Festival Daze (Part 2)

Ok so what follows is Part 2 of Day 1. Enjoy.

“Right.” Anna said as she sat up.
“Right, what?” James looked over at her.
“Right, I’m going to the toilet.” She clarified.
“I’ll come with.” James volunteered sitting up himself.
The pair climbed to their feet while Phil remained unmoving, arm across his eyes, quite possibly asleep. Once stood up James nudged him with his foot, half to see if he was actually asleep and half just for fun, but he got no response. Shrugging he turned to Anna and began following her away from the tents onto the path.
Once they reached the path they looked back to the tent circle and saw Brian running around, whooping at hollering at nothing distinguishable, a great smile on his face. He seemed to be having the time of his life.
Anna watched him. “How does he do it?” She asked.
“Do what?” James replied, while he too watched Brian.
“Have so much fun, we all have a great time and I always look back on last years fest happily but he just manages to take it to another level.”
“I don’t know. He does have a knack for it though.” James replied before bursting out laughing. While running around Brian had tripped and fallen and James couldn’t help himself.
As they continued to watch Brian climbed back to his fee and he noticed them looking and laughing. Wandering over he threw his arms round James and drew him to a bear hug. James returned the gesture of affection before Brian moved onto Anna.
“James, you’re a legend! And, Anna!” He exclaimed as he hugged them.
James chuckled and shook his head at his friend. “Man, how do you do it?”
Brian looked round at James, smiling. “Do what?”
“Enjoy this so much, you get more fun out of this then anyone.” Anna elaborated for James.
The smile on Brian’s face grew wider as he placed an arm round both of his friends and drew them close. “You want to know?” He asked as they leaned in to listen.
“Yeah.” They both replied.
His smile remained in place but his tone indicated just how serious Brian was about what he was saying. “It’s not that complicated really. Everyone who comes here to the fest has a great time but they don’t have as much fun for one simple reason.”
“What is it?” James prompted.
“I live for the moment, they live for the memory.”
“What?” Anna asked puzzled.
“You see them, everyone here, taking photos, posing, having fun but everything they do is judged on how much fun they’ll have remembering it. I don’t do that. I never take pictures here, I just come, get pissed and see what happens. It’s the best way. Live for the moment, not the memory.” Brian said this with great intensity and at the end he looked solemnly at both his friends who held in rapture. Then a moment later his smile returned, he clapped them both on the back and turned away, running back to the tents to join the party.
Anna and James stared after him for a moment and then looked at each other in a state of wonderment.
James spoke first. “Is it just me or did that make some kind of profound sense?”
Disbelief was evident in Anna’s voice also. “Yeah, I think it did. I’m not quite sure how but yeah.”
“Definitely a nifty turn of phrase.” James decided.
“Live for the moment, not the memory.” Anna repeated Brian’s line.
“Will have to remember that one.”
“I won’t forget it.”
“Nah me either.”
The two friends glanced back at Brian then turned away and started their walk in the direction of the toilets. For a while they walked in silence, both contemplating what Brian had just said to them, for someone as drunk as he was he made a scary amount of sense to them. Then again this could also be explained by the fact they too had consumed copious amounts of alcohol.
Turning away they set off towards the toilets, they walked together in familiar comfort, neither saying much just enjoying the presence of the other. Whereas when he was with Phil he had to fill the silences with crude and amusing insults when he was with Anna the silences always felt comfortable, he barely noticed them, they had the type of special friendship where words aren’t always needed. They walked on, occasionally brushing against each other, this slight caressing touch just reassuring each other that they were walking together.
As they left Yellow campsite and passed into Red, Anna interrupted the pleasant quiet. She wanted to know what was going on in James’s head.
“What are you thinking?” She asked.
James didn’t respond immediately, he looked around him and breathed in deeply through his nose, taking in the smell of the night. He loved that smell, night time always seemed to have its own distinctive scent, wherever you went it would always mix in with the odour of the place and almost always complimented it. He took another deep breath through is nose and looked at Anna.
He shrugged. “I don’t’ know. Probably Mel. You know how it usually goes.”
“Yeah. You’re kind of a one track record.”
“One of these days I’ll surprise you.”
“Not anytime soon though.”
“You never know, I could meet a girl and fall in love this weekend.”
“I hope you do but do you really see that happening?”
“Maybe.”
“Honestsly?”
“Got to be optimistic.”
“Since when?”
“Okay you’re bringing me down.”
“That’s my job.”
“I thought you were supposed to make me feel good.”
“No that’s Phil, I’m the one who gets to tell you how it really is.”
“You take a great amount of pleasure doing that, don’t you?”
“I really do.”
“You know friends don’t usually enjoy crushing their fellow friends hopes that much. At least they’re not supposed to.”
“I always thought we had a unique relationship.”
“Unique. That’s certainly one way of describing it.”
“What would be another?”
“Unpleasant.”
“I don’t think our friendship is unpleasant.”
“That’s because you get to do all the fun hope crushing. I’m the one who gets his hopes crushed.”
“Yeah, I do get to do all the fun stuff.” Anna smirked.
They walked on quietly as James considered something. After a moment he spoke. “Seriously though. You do, do a lot for me, listening me to bitch about Mel, giving me advice and cheering me up. What do you get out of being friends with me? I’m miserable most of the time.”
Anna paused to consider this after the playful banter she didn’t want to make a glib response. “You’re there for me whenever I need you as well. Granted you tend to need me a lot more but I kind of like that. Not that I like you being upset but I like being needed. And you’re not always miserable, in fact you’re not miserable that often, just when you see Mel around with another guy, granted that happens rather often but it just feels like it’s worse then it is because we’re here and you cant get away from it.” She finished speaking and patted James arm in a comforting gesture, then almost as an afterthought she added. “You can also be pretty funny on occasion.”
James grinned. “I can be rather hilarious.”
Anna flashed her smile at him “That you can.”
James took in Anna’s brilliant smile and it made his own grin widen. He felt all warm inside, he’d always enjoyed making Anna smile or laugh, she seemed to truly shine when she did and James liked knowing it was him who had caused her to do so.
They continued on again in more silence until they came across a large, open, blue tent set just off the pathway. It had a large group of people surrounding it and loud music blaring from giant speakers. They left the path and wandered closer to see what the tent was for, Anna followed James as he pushed through the crowd of people, when he got to the front he saw two people in giant sumo suits wrestling each other inside a makeshift ring. He laughed as he saw one of them charge the other and trip over himself before he managed to reach his opponent. On the other side of a tent two people were stood on platforms beating each other with a giant fish and a giant sausage trying to knock each other off. James wondered at the rather phallic choice of weapons.
Anna joined James and saw what was going on. She laughed and tugged on James’s sleeve.
“You have to have a go!” She insisted.
James looked down at her. “Really?”
“Yes! Go on!” She excitedly told him.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll get my arse kicked.” James wasn’t enthusiastic
Anna was. “Yeah but it’ll be fun!” She enthused.
“For you. For me it’ll probably hurt.”
“Don’t be a girl, go on!” She teased.
“Easy for you to say.” James grumbled but he turned away and headed towards the queue to play.
Anna smiled as she watched James wander over to the queaue. James’s face bore a somewhat different expression, as she watched him wait she though it was a mix between amusement, grumpiness and being a tad wasted.
When James’s turn came up he stepped forward and attempted to make his way into the giant sumo suit. He failed several times, looking rather like a limp penis trying to put on a condom. As Anna watched on she thought of this as a rather inelegant metaphor but one that was wholly appropriate.
Eventually James struggled into the giant sumo suit and lined up on the mat against his opponent. He stared across the mat and attempted to size up his opponent. Even in his rather drunken state he recognised he was in trouble as soon as he saw him, he was facing a man who, to put it mildly, looked like he wore his own sumo suit under his t-shirt, with the added rubber sumo suit it made a scary and highly comical look. Being the one who had to face him James was more focused on the scary part.
When Anna saw James’s opponent she felt a rather odd combination of emotions, ranging from guilt for making James face him to a kind of sadistic amusement at the thought of what the guy would do to him. Needless to say it would prove to be an interesting bout.
James was racking his brain to think of the best way to get through this, he was too distracted to pay attention to the referee explaining the rules, he’d heard it before anyway, to win either pin or knock your opponent out of the circle, best of three. He had just come to the conclusion that he should probably just run away when the whistle blew. He looked up to see a brick wall charging at him, in his panic he reverted to his primal instincts, he dropped to the floor in a foetal position, well as much of a foetal position as you can get into wearing a sumo suit. This however turned out to be a rather shrewd tactic as the charging wall wearing a sumo suit didn’t have the time or agility to stop before he tripped over James on the floor and fell out of the ring. The whistle blew and James had won the first point, as he looked up a round of cheers and laughs greeted him and he smiled himself. Maybe he could get through this without any pride or humiliation he thought.
The next round proved him wrong.
James scrambled to his feet and got himself in position for round two. As he considered the best strategy to stay alive for this round he glanced up at his opponent. This proved to be a mistake. The look on the brick wall’s face almost made James crap his pants. He had an indescribable look on his face but it was one that clearly expressed he wanted to cause someone considerable pain. Unfortunately it seemed that someone was going to be James. He tried to compose himself but the referee blew his whistle before he had anytime to plan anything. Instead of charging forward this time the brick wall moved forward more cautiously. Not knowing what he should do James just stood still, mesmerised by the look on the wall’s face. Watching from the sidelines Anna saw James frozen in fear as the huge bear of a man slowly approached him. She began to worry for him, if he didn’t begin moving the bear was going to be able to do some pretty painful things. She shouted out James’s name to try and shake him from his reverie. Hearing his name shouted seemed to clear James’s head. He took in the huge wall of a man approaching him and panicked again. His questionable reasoning skills decided that the best course of action would be to charge the huge man, something which must have looked either extremely brave or extremely stupid to those watching. It actually proved to be a pretty good decision as this was the last thing the big man was expecting, he had time for a brief look of surprise at the fact he was being charged before James connected. Without anytime to set himself the force of James’s charge sent the big guy stumbling backwards, the giant sumo suit adding to his balance problems. After several jittery steps the big guy eventually came crashing down to the mat on his back. James, who had somehow managed to keep his feet through all this, saw his opportunity and took it. He took off into the air, clearing a good two feet and landed, splashing down, sumo belly to sumo belly, on the big guy on the floor. As James landed a huge expulsion of breath was pushed from the big man’s body and he didn’t have time to react before the referee blew his whistle signifying the pin. James had two points out of two and had beaten the big brick wall like bear of a man.
James rolled over and began crawling away from his opponent, by the look on his face it didn’t seem wise to remain within arm length of the man. The referee then came over and helped him up and out of the suit, as he finally shrugged the extra weight off he breathed a huge sigh of relief and satisfaction.
He turned and wandered over to Anna who greeted him with a big hug.
“Well done!” She exclaimed. “I can’t believe you beat that guy.”
James tried to play macho, “You know, I got skills.”
Anna just laughed in reply to the statement and took his arm pulling him back onto he path.
“Come on, I’m busting for the loo now.”
“Alright, let’s go.” James replied.
*
“Shit. That’s disgusting.” James was repulsed
“It isn’t pleasant, definitely not fun for us girls.” Anna replied.
“Sure, risk of splinters.”
Anna laughed. “We don’t actually sit on it.”
James thought for a moment, “That must be an awkward manoeuvre.”
“Not as difficult as you might think.”
“What do you do? Stand on it and squat? Or try and go like a man? I imagine the second option would be a little hard to stay in control of whereas the first people will be able to see you from their own stalls… Though I suppose that might hold some appeal to certain types.”
Anna punched James in the arm “I’m not telling you how I pee!”
James grinned, “Why not? You know I do it.”
Anna just punched him again.
James laughed. “Ok.” Then the smile slipped from his face. “Umm…How do we poo? There’s no way I’m letting my arse touch that.” He pointed down at the object they had been staring at for the last five minutes.
They had arrived at the toilets and needless to say James was not impressed. Anna, who had attended the festival the year before, knew what to expect but she took a rather cruel delight in James’s shock and repulsion at the state of the facilities.
The cordoned off toilet facility consisted of eight trenches dug parallel to each other, each with a wooden box over the hole. The box had circular holes cut into it at regular intervals where people were supposed to expel their waste into. Privacy was afforded by open topped metal cubicles with no locks. Not the most pleasant of conditions to do your business in. Making it worse was that several thousand people had already used the toilets and floating in the trenches was a sea of urine and faecal matter. The smell was not good.
James peered into the murky gloom that didn’t do a good enough job at hiding the river of shit below them. “There is no way I’m shitting here.” He stated firmly.
Anna grinned at him. “You better be able to hold it for the next three days then.”
James grunted. “Ok I still need to pee.”
Anna nodded. “Me too.”
The two separated and did their business and then met at the toilet entrance for the walk back to the campsite. Most of the walk back was taken up by talk of the sorry state of the toilets. As they neared their tents Anna felt she let James suffer enough and informed him about the portaloos that were inside the arena. This was a great relief to James who was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to hold in a shit for the next three days.
*
Arriving back at the camp site Anna and James found the drinking and merriment still in full swing. Brian was being his usual boisterous self and was entertaining everyone while Phil sat with Rich and made his usual sly and sarcastic comments to mostly amuse himself more then anyone else.
Weaving their way through the tents Anna and James walked towards the group to sit and join them in the fun. However as they moved past the final tent into their circle Anna noticed James was no longer moving and when she looked back she saw his face was red and his whole body had stiffened. She sighed as she turned to look where James was staring, knowing what she’d see before she actually saw it. Mel was their lying on top of some guy and they hadn’t noticed the return of Anna and James as they were rather engrossed in each other.
Anna walked back to James and put her hand on his arm, trying to comfort him and get his attention away from what he was looking at. Unfortunately it wasn’t that easy.
James couldn’t look away, he knew he should but it was like porn, you know you shouldn’t look at it but you just can’t help yourself. Except unlike porn there was not going to be a happy ending, at least for James. Inside his heart was racing and his stomach was doing somersaults. He always thought he’d be used to this sickeningly painful feeling cascading through his insides by now but each time it felt fresh, like a new knife wound to the stomach.
Phil glanced round and noticed James and Anna standing off by themselves, he could tell by the look on James’s face what was occupying his attention. He sighed as he got to his feet and unsteadily walked over to him.
Taking James’s free arm he pulled him along, away from the sight of Mel and towards Luke, Brian and Rich who were all sitting around having a merry time. As he sat back down, pulling James down with him, he offered some sage advice.
“Just ignore it, dude. It’s fucking shit but don’t let it ruin your night.”
James grimaced. “I just wish it was that easy.”
“Yeah it sucks.” Phil didn’t know what else to say. “Have a beer.” But he thought alcohol couldn’t hurt.
James took the bear and began gulping it down, Anna sat down at his other side and began talking with Brian. James half listened but he wasn’t really interested in what was being said. His mind was occupied with what was going on behind him, somehow it seemed to feel worse knowing it was going on but not being able to see it. His head was filling up with images of all different kinds of erotic things they could be doing to each other, all the possibilities just kept flashing up in front him, taunting him and torturing him The thought crossed his mind that if he just turned round and saw what they were doing to each other then that would be better because it would lay to rest all of the dirty, sickening and downright unhygienic images going through his head.
He decided to try it, reasoning that anything that he saw them doing must be better then what was going in his mind. Holding his breath he glanced over his right shoulder.
He wished he hadn’t.
He couldn’t seem to look away or let out the breath he was holding, he just kept staring at the image that was burning its way into his brain. He new he shouldn’t, he didn’t want to, but he lacked the will power to force himself to stop. After a minute his brain began to recognise the lack of oxygen and he began hyperventilating to compensate. This did however force him to finally look away.
What he saw was Mel lying on top of Mitch, making out, with her hands clearly inside his fly making certain motions while Mitch’s hand was down Mel’s trousers making similar ones. While this was not the worse thing James had imagined, in fact in the scale of what was going through his head it was pretty tame, knowing they were actually being that intimate when that was all he’d wanted for so long was devastatingly worse then the images in his head.
The somersaults his stomach had previously been experiencing now began to fade as a feeling of nausea overcame him, for a moment he almost thought he was going to be physically sick. Clambering to his feet he stumbled away from the fire as quick as his inebriated legs could carry him. He got to the path and collapsed to his knees taking deep breaths in through his nose and out through his mouth, one after the other. In and out, in and out, in and out. Trying to calm his beating heart and clear the sickening feeling in his stomach.
James stayed there on his knees for what seemed like hours but what was really only a couple of minutes. Surprisingly he didn’t really garner that much attention from people walking by, guy’s on their knees looking like they’re about to vomit aren’t a rare sight at a music festival.
Caught up completely in a world of his own misery James didn’t notice Anna approach until she laid a hand on his shoulder. He glanced up and saw her there and offered a strained smile.
“Hey.” She said looking down at him.
“Hello.” James weakly replied
Anna sat down next to her friend and looked at him sideways. “What just happened?”
James shook his head. “I don’t know… I saw what they were doing and I just felt like I was going to be sick.”
“Bit of a strong reaction don’t you think?”
He considered this. “No, I don’t think so. When you love someone watching them fool around with someone else should probably induce a strong reaction.”
To James’s great surprise Anna just laughed in response to this statement.
“What’s so funny? He asked indignantly.
Still chuckling slightly Anna replied. “You’re not in love with her.”
“I’m not?” James was unsure what to say.
“No you’re not.” Anna said, laughter draining from her voice. “Obsessed maybe, infatutated definitely but in love? I don’t think you even know what that is. If you were in love with Mel you wouldn’t be sat here telling me how you’d nearly vomited. You’d be heartbroken after what you just saw; you’d probably be weeping right now, you’d be inconsolable. You’d feel like there was a great weight crushing your chest that you just couldn’t escape from. If you really loved Mel seeing what you just saw would destroy you. Yet here you are, no more then five minutes later, feeling almost normal again, listening to me lecture you on something you’ve never felt. Don’t get me wrong you like Mel a whole lot but you don’t have any conception of what love is yet.”
James had no response to this. He just continued to stare at Anna as she lapsed into silence, confidently holding his stare. What she said had knocked the wind out of him. For the longest time he’d thought he’d been in love with Mel, not just thought, he was absolutely sure of it and yet here was Anna now, seeming more confident then he’d ever felt about anything, telling him he was wrong.
He opened his mouth to try and respond but nothing came out. He just didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what to think or to feel. With one speech Anna had just caused him to question everything he was most positive about.
James shook his head, trying to clear it and sort out what was going on. His blood alcohol level was however working against him now, he was in no condition to try and deal with this level of emotional issues. Wisely giving up on the matter for the time being he stood up and without a word went in search of another beer.
Anna just sat there and watched him leave.
*
Making his way back to the camp fire James encountered Rich, Brian, Phil and Luke heading the other way.
“Hey man, we’re going exploring. Come on.” They said as they passed him.
“But I need beer.” He replied.
Phil held up a six pack. “We got that covered.”
Considering the only thing that would be greeting him back at the camp site James was quickly on board with the exploring idea. He grabbed a beer off Phil and joined the group.
Back on the path they picked up Anna where James had left her and wandered further into Yellow camp site to explore. As they moved on James walked towards the back of the group with Phil.
“So what did you and Anna talk about?” Phil asked.
“Apparently I don’t know what love is.” James replied.
“Sounds like a bad power ballad.”
“Is there such a thing as a good power ballad?”
“Power Ballad Pete would say yes.”
“Who’s Power Ballad Pete?”
“Just this dude who Brian knows.”
“He a big power ballad fan?”
“Not really.”
“So the names ironic?”
“Nope. I just think he likes alliteration.”
“But ‘power’ and ‘ballad’ begin with different letters.”
“I never said he was smart.”
“No I suppose you didn’t.”
The friends lapsed into silence until Phil broke it.
“So Anna said you don’t know what love is?” He asked
James thought back to the conversation, “I’m pretty sure that was the gist.”
“Seems like a bit of a harsh thing to say.”
“Yeah, it threw me off a bit.”
“One would think.”
“Yeah. I thought I loved Mel… Apparently not.”
“Really?”
“Really what? Really I thought I loved her or really I don’t?”
“The first one.”
“Yeah, really. Why wouldn’t I think that? And why are people always surprised when I tell them that?”
“I don’t know, I mean I knew you were obsessed with her and all, anyone who’s in a room with you and here for more then ten seconds knows but love? It just feels so Taking Back Sunday.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“Melodramatic.”
“Why melodramatic?”
“I guess it’s just you’ve been obsessed with her since you met her, which is fine. Kind of. But you’ve never really spoken to her, I mean she’s a member of the crew and everything but you and her never talk or see each other unless everyone else is around.”
“So? Like you said I’ve liked her since I met her. You know I can’t talk to girls I like.”
“That’s why you can’t be in love with her.”
“Why?”
“Because you can’t and haven’t talked to her! I mean Cunt-rag and I were together for a while and she fucked me up for a year but I’m pretty positive that I wasn’t in love. At least I hope I wasn’t. If she was my first love I’m gonna be seriously pissed… I’m forgetting my point. You need to know the girl you love, you can’t just worship from afar. Well you can, but that isn’t love.”
“So if this aint love then what the fuck is it?”
“Like I fucking know. Just look at my last fucking cunt-rag of a girl friend.”
“And that wasn’t love?”
“Nope.”
“Because you seem rather bitter about it.”
“Nah I’m over it now.”
“Haven’t we already been over this today?”
“Shut up.”
“I’m just saying.”
“I said shut up.”
As they lapsed into silence they began to hear the noise that was coming from up ahead. In front of them the rest of the group were already talking and pointing about it but from the back Phil and James couldn’t quite see. It didn’t take long, however, for the group to arrive on the scene and find out what the loud shouting was.
At the side of the path, sitting comfortably in camping chairs in the centre of a circle of tents was a large group of friends, all outrageously under the influence, drinking and smoking and shouting “Waaaay!” at anyone who passed by.
This seemed to get either one of two responses from the passers by, either they’d shout “Waay!” back with some sort of thumbs up gesture or, if the person wasn’t drunk enough yet, they would be stoically ignored by someone determined not to recognise their existence. The latter of these seemed to amuse the group greatly as they would all giggle like only those who have had way too much of something know how to.
Thinking this group looked filled with suitably interesting people Brian led his own band of merriment seekers to meet them. As they approached they were greeted with a “Waay!” of their own, to which Brian responded in his own robust and unintelligible manner.
After arriving and exchanging greetings the friends split off into smaller groups to talk to some of the different people they were meeting. James ended up with Luke talking to a guy who was raving about the Lost Prophets. He quickly lost interest.
Glancing around to find something else to occupy his attention James’s eyes settled on Phil who was chatting with a few of guys who were passing round some kind of joint. When one of them offered it to Phil he took it and looked at it for a moment before giving a shrug which clearly expressed a feeling of “Why the fuck not?” and took a long drag off it. He took a couple more before passing the joint back and it began to circulate again in the other direction.
As Phil began to talk to the guys again James’s interest began to wane and he began looking around to his other friends to occupy his attention. His attention was brought back to Phil’s group however when one of the guys who’d been smoking the joint fell out of his chair.
James’s grew more interested when he saw the guy push away a friend who had gotten up to see if he was ok. The guy started yelling things that didn’t really make any sense and he quickly became the centre of attention.
James wandered over to Phil and asked. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not quite sure.” Phil responded
“It’s nothing, he’s just having a bad trip.” The guy Phil had been talking to, who was called Kyle, informed them as they watched the guy begin to freak out even more.
“A bad trip? Off weed?” Phil questioned.
Kyle laughed. “That aint weed man, it’s acid.”
“Acid? In a joint?” Phil asked.
“Purple haze, man.”
“Really? Fuck, I thought it was weed.”
“You never done acid before?”
“No.”
“Well you’re in for a treat.” Kyle chuckled.
As Kyle said this the guy who was ‘having a bad trip’ began to scream at his friend and chasing after him.
“You think you’re going to take me? I’m going to rip your fucking nipples off!” He yelled.
“Whoa, calm down dude.” His friend laughed while trying to avoid him.
“Fucking death, thinks he can fucking take anyone he fucking wants, I’ll fucking nut him!”
His friend laughed again while trying to stay away from him, they began moving off away from the tents as the guy who was tripping chased his friend.
“Shit. That’s a bit fucked up.” James chuckled..
“Nah, its classic stuff.” Kyle laughed as he watched them in the distance.
“So I’m in for that too?” Phil asked, sounding a little worried.
“Something like probably.” Kyle responded
James looked at Phil. “Should be an interesting night.”
“Yeah… I think I’m going to head back now.”
“Yeah, probably a good idea. I’ll come with.”
They said they goodbyes and then headed off, Anna and Luke decided to join them while Rich and Brian stayed behind still talking with their new friends. As they walked back James discussed the bands they were planning on seeing the next day with Anna and Luke.
“I’m looking forward to seeing Brand New, I think they’re second on the main stage so going to have to queue early to get in.” Luke said.
“Yeah that big queue’s always a bitch.” Anna replied.
Luke asked. “Who you looking forward to seeing, J?”
“Hell Is For Heroes should be pretty awesome and I wanna catch Nine Days too,” James turned to Anna. “You still up for coming to see them?”
“Definitely.” Anna replied, “You know I can’t resist some crappy emo.” She finished grinning.
“Don’t think I’ll join you for them.” Luke added
“Why not? You know you love the emotional music.” James teased.
Luke chuckled. “Of course. Can’t get enough. Nothing like listening to bitchy guys with high voices wine.”
“You know, I think you have a rather one sided view of emo.” James suggested thoughtfully.
“Yeah and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.” Luke responded.
“Hmm, me either.” James agreed.
They continued talking as they walked but as they neared their tents a disturbance behind them attracted their attention. They looked back to see what was going on and when they did they got the impression that Phil wasn’t doing too well.
What gave them that impression was that Phil was muttering to himself while looking about sharply, every so often he would duck or dodge out of the way of something invisible to everyone else and, occasionally, he would perform a combat roll for no apparent reason. As he watched his friend talk to himself about being attacked by flying tangerine coloured llamas James thought that they’re might just be something wrong.
He walked up to Phil and put his hand on his shoulder.
“Hey man, you ok?”
Phil stopped dodging for a second to look at James. “Umm, I don’t think so.”
“Yeah, maybe you should go lie down in the tent for a bit.” James suggested.
“That might be a good idea.” Phil nodded his head and set off in the direction of their tent, ducking and dodging the whole way.
“That must have been some messed up stuff he smoked.” Anna stated as they watched him enter the tent.
“Yeah, remind me to stay away from purple haze. Or anything some random guy offers me for free.” James responded.
“That’s probably a good life lesson to have learned.” Luke quipped.
“Yeah, I guess so.” James said as he entered their circle of tents again and sat down.
Anna sat next to him but Luke remained standing.
“Alright guys, I think I’m going to crash too.”
“Alright man, g’night.” James said
“Yeah goodnight.” Anna added.
Luke waved as he climbed into his tent to go to sleep.
This left Anna and James sitting by the final embers of the campfire, in the tent circle alone. As James looked around he deduced that Mel and her guy must have wandered off or into a tent sometime earlier. He didn’t want to let his mind consider either of those options.
Looking back at Anna he remembered the last conversation he had with her and quickly looked away again. All of a sudden he couldn’t think of anything to say to her. He’d forgotten about it for a while but what she said to him had hurt him and confused him. He still had no idea what to think about the whole thing so he again wisely decided to stay silent.
He glanced over at her again and saw that she seemed to be having a similar problem. Anna was staring down at the grass, her hands playing with an empty beer can. James remembered that they had a word to describe situations like this, awkward.
He racked his brain searching for something to say to lessen the uncomfortable feeling between them. Anna beat him to it, however what she said didn’t exactly lessen the tension.
“So…. This is awkward.”
James expelled a large breath, almost a laugh. “Yeah, a little.”
“I’m sorry about what I said.” Anna apologised.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
They lapsed into silence again, the awkward feeling still present. The moment dragged on with the awkward silence just growing longer and longer, neither of them knew what to say to break it. The longer the silence dragged on the more James feared to say anything, it felt like the silence was taking on a life of its own.
Fortunately for both of them it was at this point that Brian and Rich stumbled back into camp. Brian was laughing outrageously loud in that way of his while Rich had his usual jolly grin on his face and seemed barely able to stand.
“Ha hey!” Brian yelled as he noticed James and Anna sat together by the now dead fire.
“Alright dude.” James half laughed in relief, with Brian’s arrival the tension had been at least momentarily lifted.
Brian stuttered over to James and lent over, placing a hand on James’s shoulder to steady himself, and got his face as close to James’s as he could without tipping over.
“Hi.” He said.
“Hello again.” James laughed in response.
“How are you, James?” Brian asked with drunken sincerity.
“I’m not bad, how are you Brian?” James replied.
“In all honestly, James. My friend. Honestly, I’d say I’m a little drunk.”
“Just a little?”
Brian held up his other hand in front of James’s face and measured out a small distance between his thumb and forefinger. “A wee bit, yes.”
James laughed. “Ok then.”
“I don’t know what to do now.” Brian told James matter of factly.
“Maybe you should go lie down” James suggested.
“Now that’s a good idea. I could use a lie down.” Brian straightened up again, but he moved too quickly and stumbled back a few paces trying to keep his balance. He turned away from James and Anna and stumbled away towards the tents muttering to himself.
“Woah. Ok Where’s my tent. Ah, this one will do. Gah, c’mon. Fucking zip! Aha! Mmm, sleeping bag. Ugh.” He fell silent as James and Anna chuckled at his antics.
“That wasn’t his tent was it?” Anna asked.
“No… I don’t know whose tent that is.” James responded.
Anna laughed. “Someone’s in for a surprise.”
James chuckled himself. “Not a pleasant one either.”
“Well depends, a nice girl might like to find a Brian in their tent.” Anna suggested.
James laughed at the idea. “In that condition I doubt it.”
“Yeah you’re probably right… What happened to Rich?”
James looked around but couldn’t see him. “I don’t know.” He made motions to stand up to find him but before he got to his feet he saw him passed out by the side of a tent. “Ah, he’s sleeping over there.” He said pointing Rich out to Anna.
“Ah he’s ok then.”
“Shouldn’t we maybe move him inside?” James asked.
“Nah, he hates it in tents, he’d just come and sleep outside anyway.” Anna explained to him.
James laughed. “Ok then, I did not know that.”
“You learn something knew every day.”
“I suppose so.” James said looking Anna in the eye for the first time since they’re talk earlier. With that look all the awkwardness came back into the situation and they both quickly looked away again.
“Ok… It just got weird again quickly.” James tried to break the tension before it could get too bad.
“Yeah. It’s weird, was alright until a minute ago.” Anna replied.
“Why does it feel so weird now?” James asked Anna.
“I don’t know. I think it’s what I said earlier.” She responded.
“Yeah.” James said and then paused for a moment. “You know, I’m still feeling too tipsy to really think about it but what you said really messed me up.”
“I’m sorry about that. But I told you before, I tell you what I think you have to hear.” Anna explained.
“Not such a fun job anymore is it.”
Anna responded quietly. “No. It isn’t.”
They were silent again for a moment before James broke it again.
“Ok. I have an idea.” He stated.
“What is it?” Anna asked looking at him.
“What if we just forget what you said? Ignore it. I’m too fucked to think about it right now anyway, we can just deal with it later.” James suggested.
Anna thought for a moment. “I like it.” She said grinning.
“Yeah? James asked
Anna nodded.
“Ok then!” James announced. “Settled. So what do we talk about now?”
“Hmm.” Anna pretended to think hard. “How about Phil getting fucked on purple haze? Or Brian saying something scarily profound? Or you being too scared to dump in the toilets?” She finally suggested laughing.
“Yeah.” James laughed in response at they continued to talk. All the strange awkwardness now seemed, at least temporarily, dispersed.
The two friends stayed up talking most of the rest of the night, going over the events of the day and what they planned on doing tomorrow. They both enjoyed the feeling of having the easy manner they were used to back between them. They talked and laughed and joked as best friends do, until they noticed the sky beginning to lighten As the sun began its lazy journey to rise they both said goodnight and crawled into their separate tents to each get at least some semblance of sleep.