Church Group

by Michael Brightside

  * * *

  Like the last one, this party was being held in a hired venue, a social hall in Wanton well within walking distance. That meant I just had to leave the house on Friday evening without raising suspicion, not as easy as it sounds. I tried to gauge what the chances were of my mum letting me go to another party. I couldn’t ask her straight out or she’d have been on her guard, so I skirted around the subject dropping infinitely subtle hints. The result of my indirect questioning was that it was unlikely. I formulated a plan instead and this is how it panned out:

  On Friday I took the clothes I would need for the party to school with me, then at the end of the day I gave them to Al who took them home in his bag, plus the school shoes off my feet. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, my mum knew I always wore trainers cycling to and from school.

  Having eaten dinner with my parents, I then commenced with my second line of subterfuge by showering and changing into an old pair of tracksuit bottoms and casual t-shirt. Then I remained hidden upstairs while I listened out for the sound of someone doing the dishes. Finally I heard the familiar clanging of crockery, my mum was in the kitchen! Climbing out of my bedroom window onto the roof of the lean-to, I made my way stealthily to the driveway beside the house, before sneaking to the end of the front garden.

  “Mum!” I shouted, giving her just enough time to get to the front room window. “I’m going out!”

  She smiled at me as she opened the front window, leaving me with no choice but to wave and run away. It was unlikely she was going to ask me anything of relevance, but I cleared off just in case. If she didn’t have a chance to ask me where I was going then I wouldn’t have to lie. Either way, she couldn’t possibly have suspected I was going to a party dressed like this.

  This time I went into the off-licence with Al, it was a big risk to take but I had to make sure he bought something cold enough to drink. The same woman appeared from out the back as before.

  “Hello Al, how are you?” she asked. I remember thinking she’d done well to remember his name.

  “I’m good thanks June, you?” Al replied.

  “I’m OK, it’s too hot in here though don’t you think?”

  “I noticed that as soon as I opened the door, why is it so hot?” Al asked.

  “It’s these fridges, they keep the drink cool but they get hot round the back and it heats up the whole shop, it’s unbearable sometimes. Who’s this? Is this your friend?” She looked at me.

  “I’m Luke, I....er....know Al through work,” I said, reaching out and shaking her hand from the other side of the till.

  “Oh you two work together? What did you say you did Al? Building work wasn’t it?”

  I didn’t know what Al had told her before so quickly tried to cover for myself, “No we used to work together, restoring an old man’s boat when we were younger, a year before we left school. We don’t work together now though.”

  “So what do you do Luke?” she probed.

  “Me? I work with my dad, in carpentry, er....as a carpenter,” I replied. There was no way she was going to be interested in the details of a job like that I thought.

  “Oh that’s nice, must be a better career than working in an off-license. I only do this part time though, my husband is the bread winner,” she said. “So what are you two after?”

  “We’re having another quiet Friday night in,” Al said, handing her sixteen cans of Stella, from the fridge this time. “Just these.”

  “And ten Sovereigns and a lighter please,” I added.

  “Better make it twenty,” Al said.

  “What two boxes of ten?” June asked.

  “Yeah that’s what I meant, two boxes of ten,” Al replied.

  She gave us a strange look, “And a lighter?”

  “Better make it two,” I said.

  “That will be thirteen pounds ninety-four,” she said, putting everything into thin white plastic bags.

  “How much is that litre bottle of vodka?” Al asked, pointing at the shelf behind her head.

  “Eight pounds ninety-nine.”

  Al counted out what remained of the money we’d pooled between us, to make sure he had enough. “We’ll take one of those as well.”

  The cold beer tasted wonderfully better than the week before, we drank a few each as Al led the way, that familiar feeling soon coming back around. I’d been just as nervous about going to this party as I had the first one. Although I knew what to expect now, there was the added problem of having shown ourselves up before. Without a doubt there were going to be people I remembered from Sally’s, and on top of that Emily was going to be there. I really didn’t want to fuck things up.

  The beer worked its magic as before, dissolving all the doubts I might have had, and Al soon announced we’d reached the hall, nestled down a quiet Wanton backstreet. A small brick building, like the sort of bungalow that people live in, marked out only by the words ‘WANTON SOCIAL HALL’ on a blue and white sign above the door. There were a couple of charity shops and a tea shop on the same street, but nothing that would be open now. Come to think of it the hall didn’t look very open either.

  We peered inside and I must admit to being more than a little disappointed to find people dancing away under a plethora of balloons and Happy Birthday banners. I’d have been content with finding the place empty and having to resort to drinking down the backwaters with Al. The empty pillbox was far more appealing.

  To go over and speak to the people inside would have meant dancing, seeing as they were, or walking over and talking to them while they danced. I was still far from the stage where I wanted to do either, so being convinced that no one had seen us, we decided it wouldn’t be impolite to hide behind the hall and have a couple more drinks and a cigarette.

  As I breathed the smoke deep into my lungs, I was sure I wasn’t addicted yet, I just enjoyed the taste with a drink. The two seemed to suit each other, maybe that was why they had off-licenses devoted solely to them.

  “Starting to get a buzz now mate,” I said. I liked the dizziness and the way all your stresses seemed to evaporate away.

  “Tell me about it,” Al replied. “Alcohol’s the bollocks.”

  It wasn’t long before a handful of kids from my year came out to have a cigarette, I was surprised to learn some of them smoked, never having smoked at school myself. We flicked our ash together while they tried to persuade us to come inside, Al telling them he’d only go in when they sorted the fucking tunes out. I was relieved when they eventually got tired of asking and went away.

  I’d promised myself I was only going to have a few, just enough to pluck up the courage to talk to Emily properly. Unfortunately any self control I had went out the window when I caught sight of her for the first time. She looked perfect in her school clothes, or at least I’d always thought she looked perfect. If that was perfect then there wasn’t a word to describe how she looked now, wearing a dark green dress so figure hugging it could only have been painted on.

  “Hello Al,” she said in her husky voice. “And hi Luke.” She smiled at me. I was smitten.

  “Hi Emily,” we replied almost together. She looked so good it hurt me inside.

  “Are you coming back in? It would be nice to have you both actually at the party.”

  “Will do Emily, just gonna finish this fag,” Al replied. Emily turned and walked away while the pair of us looked her up and down from behind.

  “She looks well fit tonight doesn’t she Al,” I said, he nodded in agreement.

  “You gonna try chatting her up?”

  “I might do later on,” I said, drinking down the last of my beer and opening another can. “I’ve hardly ever spoken to her at school, I’ll just have a couple more drinks first.”

  The pair of us stood there and laughed at each other, while the legs underneath us began to wobble. I’ve never enjoyed leaning against a wall so much in my life.

  There were fleeting moments where I thought I’d built up the courage to go and speak to
her, but every time I pictured in my head what I was going to say, I lost my nerve and put it off, working my way through the beers instead. On more occasions we were joined by someone from the party coming out for a fag, we’d find common ground in moaning about how bad the music playing inside was.

  Al suddenly turned to me. “You should go and speak to her,” he said, and do you know what? He was right. Now was definitely the perfect time, the false confidence from the alcohol had silenced any worries I had of being rejected by her, but I had stopped well before the stage of random fights and making drunken snow angels in next door’s front garden.

  I found her on the dance floor and took her outside so I could talk to her properly. We walked up the street until we were stood outside an empty charity shop where we were alone.

  “I thought you two were finally going to come in,” she said.

  “I’ve got to speak to you.”

  She smiled. “What’s up?”

  “I know I don’t really know you from school but obviously we still know each other pretty well.”

  “Yes?”

  “Well, I like you,” I said, trying to maintain eye contact and not look down at those perfect long legs of hers, finished in a pair of shiny black high heels.

  “I like you too Luke,” she replied. My heart skipped when I thought she might feel the same as me.

  “I mean I really like you,” I said.

  “Oh do you? What is it you like about me?” she asked. “You hardly even know me.”

  I thought for a moment. “Well I like how you look. And now I’ve seen you out of school I like how you dress,” I said. “And I really like your deep voice.”

  “Deep voice?” she replied angrily.

  “Not deep voice like a man’s, like nice husky sounding voice I mean. I like it.”

  “Thank you,” she started smiling again. “I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone say they like my voice before, that’s really nice of you.”

  “I mean I really like it, I could listen to it all day,” I said as she blushed. “Like if you read children’s story books I would listen to them and I don’t even like children’s story books.”

  “You’re very drunk aren’t you Luke?”

  “No.”

  “Well you’ve never said any of this to me before, so I don’t know if you’re only telling me it now because you’re drunk.”

  “I’m not, I’ve just never had a chance to tell you before. We don’t really ever see each other in school.”

  “Well maybe on Monday you can come and speak to me again when you’re sober,” she said. “Anyway, come back in for now and enjoy the party.”

  “Alright,” I replied gutted. “Just going to get Al first, we’ll be in in a minute.”

  I set off round the back of the hall to find Al.

  “How’d you get on Lu?” he asked.

  “Not good mate, she thought I was pissed or something.”

  “Why what did you say?”

  “Just that I liked how she looked, and her voice and stuff.”

  “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

  I opened another can of beer. “I might have said something to her as well about wanting her to read children’s stories so I could listen to them.”

  He laughed so hard he nearly choked on his drink, “You twat! That’ll be why she thought you were pissed.” He opened another can and banged it against mine. “Cheers mate, to us and the rest of the beers, seeing as we’re probably better off out here.”

  “Yeah cheers mate!” I laughed. “Music’s shit in there anyway.”