HONEY, THAT'S ALRIGHT | Van McCann

2. London

It's kind of strange how a person can have an impact on your life, especially if it's a guy named Van.

It's been 7 years and still I think about this guy. And I still remember how I left him; standing alone in the rain whilst I went home, bare foot. I was messed up back then. I've changed. I'm still living in the small town of Widnes, yet I never wanted to imagine myself here at 24 years old. I guess that's the only thing what hadn't changed. For once I wasn't in Widnes, I had taken a spontaneous drive down to London for no reason. The weather wasn't as nice as I hoped and soon enough rain began to pour and drenched my denim jacket. Rain wasn't a big fuss, it was just the fact that I had nowhere booked in London to stay, I had just been sleeping in my car.

I carried on walking, keeping my head low, just trying to pick up speed to get back to the car so I could dry off. I saw feet approach me but as soon as I went to look up to move out of the way, I was too late and I walked into the guy who the feet belonged to. He was small, yet taller than me. He wore a black raincoat with the hood up, with black jeans and some branded 'adidas' striped shoes.

"Sorry!" I quickly said, turning to face the small guy. He looked to me and smiled timidly.

"It's fine." He replied, the voice sounding familiar. Before I could turn away, another voice shouted over the rain,

"Larry, mate! Who's this y' chattin' up now?" A slim guy wearing a long grey coat with a patch on the chest walked over. He was soaked to the bone, like myself and the other three guys who stood a distance behind them.

"I-uh, she-?" He stuttered as the taller guy and I made eye contact. His eyes were green, his facial features were a lot more slimmer but his eyes still remained the same to someone who I knew years ago.

"This y' new lass y' ain't been tellin' me 'bout?" The guy nodded towards the three other guys; one with big bouncy curls, now weighed down with the rain, he was slim and wore all black with a leather jacket, like the others but one had loose curls, looked fairly older than the other two and wore a grey flat cap. The last guy looked similar to the first, by the hair but stood out with his glasses. I recognised two of them for some reason, but not the older one?

I smiled, feeling flattered but kind of embarrassed of my appearance as well as me kind of recognising them from somewhere. The name 'Larry' did trigger me to when I met a guy years ago, surely it's not him, it can't be.

"No, we just walked into each other." 'Larry' sounded different from the usual British accent, he had a twang and he did remind me of the guy from years ago, but I'm certain it's not him.

"Van! Larry! Stop pissin 'round, we've got a show, remember?" One of the curly haired boys shouted, the one without the glasses and cap.

"Yeah alrigh' Benji, keep y' knickers on!" Van yelled back with a cheeky grin. All of these names were triggering me back to years ago. I didn't want to remember but I somehow did?

Van.

I shyly smiled and began to retreat and walk in the opposite direction before, sounding like taller guys voice called me.

"Hey love?" I turned to see the both watching me.

"Yes?"

"Where y' goin'? He asked.

"To find shelter?" I chuckled under my breath, mostly to myself, since with being wet I thought he'd get the memo if it's raining.

"Wanna come with us? Larry can get y' a towel or something when we get to the venue?" He was being really kind but I couldn't say no, could I? I was kind of intrigued to where about in London they were going to be playing.

I shrugged my shoulders with a hesitant nod, "uh, sure, why not?" I let out a little smile and now followed them down the road to stop at big building, surrounded by a huge car park. It was kind of off putting and made my nerves kick in.

"Y' go follow Larry, he'll get y' a towel." Van? - he pointed towards Larry walking in an opposite direction with some other people taller than him with black shirts on, 'STAFF' in bold letters across the shoulders. "An' tell him to get us boys one too."

Larry's head turned back slightly at hearing his name and gave a faint smile before facing the direction that we was walking. We had entered around the back of the building, where a long double-decker bus looking thing stood on the road. People yelled each of their names, I recognised Van, Benji and Bob's names. Larry's were called a few times but then I heard 'Bondy' and I got a little confused. I take it it was that older guy with the flat cap.

I stood awkwardly by myself by a few black carriers on wheels labelled 'Catfish And The Bottlemen'. That was also familiar to me too. I'm positive it couldn't have been the band where I met the other Van, I'm sure of it. I mean, c'mon Grace, who names their kids Van nowadays? But, I do remember the 'Van' being a nickname for something. I went to open my mouth to thank him but instead, he rushed past me to give the boys their towels to dry off with. Larry now unzipped his coat and slung it onto the back of a chair. He wore a black adidas shirt with three white stripes down each arm and the logo sat to the left of his chest. He now took a black guitar from its case and rested it gently to a table which there he took out some funny looking things. He began to tune the guitar after re-stringing it and it didn't sound half bad.
I accompanied myself silently to the chair which sat next to one of the monitors.

"You're called Grace, right?" He spoke out of nowhere, keeping his back to me as he continued to tune each string of the guitar.

"Um, yeah, I am." I forced myself to sound confident but not overly confident, because me and speaking to people who I haven't seen in a while is not a good mix.

"Well, I'm Larry, if you hadn't already guessed. I fix Van's guitars and I-" he began to faff his hands, pointing to several more of Van's guitars before unintentionally turning and making eye contact with me. He just kind of stared at my face, long enough to let me figure out if he was actually the guy who I left in the rain or not.

"Larry, I rolled y' a smoke, I hope-" Van strutted in, holding an already lit cigarette in his mouth and one in between his two fingers. "Y' ok, mate?"

Van caught his attention and he snapped out of his gaze before confidently accepting the cigarette. They weren't really a cigarette, more of a roll up type thing, which stunk when they blew out the smoke and that's when I knew, it was him alright.