Let's All Make Believe - Oasis

Chapter 48

Liam was really pushing me to make the call to my parents. I wanted to but I wanted to avoid it. He couldn't understand why I hadn't done it already. I couldn't tell him that I still believed that we fought and fell out over me getting pregnant like I did. It wasn't unreasonable to think it went that way. We hadn't had a good relationship since I left for Manchester, every time we met it went badly. They never liked Noel, they thought even less of Liam. I was scared to try and have everything go wrong.

Every time I thought of doing it I had these images of how badly they'd react to everything I was going to have to tell them. Things weren't supposed to be like that with parents, I knew that now I was living as a parent. They weren't bad people by any stretch, the kids deserved to know their grandparents even if I was okay without them.

Darren came on another shopping trip with me, that's what he thought we were doing. We were used to that arrangement by now, but this time it'd be different. He parked the car in the Netto car park and I made my move.

He almost always had a cap on his dashboard if he wasn't wearing one. I picked it up as we got out.

Once he'd put his key in the lock I asked if he had a pound for the trolley because I didn't have one in my purse. He pulled his wallet out and I gave him his hat to inconvenience him a little more as he tried to search for the coin.

While he was distracted I grabbed the key, sat in the driver's seat and locked the door.

"What are you doing?!" he looked up alarmed.

"I'm sorry, it's best if you don't know. Liam's gonna kill me. He doesn't need you as a target too."

"You're not taking my car."

"I need to drive, get away for a bit I'm sorry." I started working out how to move the seat forward and adjust the mirrors.

"Let me in. I'm coming with you." he walked around to the passenger side.

"No."

He knocked on the window. "It's my car. I'm coming or the police arrest you for theft wherever you're going."

I let him in thinking about how my rap sheet would be longer than car theft if I was stopped but he didn't know I didn't have a valid license. He didn't need to know that, we weren't going to get caught.

"So where are you thinking?" he asked surprisingly calm for someone who'd just had their car jacked and been taken hostage sort of.

"I don't know." I told him as he set off.

"You've gone to all this trouble and you don't know where you wanna go?"

"It's about the journey, not the destination."

"Why didn't you just say you wanted to go wherever? I would've gone."

"I wanted to go on my own, why d'you think I didn't bring my boys?"

"And you thought I'd let you take my car just like that cos you want to?"

"I don't always think logically."

"Logically enough to plan nicking my car."

I shrugged. "I said I'm sorry."

Once I got on the motorway I had to decide where we were going to go. It would be easy to go to Liverpool, he saw that but I didn't want to go there.

"You're not making me go to Liverpool."

"No."

I saw a sign and took us in the opposite direction, to Leeds. I didn't know what we were going to do there. I didn't know anything about them other than their football team was dirty Leeds, the same Leeds who'd spurred Kevin Keegan's I'd love it rant towards the red half of Manchester as he managed Newcastle's title challenge.