Closer // Graham Coxon

happy birthday - continuation

-

you squinted your eyes at the letters batting against the red & golden colour menu that weaved into each other, they became unclear & jumbled. you took your gaze off the menu & stared ahead of you. graham skimmed thru the menu with a happy face on, he even called the waiter to you two's table.

you felt the weight of your mistakes on your shoulders. the realisation creeped up on you. you had no job, you got fired from the arcade & you refused andre. it sunk in. graham on the other hand was blissfully unaware & in party mode.

"what would you like to have sir?" the waiter asked him first since you looked preoccupied with something.

"whatever she's having!" graham replied & looked at you.

you didn't hear him amidst the loud sound of your own panicked thoughts.

"y/n!" he called for you.

"what would you like miss?" the waiter called for you too.

"my- job." you mumbled.

"what?" graham was flabbergasted.

you picked up your bag, "my job- i need to go back-" 

you stood up & made your way to the exit door in a hurry. graham shared an awkward look with the waiter before following you out, "what happened?" he held onto your arm as thunder struck. the sky was a tint of dark black.

"i need to go-" you broke it off & walked away.

"but it's going to rain!" was the last thing you heard from him. 

down the road which led back to the arcade, you walked & walked. you wrapped your arms around your torso to keep warm. the weather was on the verge of becoming chaotic & messy. you made your way to the arcade as fast as possible.

andre was definately not going to offer you that job again. it was a once in a lifetime offer that you lost. you would now have to beg kate to take you back & there was she was! closing up & going home.

her eyes landed on you, "get out of here y/n, you're not welcome here." she said firmly.

you just stood there & froze while trying to process things. she gave you a look then walked by you after closing the arcade. hearing her saying that sent you down a bit of a spiral. 

your head was filled with questions like why'd i even come back? how'd i end up at a state where i have to not ask but beg that rude woman for help? then it started to rain inevitably. 

-

the cold, transparent glass of the window embosomed against his face as graham sat by it & watched the heavy rain drops grace the window & fall into little unstructured patterns. the town looked blurry due to the blinding rain. he thought of how everything had gone from perfect to gloomy in such little time. 

your birthday was left unfinished at a sour note, he wasn't succeeding at his challenge because he hadn't wrote a single song, he felt the slight effects of a hangover crashing in & now it was raining. nothing was going according to plan. his day had drizzled down & mellowed up in the form of rain droplets.

then he heard his landline buzzing & adding noise to his otherwise quiet living room. he went towards & picked it up. he guessed it was damon & he was right.

"graham tomorrow's your flight come back to london & we'll sort everything out." damon said sternly. it was usually his style of apologising.

"i'm not coming back damon. at least not tomorrow." graham didn't accept it. his priority was to stay there with you longer but he was also rebeling against damon in a way.