Oxygen (Catfish And The Bottlemen/1975)

Katie

"Noooo!" Wined Saffron tugging on the television remote, giggling and shrieking as she fought Rhys over which channel they watched.

I smirked rolling my eyes in Fliss's direction, she met me with the same satirical smile and stood letting out a dramatic sigh.

"Right," she announced, "fuck it I'm having a smoke,"

"I thought you were laying off it for a little while?" Frowned Saff suddenly paying attention to the world around her again.

"Yeah well I can't stand watching yous two," said Fliss with another sarcastic smile as she wandered to the kitchen to find her tin. It wasn't that we didn't like Saffron being happy, it wasn't that her pleasure made us angry or jealous, it was just that we'd seen the way it usually ended. We knew Rhys and we had watched their relationship breakdown on multiple occasions. We weren't rolling our eyes with nausea, it was that watching him build her up made us feel a little sick because we'd seen the way he could let her down.

"Coming Katie?" Fliss hovered on the stairs waiting for me to push myself up and join her in her bedroom window for a smoke.

I fell back on her bed and let out a sigh humming along as she started singing away in the window as she looked for a lighter.

"Oh ohwaoh I love her because she moves in her own way, ohwaoh she came to my show just to see about my day," I joined in drumming along on the bedposts. "Give us a drag then?" I laughed because she'd smoked half of it before I'd even realised she'd lit up.

"Sorry," she giggled, "am gaggin for it,"
"Thats what she said," I smirked drawing a laugh from her, her eyes going wide.

"I know! Thats what I said!" She giggled picking up her guitar beginning to play the chords to the song she'd been singing. "I wish I was Luke Pritchard," she sighed, I raised my brow skeptically but of course she had an answer, she always had an answer. "Imagine having hair that curly..."

"Fliss you do have hair that curly..." I smirked passing the joint back. "Soooo your sisters wedding then... whens that?" I asked watching the cieling searching for images. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

"No idea... June? Maybe August?" It wasn't that she wasn't close to her family, it was that after living with her mother for 17 years she'd had enough. Its why she'd gone to uni a year early, why she was using her sisters expired passport to rent our house and get into clubs.

"Bro you need to check," I giggled picking up her other guitar, "Alice says we're all over the place now for summer... have we even got..."

"Enough songs? Im the music machine man we've got all the songs," she smiled back finally relaxing, "now come on theres wayyyy more interesting stuff to talk about than ny sisters love life," she teased pulling that teasing face, the sort that meant I knew exactly where the conversation was heading. I shifted a little uncomfortable, cheeks tinging pink as she started laughing.

"Like what?"

"Like your love life," she giggled I only pulled a face back and shook my head.

"Avoiding people and not leaving the house doesn't count as a love life," I said dryly leaning back against the headboard, picking out a jazzy little chord, I was probably a better guitarist than I was bassist, but bass was my spirit animal of an instrument. Sweetening things from the shadow of side stage.

"Fuck me gently with a chainsaw Katie," she laughed me off, "has he really not called you?" She frowned after a moment, the confusion only deepening when I shrugged my shoulders, I was lying though, he had called, once or twice a few days after they'd left, and we had talked for a very long time, losing ourselves to one anothers childhood memories and general.philosophies.

"Has Van called you?"

"Vans different," she screwed her face up, "Vans a mate..."

"So thats a yes then," I teased though in truth I had to admit I was a little envious. Van called her almost every day, he was borderline obsessed with her but it wasn't scary, just sweet. He always wanted to know how her day had been, he always had something he needed to tell her, something trivial he'd seen, something that had made him laugh and think of her.

"Yeah but you know... its nothing, we just talk don't we..."

"Thats what people tend to do on the phone Fliss," I smirked rolling me eyes.

"Yeah but he's not interested... its obvious!"

"Are you interested?" I had to ask because we could never quite tell with Fliss, sometimes she'd act like she was when she wasn't, sometimes she'd act like she wasn't when really they were the only person she could think about. This was a strange mix of the two, something in the cheeky twinkle of her eye had me thinking that this was different.

"Not if I don't want to be..." she shrugged her shoulders.

"That just means youre too scared to try!" I giggled, "for fucks sake Fliss why the hell..." she put the guitar down then eyes meeting mine a little fiercly, cheeks tinged pink.

"Because this is the lad thats allegedly dating Alana Haim... aka a fucking godess, as if I'd try!"

I cracked a laugh then and smirked.

"Bet he hasn't been walking Alana Haim to classes all week though has he..."

"Given the choice I know who he'd choose," shrugged Fliss and that was that. Too stubborn to even try and contemplate the idea that perhaps this time she didn't know exactly what everyone else around her was thinking.