Born on a Different Cloud

Fairytale of New York

Noel found me sat on our bed reading, I shouldn't have been but I was bored and easily distracted so I picked it up off the bedside cabinet.

"Have you packed your stuff yet?" he asked like an impatient dad.

"No, I told you, I'm not going." I closed the book, my thumb holding the page until I said what I had to say.

"What d'you mean, you're not coming?"

"I don't want to travel for Christmas. I want to stay and be with my family." I couldn't have said it any clearer, again.

"What about my family? We agreed to spend it with Liam."

"No, you said that's what you're doing."

"We, you and me, we're spending it with Our Kid, in New York." he asserted.

"You don't get along with him all year round, why would ya want to force yourself on him at Christmas?"

"I wanna see their new place."

"You can do that literally any time. Why can't they come over here?"

"Cos they asked first. Why the fuck would ya not wanna to go? It's New York."

I didn't get why that'd be the argument to win me over, I didn't see what was so special about that particular city.

"I just told ya, cos my family isn't in New York, my family's in Manchester so that's where I'm going, and that's where you should be going. Are ya gonna let your Mam be alone on Christmas?" I don't know why I went down the route of trying to guilt trip him when I knew it would never work.

"Course not, you don't know Liam if you think he hasn't invited Mam. We're going and that's that so I suggest you get packed."

"You can't tell me what to do. If I don't wanna go then I'm not going and you're gonna respect that."

"Has he done summat to upset you?"

"No, he's not the one trying to drag me across the world, taking me from my family, on Christmas."

The only place I was going was on the train back up North, whether he liked it or not.

"You don't even get on with your family and you don't like Christmas."

"Neither do you."

"I'm making the effort being it's Grace's first Christmas."

"And apparently I'm not allowed cos your family is more important."

"Never said that... I'm not gonna keep arguing this. We are going."

"I'm fucking not." I insisted, refusing to back down.

"Well, then I guess I'll see you after the holidays."

...

We were on the plane to New York. Noel was fast asleep right next to me without a care in the world. I was still mad that he'd put an ultimatum on this trip, do what I say and come with me or fuck off, that's what I heard when he said I guess I'll see you after the holidays. Not that he knew I was, there was no point wasting my breath arguing over it. I certainly wasn't going to throw away our relationship over a stupid Christmas holiday.

I was excited to see New York to be fair, I'd never been before. I hadn't really been anywhere interesting outside of the UK.

Of course I wanted to see Liam and John, and the rest of Noel's family too. I just didn't appreciate being told what to do like that and I just couldn't be arsed with Christmas, it was just such a celebration of Capitalism now. I hated the whole show.