livid and for a second, I actually felt sorry about walking in on him and his girlfriend - until, of course, I realised that he had an obligation to let everyone know if and when he decided to shove his hand up his girlfriend’s skirt when he knew that other people would be coming home.
“Well, excuse me for breathing!” I shouted, poking my head over the top of my Classic Rock magazine. “You’re not the only one living here, y’know!”
“Yeah, well if I want to bring my girlfriend round I can! You forget whose names are on the rent book! Mine and James’ - not yours! And the sooner you come to realise that, the better!”
“Look, I’m sorry about walking in on you two, but it’s not entirely my fault -”
“How is it possibly not all your fault?”
“Well, for starters, you could have at least warned me and James that you might bring her round!”
“Oh, so I have to tell you everything now?”
“Well of course not everything, that’s just ridi-”
“Alright then, so what do I tell you?”
“The important stuff, like -”
“Like what?”
“Like if you want to feel your girlfriend up in a public place!” Now I was really starting to get pissed off. My magazine was halfway across the room where I’d flung it a few sentences earlier, and Matt’s face was starting to turn a deep shade of red.
“What do you want me to do? Stick a timetable up? Devise a rota? I get a shag every Monday and Thursday, James is Tuesday and Friday, you’re Wednesday and Saturday and Sunday can be the holy day of rest?”
“If it helps, then yes!”
“Jesus Christ, you are unbelievable!” he screamed, eyes bulging. He kicked the doorframe violently and strode back into the living room before turning back and popping his head round the door.
“And just so you know,” he said, his voice dangerously quiet, “she’s dumped me. Alright? She couldn’t cope with the fact that there was another girl here and she didn’t trust me, so she dumped me. Happy now?” His eyes were narrowed to slits as he started unblinkingly at me before tutting, slamming my door and retreating to the living room.
I started to feel really guilty then. His girlfriend had dumped him because of me. That wasn’t the best way to make friends with someone you have to work with. I felt stunned and hollow, like I felt sorry for him. Which was stupid because I hated his guts. Still, it’s never a good feeling to be the reason why someone’s split up with a partner. Shaking, I got to my feet and went to the door to go and apologise to him. As I reached it, I heard voices coming from the living room. I was never one to eavesdrop, but when I heard my name mentioned I decided to have a quick listen. What harm could it do?
“She’s trying her best, damn you!” That was James. “Are you blind or just plain stupid?”
“Look, I don’t need your help and I certainly don’t need hers. She’s just a stupid girl.” I could feel myself getting angry again and I resisted the temptation to karate kick the door down and make a flying elbow leap at Matt.
“She may be a girl, but she’s got feelings too! How do you know that she isn’t practising her guitar day and night because of what you said to her?” How did James know? I never plugged my guitar in while I was practising. I didn’t want them to hear me.
“She’s what?”
“You heard me. The day after you told her she couldn’t pluck a note to save her life, she started practising harder. I didn’t know what for at first. I mean, you and I both know she’s as good as us. Maybe better. Then it clicked. She’d even cut her nails short so they wouldn’t get in the way of the strings.”
“Yeah, well, that’s alright then. At least now she might be able to get that F sharp minor seventh chord.”
“She could get it anyway, and you bloody well know that.” I heard the sofa creaking. Squinting through the keyhole, I saw that Matt was fidgeting uncomfortably and looking a bit sheepish.
“Look,” said James. “All I’m asking is that you be a bit less harder on her. Just give her the benefit of the doubt from time to time, yeah?”
“S’pose.”
“Right. Now go and apologise.”
“Me apologise? What for?”
“How about the blatant lie about your girlfriend? Or should I say ex-girlfriend. And we both know why th-”
“Shut it!”
“Fine. Just sort it.” I heard footsteps then the sound of the front door opening and closing. Either Matt or James had just gone out. I hoped it was Matt - I wanted to talk to James. Taking a deep breath, I opened my bedroom door.
“Oh. It’s you.”
Matt was sitting on the sofa looking narcissistic as ever, but there was a look in his eyes that betrayed the self-centredness. It was almost as if he looked slightly upset.
“The feeling’s mutual,” he muttered. He looked up at me and sighed. “C’mere,” he said, patting the sofa. “I gotta tell you something.” Puzzled, I obediently sat next to him and frowned at him.
“I lied to you. My girlfriend didn’t dump me. I dumped her. I dumped her because … well, quite frankly, I was fed up of her.” I tutted under my breath and rolled my eyes.
“User,” I muttered, hoping he hadn’t heard me. Unfortunately, he had.
“Will you listen to me?” he said. To my surprise, he wasn’t his usual shouty self. He was actually pleading. I wasn’t used to this. He stared at his knees as he continued. “She didn’t press any of my buttons. She was funny, smart, one hell of a looker … but … I just didn’t like her. Dunno why, really.” There was a long pause before he carried on. “I s’pose what I’m trying to say is … sorry. I lied to you and I upset you and … and that was wrong of me.”
“Back up here …” I said, staring at him incredulously. “Do I detect repentance in your voice? This has got to be a first … where’s my camera? This is going on my video diary.” He looked up at me, and for the first time ever, he smiled at me. I mean, obviously it wasn’t the first time he’d smiled - he’d just never smiled at me before. It was a big step and it made me feel appreciated.
“Apology accepted,” I said, holding my hand out. He took it and shook it gratefully.
“Thanks,” he said.
“No problem,” I replied, grinning. He grinned back and for some reason I felt my cheeks grow hot. What was I blushing for? I looked away quickly, embarrassed that he’d seen me … well … embarrassed.
“Emma?” he said gently.
“Yeah?”
“You can let go of my hand now.”
“Oh. Right.”
A couple of anxious seconds went by.
“Emma?”
“What?”
“My hand?”
I looked down. I was still clutching his hand as if my life depended on it. I dropped it like it was a hot iron. Matt looked at me as if to say ‘Pah. Hormonal females. You gotta love ‘em’, and rolled his eyes while he grinned. I cleared my throat nervously.
“You know what we need to do?” I said.
“What?”
“Get absolutely pissed.”
“Any particular reason?”
“Two, actually - one, to help you get over your girlfriend -”
“I am over her.”
“Don’t be so silly. I can spot a moping guy a mile off.” He opened his mouth to protest. “Don’t argue with me!” I said in a mock warning tone. He shut his mouth. “Two,” I continued, “to celebrate the fact that you have learned a new word.”
“Wh-”
“A little word called ‘sorry’. It’s known as an apology.” He laughed and tried to punch me lightly on the arm, but I dodges it and threw a cushion at him.
“C’mon then,” I said, standing up. “Let’s go get drunk.”

[Kolakube]

Fast forward a couple of hours. Me and Matt had been chucked out of a couple of bars for under-age drinking, but not before downing several shots of vodka each. I think I speak for both of us when I say that we were quite drunk. Not drunk enough that we had no control over ourselves, but drunk enough to blame the alcohol if anything untoward happened (like Matt mistaking a pot plant for a urinal).
We eventually managed to find our flat again, after many spontaneous bursts of giggles and me declaring my undying love for a nearby policeman on the beat (thankfully he saw the funny side of me tripping over my own shoelace). Matt opened the front door and tumbled inside, nearly tripping over the ‘Welcome’ mat on the floor. I collapsed into a horizontal position on the sofa. After the amount of alcohol that I had consumed, I didn’t trust myself to stand straight. Or lean against a wall straight. Or even sit up straight. No, lying down was the best option.
Matt chucked the house-keys on the coffee table and plonked himself on the floor next to the sofa, so he was on my eye-level. I didn’t say anything for a few seconds because I didn’t trust the contents of my stomach to stay exactly where they were at that moment, but after a minute everything settled down. I wiggled round to face Matt and giggled.
“What?” he asked in mock indignation.
“You’re sideways.”
“You’re sideways.” For some reason I found this hysterical and couldn’t stop giggling for five minutes.
“‘M drunk, aren’t I?” I slurred.
“Yup. So’m I.”
“Drunk is good. Makes everything floaty.”
“How drunk’m I?”
“Bout as drunk as me.”
“Very drunk, then.”
“Yup.” I giggled again. A section of my hair fell into my face. I tried to blow it away but I must have been more drunk than I thought - not only could I not focus on the strand of hair, I couldn’t even blow straight. After several unsuccessful attempts, I gave up.
The main lights weren’t on - the only illumination we had were from the lamp on the coffee table. Everything was softly dark and atmospheric. So much so that I started to doze off. I felt something tickle my face and opened my eyes to see Matt brushing the hair off my face. He was staring at … no, not staring. He was gazing at me, as if seeing me for the first time. And the scary thing was, I think I was doing the same thing. I frowned at him.
“Y’know, I still hate you.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said quietly. “I hate you too,” he said playfully.
“No,” I emphasised, pouting like a four-year-old, “I mean, I really hate you.”
“I really hate you too,” he said, taking the whole thing as a joke, which annoyed me.
“No, I really, really hate -”
“Just shut up for a minute,” he said, interrupting me. I closed my mouth, frowning at him. Why wouldn’t he take me seriously? I wriggled around on the sofa to get more comfy, and Matt did the same. I don’t know whether he noticed that this brought us closer, but I certainly did, and for some reason it made me happy. I put it down to too much vodka. Boy, was I going to have a headache in the morning.
I looked at Matt to see that he hadn’t stopped staring at me. I opened my mouth to say something but he put his finger on my lips and shushed me. Without warning, he swooped in on me and kissed me. His lips were pressed against mine, teasing them open with the tip of his tongue. I hadn’t instigated this but now that it had started I didn’t plan on stopping it. He pressed his mouth more fervently against mine, and I sat up properly to make room for him on the sofa. He tilted my neck to a better angle in order to deepen the kiss. I could taste the vodka still lingering in his mouth. After a few seconds we pulled apart.
“No,” I said, my eyes still closed. “I really, really, really hate you.”
Matt smiled and kissed me on the cheek before resting his forehead on mine. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that for,” he whispered. Everything, I decided, was because of the vodka. Everything from the wiggling around onwards was because of the vodka. I had no control over my body, I told myself as I curled my arm around his neck and pulled him in for another kiss. This wasn’t me, I told myself as he pulled me down into a horizontal position on the sofa, me on top of him, still kissing. It’s all because of the vodka, I told myself as I ran my fingers through his rebellious hair and he gently stroked my back.
“Y’know,” I gasped during one of the few times we came up for air, “this isn’t me. This is vodka. ‘M still a liddle bit pissed. No, make that … ‘M still very pissed.”
“Same here,” he said as he pulled me back down. I tried to keep track of how long we were kissing for, but time flew by. Eventually Matt stopped and pushed me up so he could get a good look at my face.
“No,” I moaned, sounding even more like a sulky four-year-old. I closed my eyes happily and leaned on top of him to hug him. “Don’t stop. S’nice …”

[Kolakube]

I have no recollection of what happened next. Me and Matt might have been abducted by three-headed aliens for all I know. All I remember is waking up the next morning in my bed with the world’s worst hangover.
“Uhhh …” I moaned, trying to remember what had happened. There had been a LOT of vodka, I knew that much … and I think I remembered Matt pissing in a plant pot on one of the clubs … but apart from that I couldn’t remember much. I wriggled around a bit to try and avoid the early morning rays of sunshine that were creeping through the window when all of a sudden I realised that I appeared to have three arms.
“Whuh …” I squinted down at the duvet. There were my arms, still attached to my body, plus another arm draped over me. In my hung-over state, I decided there were three possibilities. One, someone had been murdered and dismembered during the night and had left an arm on my bed as a sick joke. Two, I really had been kidnapped by three-headed aliens the night before and been subjected to weird experiments. Three, I wasn’t alone.
Within two seconds I realised the first two options were complete and utter bullshit. The arm moved and whoever it was attached to made a moaning sound similar to the one I had made when I first woke up. Alarmed, I turned around on the bed and came face to face with none other that Matt.
At exactly the same moment we screamed. He jumped out of the bed and fell in a heap on the floor. I would have done the same except that I realised I had no top on, not even a bra. I glared at him accusingly.
“Why don’t I have a bra on?” I growled, my throat all sore from all the alcohol last night. “Why were we sleeping in the same bed?”
“I don’t know,” he said, looking half scared, half utterly confused. I could see he knew about as much as I did. I sat up, clutching the duvet to me, and put my head on my knees.
“How drunk were we last night?” I said, speaking into the duvet.
“Probably verging on paralytic, I should imagine,” Matt said. “Umm … c-can I put some clothes on?”
“Be my guest,” I said, still not looking up. I heard the sounds of someone frantically trying to pull a pair of trousers on, then a loud thud. I assumed he’d fallen down on the floor. I tilted my head to the side to try and see what he’d done, and lo and behold, there he was in a crumpled heap with only one leg in his trousers.
“What the hell happened last night?” he asked, looking up at me. I bit my lip and frowned, trying to remember.
“I remember … giggling. Lots of giggling.”
“I’m a man, Emma. I don’t do giggling.”
“Whatever … and I think you pissed in a plant pot …”
“Didn’t you swear your love to a bobby?”
“Most likely, it sounds like the sort of thing I’d do when I’m drunk … I think …” I screwed my forehead up in concentration, trying to rewind the actions of last night. Stumbling into the living room … dozing on the couch … Matt staring at me …
The realisation dawned slowly. It took me a while to apprehend what my subconscious seemed to be telling me. The memories of last night came flooding back in a wave, then knocked loudly on the door, and finally, growing tired of being ignored, slapped me with the metaphorical pair of stale kippers. I stared at him with a shocked look on my face.
“Did we … kiss?”
He frowned at me.
“Don’t be stupid,” he said. “I hate you.”
“Believe me, the feeling’s mutual,” I fired back. “But … I mean, we were both so drunk … anything could have happened. And it makes sense.”
“But …” I don’t think he wanted it to be true, which disheartened me for some reason. “But how did we end up in your bed? Did we … I mean … we didn’t, did we?”
“I should bloody well hope not,” I sniffed. “I’m not having sex with some arsehole I’ve only known for five minutes, even if I was drunk. Anyway, I wasn’t that drunk. I’m sure I knew what I was doing …” But my voice trailed off uncertainly and I knew he was thinking the same as me - we wouldn’t have been able to control ourselves even if James had walked in on us. I’m sure I would have just let lose a string of four letter obscenities and got back to sucking the face off Matt.
Just for the record, I so wasn’t thinking about sucking the face off Matt right then. He quickly grabbed his shirt from the side of the room and pulled it on. He got up, buttoning up the shirt as he did so, and walked quickly to the door. He grabbed the handle and then turned to me quickly.
“What if James is out there?” he panicked. I sighed and rolled my eyes.
“So what if he is?” I asked, rolling over in bed and grabbing a new bra from my bedside cabinet, making sure Matt saw as little of my flesh as possible.
“Well he’s gonna see me coming out of your room, with last nights clothes on,” he said, turning his back to the door and sliding down it to sit on the floor.
“God you are so dramatic,” I commented, whilst retrieving an old t-shirt from my floor. I pulled it on quickly and looked over to Matt, who was still moping around on the floor.
“Look, will you just go already?” I snapped. He looked up.
“But James will see me, and he’ll start to jump to conclusions. Soon everyone will know I slept in the same bed as you,” he whined.
“Matt, I don’t give a damn, just get out of my friggin’ room!” I shouted a bit louder this time. He just sat and looked at me. I groaned and grabbed my jeans. I stood up and pulled them on, then walked over to the door. Matt moved quickly and looked up at me in confusion. I pulled the door open and walked out before turning back to Matt, who was looking at me from the door.
“He’s not here, see?” I said walking back over to him and pulling him back up by the shoulder of his shirt. He walked out of the room slowly and over to his. As he reached his bedroom door, he turned back to me and flashed a half smile, before disappearing inside his room. I slammed my bedroom door and fell back onto my bed. I couldn’t believe that, a) I’d got so drunk that there was a possibility that I kissed the one guy I hated more than anyone else in the world, and b) I’d woken up with him wrapped around me the next morning. I slowly stood up and went to my wardrobe, trying to find some new clothes to wear. As I was finishing putting my make up on, there was a soft knock on the door.

[Kolakube]

“What?” I shouted, slowly clearing up my make up brushes. The door opened cautiously and Matt’s head poked around the door. “Look Matt, please don’t start whatever you are about to say with ‘About last night’ or, ‘We need to talk’.” I said turning around on the stool to face him. He creeped around the door and sat down on my bed.
“We do though,” he said looking up at me. For the first time since I had known him, he looked scared. “Need to talk, that is.” I got up and went to sit next to him.
“So what do you want to talk about then?” I asked, looking into his eyes.
“Well, we woke up in the same bed, you had no top on and neither of us could remember the night before. That, to me, means bad news.” I thought.
“Look, I have some recollection of us kissing, I don’t really remember the next bit exactly but I think we were sort of going to my room to do what you think we did, but I think we must’ve both fallen asleep and never gotten round to it,” I said, trying to remember the most miniscule details in the hope it would trigger the rest of the previous night’s events.
“But I don’t understand why we were kissing!” he said with a slight whine in his voice. I looked at him in disbelief.
“We were drunk for god’s sake! we could have done anything but we wouldn’t remember it!” I said, slightly irately. He sat silently.
“Yeah, but we’d just started to make steps towards trying to be friends, why would I go and wreck it by doing something like that. I mean it’s not as if I fancy you or anything. The thought of kissing you has never even once crossed my mind.” Something in my heart twinged as he said that and I felt slightly hurt. Suddenly a little detail from the night before rang in my head.
“Actually, you said you’d been wanting to kiss me for ages,” I said bluntly. Matt looked at me.
“Remember Emma, we were drunk,” he said, looking into my eyes with a slight smile. Suddenly the door to the room burst open and me and Matt quickly jumped apart. James came bounding in.
“Hey Em…” he trailed off, and looked at Matt. “And Matt, so I see! Are you two making friends then?” he said happily standing in front of us. I looked at Matt and frowned before looking back at James.
“Yeah, something like that. Anyway what do you want?” I said looking up at his excited face and hoping that it was good news.
“Okay well, I got a phone call from Fletch early this morning and I’ve just been down to see him.” He smiled broadly at both of us. “Aaaaannnnddd,” he said in an attempt to string it out, “NME are doing an article about unsigned bands and they want to do a piece on us. It’s a bit short notice but I think we should definately do it!” he said jumping up and down slightly. I nodded, grinning madly. Matt was doing the same inwardly but on the outside he looked a little bit more subdued.
“When is it?” I asked getting up and hugging James. He pulled away and looked at me.
“Well, it’s tomorrow at this London Studio at about 11 o’ clock. It’s gonna be a photo shoot mainly but I think they’re gonna do an interview-y thing as well.” he said, still grinning like a Cheshire cat.
“That’s so cool,” I said, noticing Matt’s unenthusiasm but choosing to ignore it.
“I know, so tonight, we’re gonna get a DVD and we’re gonna get lots of alcohol and we’re gonna celebrate the first steps to stardom!” He grinned. I grinned back then paused.
“Hang on, there’s one problem,” I said sitting back down.
“And what would that be?” said James, noticing the serious look on my face.
“We have no name.” James looked at me, frozen, then suddenly burst into action. Matt looked up and smiled.
“Ha ha James, Busted!” he said laughing his head of at his own comment. James paused then looked at me before grabbing Matt and hugging him tightly. “Woah, mate, put me down!” he said, slightly scared for his life.
“You’re a genius, Matt!” he shouted jumping up and down. I looked at him confused. “We’ll call ourselves ‘Busted’. It’s perfect!” I thought about it and nodded.
“Yeah, it is. So we’re all members of Busted! Cool!” I said happily.
“Right, so now that’s sorted, we should go and get the DVD!” We all smiled at each other (well except me and Matt, we just looked at each other awkwardly), and piled out to get out shoes on.

[Kolakube]

“Right guy’s let’s get searching,” said James rubbing his hands together and walking towards the first long shelf of DVD’s in Blockbuster. I looked at Matt, but he avoided eye contact with me and walked off. I picked up the first video I saw.
“How about this one?” I said showing it to James. He thought.
“Hmmm, Dude Where’s My Car? Good film but I’ve seen it too much.”
“Ok,” I said, putting it back on the shelf. I strolled around the DVD section, picking up random titles and reading the blurb on the back. I heard Matt do a war cry and turned around to tell him to shut up, only to find that James had joined in.
“Die Hard! Dude, we have to rent this!” Matt said, already holding an imaginary machine gun. James pulled imaginary pistols out of imaginary holsters and pointed them at Matt, who jerked and fell to the floor. James whirled round to face me, a manic grin on his face. I raised an eyebrow.
“Die Hard? Seriously?” I asked. “We’re celebrating what could be the biggest thing ever to happen to us and you want to watch Bruce Willis running around killing people?”
“Have you even seen Die Hard?” Matt said incredulously.
“Of course not,” I said sniffily. “I don’t enjoy violence in films.” Matt rolled his eyes and put the DVD back on the shelf. We continued to browse and argue for another few minutes. IN a way, it was rather fun.
“Mission Impossible?”
“What did I say about violence?”
“So I take it Mission Impossible two is out of the question?”
“Unfortunately so.”
“Hey, how about this one?” James said, holding up a DVD case. Matt snorted.
“The Grinch? Seriously, James?”
“Maybe not …”
“Ok, how about The Mummy?”
“Nah … not in the mood …”
“Not in the mood for seeing Patricia Velasquez in nothing but gold body paint?”
“Well, when you put it that way …”
“Ooh, I know,” I said, running over to the far end. “This one!” I picked up a case and chucked it over to James.
“You have got to be kidding me,” James said, laughing. “Chicago? That’s a namby-pamby musical! I’m not sitting through a musical when I could be watching something more raunchy.”
“What, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger dancing around in leotards and suspenders isn’t raunchy enough for you?” James looked up at me with interest.
“Really?”
“Yup,” I said, grinning at his reaction. “And wait until you see the Cell Block Tango.”
“There’s a Tango?” he exclaimed, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.
“Not just a Tango … a Tango with very skimpily-clad women dancing around.”
“Well, it’s certainly worth considering … what d’you reckon, Matt?” James said, turning round to Matt. I followed his line of vision to see Matt in a section of the shop I wouldn’t have normally been seen dead in.
“What about this?” he said, holding up a couple of DVDs for James, ignoring me completely. James took the DVD and burst out laughing.
“Sex Toy Story?” he exclaimed. “Play-Mate Of The Apes?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“I think not,” James said. “We’ll be in the presence of ladies, y’know.” I stuck my tongue out at James. We spent another ten minutes or so arguing - or, to put it more accurately, Matt and James argued while I looked around. A couple of DVDs caught my eye, but none that I thought would appeal to the boys. After a few minutes, I noticed one DVD on the bottom shelf, hidden behind a copy of West Side Story.
“Hey, guys! I said, trying to snap them out of their Star Wars argument. James stopped telling Matt why A New Hope was better then The Phantom Menace and turned round to look at the DVD I was holding in my hand. “What about this one?”
“Wayne’s World?” Matt said, coming over and taking the DVD out of my hand. His hand brushed mine as he did so, and we both blushed deep red. Matt cleared his throat nervously and read the blurb. He nodded appreciatively.
“Doesn’t look too bad,” he commented. “Mike Myers is a decent enough comedian. And Rob Lowe is hilarious.”
“Isn’t that the one with Alice Cooper in it?” James asked, taking the DVD case form Matt and looking at it.
“Yeah, that’s the one,” I said. “The one where they bow down and go ‘we are not worthy, we are not worthy’. Genius.” I grinned widely, pleased that they seemed to like my choice. James looked at Matt for approval.
“Aye or nay?” James asked. Matt shrugged, purposefully avoiding my eye.
“I’ll take that as an ‘aye’,” James said, shrugging himself. He walked over to the counter and paid for the DVD while I looked at the refreshments. I picked up a couple of bags of Doritos and headed over to James when I stopped by the ice cream fridge. There were shelves upon shelves of Ben&Jerry’s and Haagen Dazs. My mouth watered. What the hell - we were celebrating! Why shouldn’t I treat myself to some ice cream? As an added bonus, the Haagen Dazs was on a ‘buy one get one free’ offer, so I got four big tubs as well as the Doritos.
Matt picked up a couple of bottles of Coke and we brought it all to the front to pay for it with the DVD. Matt and I plonked all the food on the counter, then helped James to pack it up while the till tried to recognise the credit card. I reached out for the last tub of ice cream and found that Matt had done exactly the same thing. Before I could react, my hand was on the tub and his hand was on top of mine. I looked up at him, slightly startled. I didn’t want to admit it, but I liked the feel of his hand against mine. It was warm and comforting, and made me feel safe. He coughed and pulled his hand away quickly, to my disappointment. I tried not to look too crestfallen as he shifted from foot to foot uneasily. James cast me a knowing look as he picked up the bags and strolled out of the store.

[Kolakube]

“We are not worthy! We are not worthy!”
An hour or so later, we were back in the flat watching the DVD. Fletch had popped down to the off-licence for us and picked up some cheap booze so we could celebrate properly. I had made my mind up to stay off the vodka this time - instead I drank lots of gin straight out of the bottle. It wasn’t quite as strong as the vodka, and as I watched Matt and James getting more drunk, I felt a bit left out. Throwing caution to the winds, I picked up the half-empty bottle of vodka and took a long swig.
James and Matt were currently in front of the television emulating Wayne and Garth bowing down in front of Alice Cooper. For some reason I found this hilarious and I started giggling manically. Matt looked up at me in mock indignation.
“My vodka,” he said, trying to get the bottle out of my hands. “Go get your own.”
“Nice vodka,” I said, still giggling. James pulled himself to his feet and staggered off to the bathroom. After a few seconds I heard the toilet flush.
“Put th’seat down!” I yelled, slurring my words. James never failed to leave the toilet seat up after having a piss. He emerged from the bathroom and made a Nazi salute at me.
“Heil Emma!” he said, putting his finger beneath his nose to make a Hilter moustache.
“Don’t mention ze var!” Matt shouted. James strode over to him quickly.
“Vill you stop mentioning ze var!”
“You started it!”
“Ve did not start it!”
“Yes you did!” I decided to join in for the last line. “You invaded Poland!” All three of us collapsed into heaps of laughter and couldn’t stop for about ten minutes. As the laughter subsided into half-hearted chuckles, James sniffed and crawled onto the armchair. He curled up into a little ball and drifted off to sleep.
I clambered up onto the sofa and fluffed a cushion. Matt flopped back down next to me and grabbed the cushion off me.
“Oi!” I said. “My cushion!” I picked up another cushion and threw it at him. He chucked it back at me but missed and hit James around the head. He promptly woke up and started to yell at us, but thought better of it and decided to join in with the fight instead. For a good fifteen minutes we had a good pillow fight, until James decided he needed to pee again. Me and Matt carried on fighting until I felt something cold and wet hit my cheek. I put my hand up there to see what Matt had thrown at me, and found that, either accidentally or on purpose, he’d lobbed a lump of Haagen Dazs at me.

[Kolakube]

So there you have it!!!!

I now want feedback, you'll get more if I ever make up with my friend, or when i can be arsed to do it!!!

[SuZiE-jO-bEe]

ive read the first part do u mind if i read a bit every nite

[Kolakube]

nah, but tell me what you think, like which bits are funny and which bits are crap etc!!!

[SuZiE-jO-bEe]

i will promise