A New Decade (The Verve fanfic)

2. All Ways Are Maybes

Whenever Nick had tried to call Richard, He would always hang up. There was one occasion where Richard's wife, Kate answered. They had a nice little friendly conversation, which was the closest that he got to speaking with his old bandmate. Then it seemed like Richard had changed phone numbers, so he had to ask his friend for one. 

"Hello?" A low and familiar voice rang through the phone. Hearing that voice, Nick felt guilty and knew he shouldn't have called, but he had no choice. "Hey, it's me. Nick."

There was a long silence that followed. It was a really long time that the two had spoken to each other.

"Hey."

"Hey." 

"In order to start the conversation well, ask the person about them first." Nick thought to himself. 

"So how are things going for you? How's your solo career?" He asked.

"Good, good. Just wrapping up this tour. And you?"

"Things have been fine lately."

The two talked about themselves for several minutes. They had a good conversation and  Nick sighed with relief that things were going smoothly. "It's time to ask him the question." He thought. "Hey Richard, can I ask you a brief question?" He asked.

"Sure."

Nick took a deep breath. "Do you want to be a part of the big V again?" Silence fell through the room again, making Nick think that think that this was a bad idea.

"Yes." 

"Are you sure? Because you better not use this opportunity to get your fucking solo career on track like you did before, and leaving us behind in front of the crowd." 

"I'm sure, Nick.  Even if we have solo careers, people still know us from The Verve. I'll do it for our fans." Richard responded.

"I'm not just doing this for our fans, Richard. I want to fix this friendship. Si is still angry with you." 

"I understand, but you've got to at least control your wild partying and drinking." 

"Your drinking habits are worse than mine! You fucking almost got yerself killed 23 years ago because you fucking drank too much!" 

Nick was angry but was tired of all this arguing. This was the reason he left in 1995, 1998, and in 2008.

"Look. I'm sorry. I lost my temper there." Nick apologised. "It's fine. I should be the one who's sorry after all this shit that I caused that make this band fall apart." Richard lamented.

"The past is the past, we've got to look into our future. I've got to tell Simon." Nick replied.