Junk - Melvin Burgess [34]
Tar was there too right next to me, jumping about. He goes ape sometimes. He was leaping up and down, up and down, his black hair was flopping about in his eyes and he was grinning like a maniac. It went on and on. The band just finished one number then went straight into the next. The sound system was howling and screeching but no one cared. Then there was a smoochy number and honestly… there were couples I swear were actually… you know. Me and Tar slammed into each other and started trying to stick our tongues down one another’s throats. He licked me all over my face. Then the band played fast again and we went on and on and on…
We’d stumbled on this real punk den more or less by accident. You could tell the girls who were the real punks. They looked like absolute slags. They didn’t care about anything. I felt completely over-dressed. When I had to go to the loo I found a hole in my new tights so I ripped it open and made another hole and ripped that open so my white skin showed in big holes in my black tights. I ripped my new little skirt at the front and tried to tear a hole in the T-shirt but I couldn’t do it, the material was too strong. So I just undid the laces halfway down and rushed back out and started jumping about.
I couldn’t see Tar any more but that didn’t matter. I pushed my way right up into the crush in front of the stage and pogoed up and down and started spitting at the singer with all the others. It was great but it was so hot and hard up there you couldn’t stay for long. By this time there were people climbing up on the stage next to the singer and the crowd was so packed there they could run off the stage and right across the crowd, walking on their heads. Some of them got maybe ten, twelve steps before the crowd got too thin, or they’d trip up and fall back into the people. Someone trod on my ear.
When I needed a bit more space I went back and started dancing there. I was dancing and dancing and dancing. I caught sight of Tar bouncing away like an idiot. We banged into each other and danced next to one another for a bit. Then he had to go and get a drink and cool off but I carried on. And on and on and on and on.
People kept coming up and asking me to dance. I danced with them, then I lost them. There was one guy asked me if I wanted a drink. I said yes, and he went off to get the drinks. I stood and waited a bit but that music – the band started up this number that was so good so I just ran off into the crowd and started dancing again and I forgot all about him and his drink and everything…
I didn’t see him for about half an hour. I danced with a few other people. At one point Tar came up and said he’d had enough, he was going home.
‘See you later, then,’ I told him. I just grinned. He sort of hovered about.
‘I can’t go without you,’ he said, looking peeved.
‘Wait for me then,’ I told him and I bounced off.
I wasn’t going to leave, why should I? He could see that. But about ten minutes later he came up and wanted to go again and I thought, What a pain. I didn’t say anything though. I saw him leaning against the bar looking miserable and I thought, Oh, yeah? I mean, I’d done it all for him – dressed up, gone to the bop. I still had my present in my bag and there he was mooing about looking like his dad had just whacked him one. But I wasn’t his dad. I thought, Sod you, and carried on dancing. I wasn’t going to stop, not for him, not for you, not for anyone.
Then after a bit this guy I’d been dancing with turned up with my drink. He stood there in this horrible pair of thin black jeans and a safety pin in his nose. He looked like he’d been awake for about ten years. He looked like he’d been bleached and then left under the wardrobe.
‘Have you been carrying that around all this time?’ I laughed.
He laughed at himself and nodded. ‘I’ve spilt half of it,’ he said. I thought, Well, you’re keen. But he wasn’t pushy, he didn’t mind me doing my own thing. I drank the beer straight down and we set off on the dance floor again. He was a brilliant dancer, we were spinning around all