stop the clocks | oasis

t h i r t e e n

I heard the front door open around 4 in the morning. A few minutes later, the door to our bedroom opened, and Liam walked in, almost tripping over his feet.

He smelt strongly of alcohol. That meant the talk had gone one of two ways: it went well and they got pissed together, or it went completely wrong and Liam went to a pub to try and mask his anger.

He sat on the side of the bed. "April, I'm so fucking happy right now!"

"Guessing it went alright, then?"

"It was fucking incredible. We got mega pissed and we were just talking about random shit an' I was having the time of my life. I forgot how much I missed him." He flopped backwards on the bed and sighed.

"You're cute," I say, chuckling.

"Thank you," he said, a wide smile appearing on his face. He sat up when he heard the bedroom door open again.

Carly leapt onto our bed, closely followed by Belle, who just sat on the side. She was holding a rather large box that had been wrapped in sparkly blue paper.

"Hey, how are my beautiful girls doing?" Liam asked excitedly, giving them both an enthusiastic hug. "Hey, what's that you've got there?"

Belle looked a bit embarrassed. "It's, uh... it's for you, Dad." She shyly handed it over.

He began to tear off the wrapping paper, before realising what it was. He looked over at Belle. "You didn't have to-"

"I did."

Liam gave Belle another hug. "Thank you so much."

She'd bought him a new record player - it was the same as the one she'd broken. "I'm sorry I broke it, Dad. I hope this sort of makes up for it."

~

The next morning, Belle sat at the table, doing some work on a laptop. She'd decided that she wanted to remain homeschooled, and we agreed to let her, even though Liam was taking a break from touring.

"Morning," she said, acknowledging me as I sat next to her.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a bit?"

"Sure." She closed the laptop and turned to face me.

"I just want to know what happened. You didn't seem to have a very good relationship with neither me nor Liam, and now everything's fine."

She sighed. "I was just... at school, I was surrounded by people who only cared about me because of the fame and everything. And I just... I began to hate both of you because I felt as if I wouldn't be able to make any real friends. I pretended to like people at school just so I wasn't lonely, and I ended up just upsetting Dad. Remember what happened the day after he released the album?"

~

I chuckled to myself as Liam hugged Carly and buried his face in her thick, all-white fur. For the first morning in March, it was surprisingly warm. I took a sip from my glass of red (yes, I know it was a morning) when I heard the back door open. Belle stepped into the garden.

She was dressed in a short black dress with a denim jacket, and she had a full face of make up on. I never really knew where she got the make up from, but it looked expensive. I had no idea how much pocket money Liam was giving her.

"Hi, Belle, how've you been? Nice to see ya again after all this time," Liam said sarcastically and she rolled her eyes.

"Shut up, Dad. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that my friends and I listened to your album last night."

"You did?" Liam questioned, looking startled. He didn't realise Belle was into that kind of music.

"Yeah, and it was alright- I mean, not the kind of music I'd listen to normally, but you did a really good job." she smiled.

"That really means a lot, Belle. thanks."

"No problem." And with that, she walked off.

Liam walked back over to me (in the time Belle was talking to him, I'd started running around the garden with Carly). "Did you hear that, April? Me daughter likes me music!"

"That's gr-" I was cut off by the unmistakable sound of sniggering. I turned around to see Belle and a boy who looked to be at least a year older than her staring at us.

"Wh-what's going on? Who's this?" Liam gestured to the boy.

"I dared her to say that!" he wheezed. Both of them were bent over laughing.

"I barely got through the first song," Belle cackled.

Liam's face fell instantly.

~

"Oh yeah," I said awkwardly. Belle had a very sheepish expression on her face.

"It doesn't matter now. It's all over. Everything's fine," she replied, taking a deep breath. "I just don't have any friends."

I suddenly felt very sympathetic. "Have you spoken to Anaïs recently?"

"My cousin?" She looked a little shocked. "No, not recently. Besides, she's eleven."

I shrugged. "She's around your age."

Belle thought for a second. "Maybe..."

She turned back to the laptop and continued her work, until Liam appeared.

"Good morning! How are we all today?" He gave us both hugs. "Guess who I've invited over."

"It's not who I think it is, right?" Belle questioned.

"Noel! He's bringing the kids. This is wonderful!" In his excitement, he stood in the middle of the kitchen and did what appeared to be a completely effortless backflip.

Belle and I laughed loudly. "How do you even do that?" she asked, taking off the glasses she was using to read the laptop screen.

"Well, it's an interesting story that started after your mother and I first, well, 'realised our feelings'. It was the second Maine Road concert, and I was ridiculously happy, because everything was going perfectly on track, y'know what I mean? So at the end of the show, I was saying thank you an' all that jazz, and then it happened. I just did a backflip. No fucking clue why, but I was happy as fuck. I've known how to do it ever since."

I nodded. "It's true. He did a backflip in the delivery room shortly after you were born."

Belle was now beside herself laughing. Liam looked at me and smiled, and it was one of the most genuine smiles I'd ever seen from him.

"Wow, look at the clock. They'll be here soon," Liam remarked. "We're all going out for lunch as well, in case you were wondering. And no, I don't give a fuck about paparazzi."

Belle turned off the computer and went upstairs to get ready. I walked over to Liam, and he gave me a quick kiss on the lips.

"This is perfect, April. Everything's perfect."

~

THAT CHAPTER WAS SO LONG BUT I HOPE YOU LIKED IT!

-z