Loud Like Love

Chapter Five: Happy You're Gone

Dave was not exactly hungover when he woke up the next day, but he felt very tired and just a little bit shaky. Matt, however, was in a right state, and vomited twice before he was able to give the others a hand with the cleaning effort. Even then, he whined and moaned and was demonstratively unwell, until Alan agreed to take him home, rolling his eyes.

'You're an idiot,' he told Matt, helping him on with his jacket. 'You know you get like this, and still you get yourself arsefaced.'

'I'm never drinking again,' Matt mumbled, leaning on his boyfriend. 'At least not until next weekend . . .'

Alan chuckled and shook his head. 'You're hopeless. Come on, then. Let's get you home and to bed.'

'Mm, bed sounds nice. Will you join me in my bed? You always take such good care of me.'

'Well, someone has to.'

'It's 'cause you love me,' said Matt decisively, and Alan blushed, glancing at Dave, who couldn't help but smile.

'You two deserve each other,' he said. 'And I mean that in the nicest of ways. Now, bugger off so Mellie and I can finish cleaning before my parents get home. Oh, and . . .' He handed Alan a bin bag full of empty bottles and cans. 'Drop this off on the way, would you?'

As he and Mellie returned to their cleaning, another text from Patrick rolled in on Dave's phone.

Patrick: Morning, birthday boy. Feeling okay? x

He typed a reply.

Dave: Better than I deserve. You?

He filled another bin bag with pizza boxes, paper plates, and plastic cups while he waited for the reply. It arrived fairly quickly.

Patrick: Didn't actually get that drunk last night. Feeling pretty good. Thinking about you.

Dave: That so? Any particular thoughts?

Patrick: Wouldn't you like to know? Might tell you on Monday, if we get a moment to ourselves.

Dave blushed.

Dave: Better make sure we do, then.

'That Patrick you're texting with?' asked Mellie, grinning.

'Yup.'

'Are they sexy texts?'

'You know, for my cousin, you're taking an unhealthy interest in my sex life.' Dave smirked at her, and Mellie blushed just a little bit.

'Not your sex life . . . Just your love life.' She turned away and continued sweeping the kitchen floor.

Dave's phone buzzed again.

Patrick: Oh, we will. I need to kiss you a lot more. xx

All that day, Dave did not spare Nick a single thought, and when he went to bed that night, alone in his room once again, he brought himself off to thoughts of Patrick.

* * *

'So, I had an idea for The Break-Up Song,' said Stuart as he walked into the rehearsal room Tuesday afternoon. Out of his bag he pulled his laptop, a synth pad, and a small keyboard.

Matt groaned. 'Et tu, Brute?' He was famously not a fan of synths in rock music.

'It needs a bigger sound,' Stuart argued. 'So, we make an electronic drum track, and I can play around with these to add some body. Thinking something a bit noisy and distorted, run it through a delay, maybe . . . Would be even cooler to have an analogue tape delay or something, get a proper feedback loop going, but those are hard to come by.'