Oxygen (Catfish And The Bottlemen/1975)

Katie

"Thank you..." I heard Fliss mumbling as we walked home or back to the bus.

I was walking with Benji, the two of us dawdling along the empty road behind our friends and their long shadows, but from where we were standing I could still hear her, no matter how quiet she thought she was.

She was walking with Van a few steps in front and she was leaning into him all lethargic and wilting in that way that girls often do when they're sleepy and their eyelids have begun to ache.

He had his arm around her shoulders and from where I was standing I was sure they looked just as me and Ben did, I was certain their shadows matched ours.

"For what?" Chuckled Van, brushing her off and hushing her with a finger to his lips, "people are tryna sleep love," he teased drawing a giggle from her. I smiled, I couldn't help myself. I wondered if she felt like she was being watched.

"You know... for earlier and... well I don't know, for earlier than that..."

"Earlier than earlier?" He had an oh so slightly sarcastic tone, but there was a fondness there, an affection which once again I recognised from conversations I'd had walking home with Blakes.

"On the bus," she projected her whisper as if she'd meant to put extra effort into staying subtle, instead shooting herself in the foot.

"Any one of the lads woulda done the same..."

"I know, but they didn't did they..."

"They weren't there how could they... they woulda if they were there..."

"Id have felt worse if it had been anyone but you..."

I hadn't been listening properly until she'd said that. Until she'd let slip that something had happened, something she was glad he had walked in on and not anybody else. Now however my ears were burning with it, the desire to know, to understand her as if I were Van leaning in and listening intently.

"So would I," he nodded, "did he say anything to you when he left?"

"A bit," she said, I pictured her biting her lip, losing her confidence the way I'd seen her do several times over the last few days, but she didn't. Instead she shrugged her shoulders, let out a sigh, a happy sad sort of sigh like something ending. "Doesn't matter now though does it... what did you say to him though? How did you get him to go like that?"

"Quietly you mean?" He smirked, she smirked too.

"At all,"

He lost his sense of humour then, I recognised the clenching of his jaw.

"I just told him he had to," he said, "cause he did, Andys not an idiot Fliss, he wouldn't have been able to deny what happened, he got caught..."

"What do you mean?"

"If I'd told management they'd have had him on the first flight back to England, he'd never have worked with us again..."

"You told someone?!" She almost raised her voice then. I wondered whether they realised how close behind me and Ben were. Whether they realised that by now we were both listening in.

"No," he said quickly, thumb rubbing her shoulder as he squeezed her into his side, "No I didn't... but I told him he was booked on the next flight home... it was either take the flight tonight or take the flight tomorrow morning once I'd told management everything..."

"But you haven't have you? Told anyone?" When she turned to him I could see the whites of her eyes, she was scared by that, whatever that was.

"No love, and I won't, not if you don't want me to, but for what its worth I want to..."