Chris and the City

:: Thursday, 24 April, 2003 :: The Polka Dot Dress

How life changes in but a few short sweet hours; even in Liverpool. His head ached: it was late and the music had been loud. “The hazards of the modern life” he thought to himself, as he sneaked up the stairs to his bedroom.
The night had been terrible. Boredom, bad music, insatiable and unsatisfied urges for the toilet, and a lack of any action whatsoever had crowned it. His friends had given him no reason to be hopeful of fun, and he had experienced none.
However as he was convincing them to leave with him, and abandon their plans of an everlasting groove-fest to the rock anthems of the day, he saw her; well, to be more precise he saw her dress. “Look at the girl in the 50s polka dot dress Chad!” he screamed as he saw it. Chad looked up, but too slowly, “I don’t see anything.” “She was there! She was there! I’ll point her out when we next see her” he insisted. So he waited.
Ten minutes later she appeared, but he did not shout Chad or Nenz to show them, he simply stared, gazed, and almost fell over. Slack-jawed he followed the girl in the 50s polka dot dress across the room, she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Her long dark brown hair was tied up at the front and caressed her shoulders at the back from the comfort of a high pony tail. Her skin was tanned and smooth; he couldn’t keep his eyes away, from her lower back he followed it and didn’t stop until all the way up to her lips. In that one instant, his priorities and everything he held dear was altered.
How life can change.

:: Sunday, April 19, 2003 :: The Couch was Theirs

It started slow. He’d been planning and screwing and worrying for weeks. “Why would anyone want this?” he thought to himself, sitting in the empty hall, hands in face, pint half down. “I have nothing to offer, except a few disco lights and a fat man with Donna Summer records.”
Of course he wasn’t alone; it was eight thirty and as well as his parents and brother a few random early family members had given him a pat on the back, a card here, a £20 note there. CONGRATULATIONS FOR SURVIVNG TILL 21.
“What’s the problem?” his dad inquired, leading slightly, he knew exactly what the problem was. He just wanted to hear his boy say it. “Nah, sod it dad. I think a few friends will come, and that’s enough for me.” He was lying through his teeth; he was disappointed that Dave, Cush, Brookes and a few others of the boys weren’t coming; as well as his housemates from Nottingham. “I know that at least 10 are coming, so I don’t mind.”
As the dusty hall filled with cawing and guffawing old people, rubbing their hairy warts on his smooth young skin, the world started to spin. “Are any of your friends coming Chris?” his Nan asked, leaving a smudged lipstick mark on his cheek and then rubbing it off with a licked finger, “Yes, a fair few; they’re just not here yet.” He replied. “Oh don’t worry love they’ll be here soon” she offered. She was being optimistic for his benefit, but he didn’t care.
The hour was reaching nine and twenty minutes and a girl walked through the door, wearing a short skirt and a black top which showed off her rather ample cleavage gratuitously. Old people began to turn round; he already knew they’d be saying “Is that Chris’ Girlfriend?” under their breath. However, Louise was not his girlfriend; she was the ex-girlfriend of his friend Chad. Recently split up, he knew exactly why she was here, and he also knew that Chad would have none of it.
So he laughed, and stared at the bottom of another pint.
The Chad arrived, along with Jessi and Nenz, with Gemma, Gemma’s boyfriend and Amanda in tow. They were closely followed by Ali, Michaela, Tash, Ian, Ali’s boyfriend and fish-face hangers-on Simon and ‘random blonde bird’. He stared at the bottom of another pint.
“Hey laddie!” he turned, and faced a brace of burly Scotsmen, his auntie’s boyfriend Stuart and his ‘mate’ Pete. “D’ya wanna pint? Or maybe a nice whisky?” they only had to ask once. It tasted good.
Ali screamed at him, “Happy birthday Chris!” She seemed drunk, “You know I love you, I love all my friends very much.” She passed him a drink, “I got you a triple gin and tonic cos I know you like gin.” She smiled, and waited for a reply. He undid his grimace and kissed her, “thank you dear, I’m going to enjoy this night”
WAIT STOP HI GOODBYE WOO HEY THANKS GREAT!
He was in a car, driving home Tasha, “Bye Bye.” He almost fell out of the car door as he waved goodbye, “Right! Let’s go to my house!”
At three thirty he is in the bathroom, he stares at the mirror. He has been for at least ten minutes now, his face blurred he spins his head around to watch the shadows chase themselves. His clothes are still immaculate but his skin looks round, his eyes are sullen and his gait jaded.
As his head hits the pillow, he begins to dream. To dream of fun, and games, and of lost lovers brought together for one night, under extreme circumstances and in the home of another.
At six the room started to clear, the party drawing to a close Nenz was ushered out by the man of the house; the last of the relatives followed him. Chad and Jesse were given a blanket each and told the front room, and its couches, were theirs. The door closed and the lights dimmed.

:: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 :: Crosswords

The walk to the bar was long, and he was late.
Katie had given him an ETA of about 9.30, but he was sure that time had already past.
As he approached he listened out for signs of life, music, shouting, drunks puking into the gutter; there were none.
He entered the corridor, travelled up the stairs, all the time still looking out for those signs of life he so longed for. Silence surrounded him. He stopped on the stairs, had he been stood up? Was he in the right place?
He opened the door to the bar and stepped inside.
The room was silent, the DJ booth and every seat empty, candles flickered on each table.
He saw a girl stood behind the bar attempting a crossword, "what's going on?" he inquired. "Well, you're the first person in five hours!" she replied.
"Ummm" he thought to himself, "shall I leave now, or shall I hang around and wait for Katie?"
The barmaid looked at him. She was attractive, glossy blond hair tied up into a bob; her skin was shiny and well tanned on her hip bones which he could just see where her jumper rode up. "I'll stay" he thought.
She scrubbed the (already clean) fridges like a woman possessed. Constantly squeezing the water out of the sponge, and then dunking it back in the bucket, as if for fun. "Do you mind if I do your crossword" he asked, looking to impress her with his intellect. "Sure, I’m useless at them" she replied, her eyes catching his for a split second.
This was the trigger for a conversation he thought, "So, what are you doing at the moment?” It transpired that she was on her gap year, working in the bar to make money for trip to New York, she'd been looking forward to it for months. She had applied to the London School of Fashion, but didn't expect to get in. With every word that passed over her darling lips, his libido rose.
The crossword was getting hard, his beer getting low, but the conversation was reaching fever pitch, as she wiped the tables and blew out the candles he knew he had to do something just to give the chance of seeing this girl again.
"Well, now I must go." he said after gulping down the last dregs of beer and placing the bottle on the bar for her, "It's been a pleasure talking to you". She looked up at him, smiled, and replied, "I've enjoyed talking to you too".
He slipped his jacket back on, put the crossword and pen down and walked towards the door. As he reached the entrance he turned, looked at her, and then looked towards the crossword. She followed his eyes towards the bar, and then turned back to look at him. He was gone.
She walked over to the bar, puzzled at what his eyes had meant, "Had he finished the whole crossword?" she thought. She picked it up and looked, a number of clues remained; he wasn't that clever. Then something in the bottom corner of the page caught her eye, someone had written 'Chris 07734103380'. She smiled. "Chris..." her brain raced, "what a shit name!”