They all sat listening back over the demo and all agreed to keep it and put it on the album. Van came over and sat down, putting his arm around me for a split second before being called back into the studio. It was nearing 11pm and i had lived off tea, biscuits and cigarettes all day and was falling asleep watching the boys record.
"Alice. Alice"
I woke to van standing above me and rubbing my arm. Eveyone else was packing up and getting ready to leave.
"It's time to leave unless you want to sleep in here freezing overnight" van laughed and I stood up and wrapped my arms around him still half asleep. We made our way to the door with bob behind us turning the lights out. We waved bye to the other lads while me, van, bondy and Larry got in the car.
"What's the music gonna be for the ride home then Alice" bondy said as I was already flicking through vans Spotify.
"Hmmm, the kooks, the killers, gorillaz... oooh" I said as I turned on evil woman- electric light orchestra
"Good choice" van said
We all bobbed our heads and sang along and by the end of the song we were at larrys.
"Bye" me and van said in unison as the lads got out the car
"don't trip larry" Van and bondy laughed and Larry stuck his fingers up at him and we drove off
"Eh don't trip?"
"Haha yeah because larry is so small he struggles to get in and out of my car haha"
I laughed with him. Vans car was quite big, it was an Audi suv and was nice and comfortable. It was the type of car I could imagine would be good for long drives or going to the countryside to.
"Right I know you're hungry so what we having" van said while taking a hold of my hand, dropped it to change gears then picking it back up again.
"I could eat anything, what is there round here"
"Well there's typical takeaways and the chippy. Or there's a McDonald's a little drive away"
I smiled at the last one he said "Fancy a little drive then?"
"Haha I knew you would pick that"
I continued to flick through vans playlist and found myself typing my name in and putting my own playlist on. I shuffled and miracle aligner- the last shadow puppets started playing.
"This isn't on my playlist?"
"I know, it's on mine"
"Good song though"
Come on miracle aligner
go and get em tiger
Get down on your knees
Get down on your knees again
Ohhhhhh
I was acting out the rest of the song and Van was laughing at me. Until he joined in and we were dancing like idiots in the car. A few more songs played, sofa song by the kooks and little house of savages by the Walkmen. The next song that came on was the afternoons hat- arctic monkeys.
"Is this arctic monkeys?
"Erm yeah van? Haha"
"I don't think I've heard this song before"
"WHAT, fair enough people who are fake fans and only listen to do I wanna know. But you should know this. It's one of their singles for my propeller" I looked shocked and he laughed
"Hmm I'll have to get to know it then"
Again I belted out every single word and acted out the song for him.
And when I'm in the confines
of crawling walls,
you hold me in place
The ripples on the ceiling
the avenues, unsugared taste
He laughed as we pulled into McDonald's.
"Can we order inside" I turned to Van
"Sure" he said we got out the car and walked towards the door "You just wanted to use the machine didn't you"
"Yep" I laughed walking towards it.
I typed in chicken nuggets, fries, chocolate milkshake, chicken nuggets, fries, banana milkshake, complete order and got my phone out to pay.
"No, I'm paying Alice"
"No it's fine I will van"
Before I could unlock my phone van swiped his card. And I have him a death stare with him laughing in my face.
"It's fine Alice, don't worry about it"
our order came quick as we were the only ones in there. Probably because it was midnight. We walked back to the car with our food and van began to drive, every now and then picking up his drink while I was tucking into my fries. We missed the turn off for his street.
"Where are we going van?"
"Just wait"
In about 5 minutes we pulled up next to the walking trail on the cliffs. The whole of Llandudno lit up in front of us. It was beautiful.
"Well this is quite a fancy place to eat a McDonald's" I laughed and he laughed back.
We finished our food and drove back to vans. The lights were off, the moon and streetlights outside were the only things lighting the room and his parents were asleep. We tip toed around the kitchen putting our rubbish away and I got a drink of water. We started to make our way upstairs when lemonworld started playing from vans phone now disconnected from the car
"Shit I pressed the next song on my phone"
"Be quiet van, come on"
"No it's okay" he turned the sound down a bit and put it on the table before replacing the glass I was holding with his hand. He pulled my in for a hug and we were stood swaying to lemonworld.
"I've really enjoyed having you here Alice"
"I've enjoyed being here, it's perfect"
We stood in silence for a while listening to the song play, still with our arms wrapped around each other and his head on top of mine
"I love you"
I looked up at him wondering if I heard him properly.
"I love you Alice"
"I love you too van"
With Lemonworld still playing in the background he leant down to kiss me and I found myself kissing him back. The kiss deepened and my hands found their way to his hair pulling him closer to me. The song had finished and I could feel myself falling asleep against him. I held his hand walking upstairs before I went into the bathroom to do my teeth and take my makeup off. Van was already in bed when I walked in his room, his clothes he was wearing scattered around the floor. I took my pyjamas from off my side of the bed, put my shorts on and stopped when putting shirt on. I walked back around the bed to where van had dumped his jumper he wore that day and pulled it over my head before getting into bed.
"Of course you're wearing my clothes again"
I laughed and turned over facing away from van. He learnt over to kiss my cheek and draped his arm across me, holding my close.
"Goodnight Alice"
"Goodnight van"
