stories from the city; damon albarn

16-

"Are you a natural red head?" Damon asked the girl, as they finished up and curled up in the hotel bed, staying hauntingly warm under the covers. "Or do you dye your hair?"

"I dye it..." she said sheepishly, blushing a little bit, as if she was newly embarrassed by what Damon had asked.

He faces her and plays with her hair a bit. "Don't be embarrassed. It looks very pretty. Almost natural even. You even resemble a friend of mine."

She perks up "really?"

"Of course. You could be in movies if you wanted. You've got the right look." He says calmly before adding "Can I rant to you? Treat you like one of my friends?" He playfully winks

The girl nods her head like crazy, hoping to get some information about Damon or Blur that no one else knew.

"Wonderful. At the moment I've got two very pretty girls angry with me, and I don't know what to do."

"Is that why Justine didn't come with you?" She asks "is she one of them?"

Damon sighs and nods his head. "I suppose so."

"Who's the other one? Also I don't know how you'd manage to rattle Justine. You two are honestly the best rock couple out there at the moment. Well besides Avery Pince and Liam Gallagher, but that's not even a thing I personally just ship the two of them, do you know if they've met by any chance? You should make them meet. I'm sure it'd go well." The girl sort of babbles on and Damon makes a disgusted face at the pure thought of Liam Gallagher.

"Oh. I take it you don't like that idea." She squeals "is Avery the other girl who's mad at you? I thought it was Chloe Erlich!" She says excitedly, sitting up and ducking out of the covers, now sitting criss cross apple sauce.

Damon grits his teeth. "Chloe Erlich is mad at me because my bassist can't keep his dick in his pants."

"Alex? Honestly he's such a dream! I wish I could see that. She's quite lucky if she has."

"You talk quite a bit don't you?" Damon asks, as he laid back down, trying to make himself more comfortable and all that.

"I thought you were going to rant." She says pouting

"Fine. My girlfriend is mad because I'm fucking my roommate even though we have an open relationship, and now she's probably pissed that I ended up in a hotel somewhere sleeping with someone who resembles the person who got me in this mess. And all I can think about is how she couldn't care this much."

"That's all?"

"No- it's not. That's all I feel inclined to share with you." He sneers, growing irritated with the lack of listening or proper advice.

"You've got a piss poor attitude considering you're the one who's in the wrong."

"What did I possibly do?" He says exasperatedly

"You're cheating on Justine Frischmann of Elastica!"

"We cheat on one another proper all the time. That's the point of an open relationship. Doll, what do you think this is? It's a one night stand. Justine is fine and can handle me sleeping with broads like yourself.

The girl wrinkles her nose and Damon was starting to get irritated. Had this been Justine, they'd be making out already after having a nice sensual and relieving conversation. Had it been Avery, they'd still be talking through his feelings before they fucked again, or they'd be asleep. If it were Graham they'd be talking shit about everyone to feel better about themselves. The two against the world.

But this girl didn't understand their dynamics. She'd only read the papers, seen them on TV and picked up details from other people. While she wanted all of the details of his life, his friends and his problems, he couldn't unload any of that baggage onto this poor girl in front of him.

He sits up, going to get dressed, putting all of his clothes back on.

"Keep the hotel room. Order whatever you want and just leave tomorrow morning." He says softly

"Where are you going? It's like 1 in the morning!" She exclaims

"Home. I've got a few calls to make." And with that, Damon Albarn had left the room and was waiting for his driver to pick him up from wherever he'd chosen as his original destination for the night.

As he got into the car and watched all the noise and life around him on the ride to his apartment, he couldn't help but think about all that Chloe Erlich had spewed to him earlier.

He couldn't possibly be happy or fulfilled by fucking strangers, and they certainly weren't fixing his problems.

So he decided it was time to learn more, or face his problems head on.

And to be honest, he had no idea which he was going to tackle first.

His driver swiftly dropped him off and pulled away after he made it to his apartment, running up the stairs and slowly unlocking the door, trying not to disturb any of his neighbors that might actually be trying to sleep.

And there, sitting on his sofa sat Avery, watching the recap from the Brit awards on his television.

"Four awards..How precious." She says before leaning over towards the coffee table. "Take a victory lap." She offers. "You should be celebrating."

"I don't want to." He says as he plops down angrily. "And I thought you were mad at me."

She shrugs. "I saw you on the TV and you looked miserable. That was enough revenge for me."

He scoffs "I didn't look miserable. I just looked tired."

She rolls her eyes and pulls him over onto the sofa, laying on him gently, staring up in his eyes.

"I was just sleeping with someone who dyes her hair to look like you. It was peculiar. Should I do that? Half red and half black for you and Justine?"

She laughs a little. "Oh god and you left her? What secrets did you manage to spill?"

"Only that two pretty girls were mad at me. Nothing too far from the truth."

"Do you want to talk about this mess? How you're feeling and all? Especially since Justine won't even see you at the moment. She came by earlier. Dropped a box of your things off."

She motions to a box that sat in the corner, it was taped up rather carefully as if to protect its contents.

Damon sighs.

"I need to call her."

"Not right now. It's late. And besides, why do that when we can do anything right here."

He laughs before growing serious, starting to think about everything. "This isn't going to go on forever is it? What's happening here?"

"Oh god no. I have no intention of that." She muses.

"Good. Glad we're on equal footing."

Damon sat there, playing with her hair almost mindlessly, as if it was doing what the other girl couldn't have done. She was understanding his feelings and thoughts without having to ask for an explanation, and right now a justified silence was all he needed.