31 Falkner Street (7)

I was at the Big House, a gay pub on a dodgy alleyway which I had never before seen despite having traipsed round the city centre hundreds of times, drunk or not. We were all drinking trebles, which had cost us a quid each. In actual fact, had cost me a quid for each drink because it was my round. Looking around the tiny little pub, there was a lot of older men with younger boys to be seen. There were a few much older men with white beards and walking sticks. I had never been to a gay pub before, had never even heard of the concept. Obviously I knew of and had been to gay clubs, but a pub all hidden away for middle aged to older men and women who wanted a quiet drink? I quite liked the idea of it, but in reality it was bloody rough. I put that down to Jo's choice of drinking place. Drama drama drama.

She was so at ease, sitting at the head of the tiny booth, taking up all the space with her massive rear. She was gay, most of us weren't. She could be loud whilst we needed to be inconspicious, with the regulars already shooting daggers at those of us who were clearly straight. In the gay quarter, Jo was a king. I couldn't get over the amount of young, pretty little girls who had given her the once over, and older, larger women who had asked for her number. She had given her number to a 21 year old girl earlier who had already left her a drunk voice message on her mobile. However, when we had walked past the main clubs a girl had smaned to her friend as we passed.
'Oh my god, what is that? Is it a man or a woman?' Jo had screamed at the girl and gone for her, and she had ran across the main city centre road to escape, only narrowly avoiding getting run over by a number of buses and taxis. Jo usually insisted that we catch a taxi from directly outside one pub or club to another on account of her heart. Three past heart attacks apparently, in case you're wondering. But her heart problems didn't stop her dancing and jiving along to Rock DJ when she was up on the karaoke.

We had a new member with us tonight. One half of a lesbian couple who lived all the way down the end of the road at number 3. They had lived on the street for a few months longer than me but according to them had always wanted to join in but didn't know to how ask. Kath was with us tonight, Ella was at home because she had agoraphobia. Paddy was here too. Anna and Ian didn't venture into the town centre and Les wouldn't come out to a gay bar because according to Jo he was a homophobe. How did that work then?

Ella had a similar style to Jo. But with her gelled and spikey hair, caps, and t-shirts with stripy vests over them she reminded me in some way of a little boy. I thought that this was in some part to do with her vulnerability, innocence and eager nature. I suspected that she may have some level of learning difficulty. Kath was her girlfriend, and had shoulder-length hair dyed red, glasses, was of a similar weight to Jo and wore ladies clothes and make up. She and Jo fancied each other, I could tell. Jo was wearing her 'going out' clothes. This consisted of a dark blue fleece and nylon pants with lace up doc martens. The pants were a bit shiny looking. And she had gelled her hair and put aftershave on. I suspected that she and Kath were holding hands under the pub table. Because I could see them doing it, but obviously they were attempting to be furtive. Ah, poor Ella. She had been really keen for Kath to go on a night out, and had told her how gorgeous she looked and to have a good time.

There was something I didn't like about Kath. Maybe it was the way that Ella said that she didn't drink anymore whilst looking sheepishly at Kath, who had been sat in Jo's as well drinking brandy. Or maybe it was the way that Ella appeared to be an outgoing and friendly person who seemed to be made up to come and sit in Jo's house with new people, but couldn't come out because she was agoraphobic. It might have been down to the fact that Kath had smashed a glass across the back of Ella's head in Jo's the night before and Anna had had to pick the tiny slivers of glass out of Ella's head after Jo had used her clippers to shave Ella's spikes. I hadn't been there, I had commented on Ella's new skinhead and been told what had happened. Ella said it was her fault because she had been talking about something that she shouldn't have. What a cliche.

I had had a bit too much to drink, what with taking advantage of the trebles. My phone beeped with another abusive text message from my ex. Piss off, will you! However, being a bit sloshed I took it to heart more than I would have usually and informed the table angrily about these messages. Standard messages you would expect from a 19 year old boy with already budding and sprouting control issues really. Paddy whisked the phone off me, typed in 'you are a cunt. Paddy' and told me that he would keep hold of the phone for the rest of the night because he didn't want me to get upset again. Oh. I couldn't decide whether I liked that or not. I fathomed that actually, I did. He was being nice to me and trying to protect me from being upset. Come to think of it, he was nice looking as well, although I was aware he'd been around a bit from the snipes Jo constantly made towards him. IE: 'Paddy, you slag.' You see what I mean? I balanced this with the fact that I didn't like his shirt. It had little pretend badges on it and looked silly. I had also seen his house once when I had been playing cards with Stacey and Nina on the pavement, and had lost and had to top up their drinks (cider was the only thing in their cupboards, with the exception of some peppercorns, bay leaves and garlic cloves. Well, someone must be a cook, I thought). The house was absolutely minging. It looked to be inhabited by squatters, and the patchy polka-dotted walls were awful. He hadn't looked the type to have polka-dotted walls.

Kath was very quiet later as Jo and Paddy dueted to 'Don't let the sun go down on me'. In another club, she and Jo whispered to each other a lot and went out for cigarettes. Then as the night wore on, there was a lot of Kath walking to the toilet looking upset with Jo following her shouting 'Kath, Kath'. I was a sucker for a bit of drama and was fascinated by what they were up to.

Kath was laughing and singing along with us on the taxi ride home, but her face darkened when she saw Ella waving and smiling. She was sitting out on the pavement with Les, Anna and Ian and they all looked in good spirits. It wasn't long before it kicked off.

Jo threw a vase of flowers out of her living room onto the road. The shards of the vase very narrowly missed my car. Wouldn't have mattered too much anyway, my car was dotted all over with dents from BB gun fights in the road which they had refused to have a bit further down the road. The hubcaps were also long gone, and the rubber from my windscreen wipers had been pulled off.

Kath was up in Ella's face, finger pointing and shouting. Something along the lines of 'I will not let you control me any more' although I was pretty pissed so couldn't tell you accurately. Ella was stood motionless with tears running down her face. She reminded me of a tiny puppy that was being smacked, and none of us stepped in. After all, there was no hitting or hair pulling. Not that Ella had any hair to pull after yesterday's incident. Kath stormed (or waddled) back to their house while Jo leant on my car bonnet, head in her hands, considerably calmer. I stood with Emma, and comforted her along with Anna and Ian. Anna said 'It's Rose the second'.
'Who's Rose?' I asked.
'Jo's last girlfriend. Before this one in jail I mean. She was a psycho.'
'The one with all the facial hair who wouldn't let Jo put her hands down there?'
'No. That was Janet.'
'Oh.'

Emma went to stay with a friend that night. Anna and Ian went to bed. Les had said 'fuck this, I'm going to bed' as soon as the drama had begun, and now I was going to bed. Just after having a drunken kiss with Paddy, who was probably going to tell everyone and laugh about it. And then they would call me another one of his student conquests, probably.