You're An Ass. But You're Also Sorta Cute. I Hate That.

I swallowed and got out of my car. Locking it as I walked away, Colin and Bradley caught up to me. “So, I guess a Happy Birthday is in order Lillie.” I smiled awkwardly at Colin.

“Yeah I guess. Except technically my birthday isn’t until tomorrow.” Colin grinned.

“Ah. Very true.” He grinned. “I can’t believe we didn’t know it was your birthday. That’s crazy. We’ve known you for three years.” I smiled faintly.

“I know. But I don’t like my birthday all that much. They always made a massive fuss at home.” Colin went silent, looking at me and Bradley out of the corner of his eye. I almost grinned. He was so predictable.

“You two are being very quiet. You’re normally attempting to bash each other’s head in.” Me and Bradley looked at each other, then looked away. I shrugged.

“I’m tired.”

“Yeah. Me too.” He answered softly, using the same low voice he had before. A small shiver ran up my spine. I shook my head. Sometimes I was extremely annoying, even to myself.

“Hey Lillie. Colin. Bradley. Great to see you two out of set. We don’t spend enough time together anymore.” Josh, he came at us from the side, I could see his car parked on the side of the road. I was about to point out he was going to get a ticket if he parked there, then I remembered it was evening. Doubtful any traffic guys would be out tonight.

“Nice to see you too Co.” I grinned. Co. It was Josh’s nickname, after his job. Camera operator, or c.o, or Co. It had always made me laugh, especially when it came from Colin. ‘Cause Josh called Colin Co sometimes, though that was on account of his name.

“So, meal, then alcohol. Yeah?” I nodded. “Then I figured we could all go back to mine. Though I wasn’t expecting you two along, but you’re welcome all the same.” I sighed.

“Josh. We’ve all got to be on location by seven. Is it really wise for you to have one of your ‘sleepovers’?” He sighed.

“I guess not. Ah well. Worth a shot anyway.” I shook my head at him. I caught Bradley’s eye accidentally. He grinned and looked at his shoes, I smiled and looked at Colin. He was looking at me with a questioning look on his face. I cleared my throat and looked away. Josh jumped ahead of us and opened the door for me, leaving the boys to let themselves through and following me through. I smiled and shook my head. Josh, so predictable. Katy and Craig were already sat together looking very cushy in a corner seat. Me and Josh instantly looked at each other and made a face. We laughed simultaneously and sat down on either side of them.

“Hey babe. Happy birthday.” Katy twisted in her seat to give me a hug.

“Thanks Katy.”

“Hey boys, didn’t know you were coming.” Katy raised her eyebrows almost imperceptibly at me. She knew the history between me and Colin, although not of my newly realised… issues with Bradley.

“Yeah. Lillie invited us.” Colin said as he slipped in beside Josh and Craig.

“Oh did she indeed.” She did the same thing again. I almost burst out laughing, there was nothing better than girlfriends for figuring stuff out.

“I’ll get us some drinks. What do you three want?” Bradley directed this at Craig, Katy and Josh, of course he already knew what me and Colin wanted. He always knew what me and Colin wanted. I frowned. How did I miss that?

“Beer.”

“Beer.”

“Smirnoff.”

“Alright, back in a minute.” He disappeared. Katy took the opportunity to push me out of the booth.

“Come on, toilet.” I sighed.

“I only just got here Katy.” She smiled evilly at me.

“Yes, but I need the toilet.” I rolled my eyes and followed her through the people. I waited in the outside bit of the toilet while she peed. “So. Tell all.” I coughed.

“Specify Katykins.”

“Oh come on. You say no for three years and you suddenly say yes? What changed? Why did you invite Bradley?” I sighed and looked at my feet again, it was a habit I was getting used to rather quickly.

“I dunno. I guess I just thought I’d try it. He’s a nice guy.” She made a face in the mirror, she was re-applying her lipstick. “What’s with Craig?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh come on. You were totally cuddling up before we got there.” She smiled in the mirror, then at me. Katy shrugged.

“He’s cute. And good at what he does. And he asked me out.” The last bit ended in a squeal. I laughed.

“Oh Katy I am pleased. Hope it works out for you,”

“Ditto.” We smiled at each other. We knew each other way too well. She had been the first person I had met when joining the Shine crew, other than the guy who had interviewed me. Funnily enough I hadn’t seen him again.

When me and Katy returned to the booth, Bradley had returned with a tray full of bottles of various size and shape. He got out to let me and Katy in, so we slid into place, taking our relative bottles as we went past the tray.

We chatted about regular stuff while waited for the food, how long it had taken Johnny to get the lighting right, how Betty on catering had fallen and broken her ankle, how Tomas in France had got a new horse. We chatted oevr the food, with Katy, Craig and Colin getting slowly moer pissed as the night went on.

I stood up, memorised the drinks quickly. “My round guys. Any changes?” Everyone shook their head, so I slid past Bradley and went to the bar. I got served quickly, probably because of the amount of money we were bringing in. The pub wasn’t exactly heaving. While I was waiting for the drinks, Colin appeared on my left hand side. I sighed, sooner or later.

“What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Yeah that’s what he said.” He studied me for a moment. “Whatever the hell ‘nothing’ is, it’s certainly affected you both quickly profoundly. You’ve hardly looked at each other all night but for the occasional exchange of grin.” I bit my lip.

“Nothing happened Colin.”

“You told him.” I looked at him. Cleared my throat and looked away.

“Yeah.” Colin nodded.

“Figured. He keeps looking at me weird.” I smiled at the bar guy, as he put the last drink on my tray. Colin walked back with me. He grabbed my arm, just before we came into sight of the booth. “Are you guys going to try it? Try being together?” I shrugged casually. A hard thing to do when you have six heavy drinks balanced on a thin tray. I moved away from him, into line of sight of the booth. Craig and Katy were gone.

“Where?” Josh grinned excitedly.

“Back to Craig’s.” We exchanged another look, then burst out laughing. “Good for Craig. Katy’s hot.”

“Yeah well. I’ve just paid for drinks no one is going to drink.” I smiled. “Good for Katy though. She’s liked him for a while I think.” Josh grinned and downed his pint in one. Colin quickly followed suit, then started on Craig’s abandoned drink. I suddenly realised we didn’t have a designated driver. Bradley was obviously thinking along the same lines.

“I’ll take Colin back. You take Josh.” He looked at me. “We’re probably most sober.” I smiled.

“Yeah.” Bradley gestured to Colin to follow him, I watched them go, laughed as Colin almost fell out of the door and Bradley had to catch his arm. It was lucky Colin was a thin strip of Irish meat. Colin would’ve had a hard time if it was the other way round. Bradley was a lot heavier than him. But it was muscle. Nice muscle… I cleared my throat and looked back at Josh, who had promptly fallen asleep. I sighed at him. He always did this. Fell asleep in public places. He fell asleep on the train once. He was lucky I was there, he would’ve been all the way to London otherwise. I flicked him on the nose. “Get up sleep-face.” He stirred for long enough for me to get him into the passenger seat of my car, then he fell back to sleep again. I searched around in his pockets for his car keys, I would have to move his car from the sidewalk or he’d get a ticket in the morning.

After moving his car I drove him back to his place, helping him in was easier than I expected because his brother was awake. Turns out he works 5 til 11. Who knew.

Then I drove home, parked my car neatly back where it had started the night, in the corner of my block’s car park. I closed my eyes and rested my head against the headrest. My eyes suddenly shot open, I thrust my hands in my dress pocket. No key. I sighed. Flared the engine back to life again. Minutes later I was back at the pub, checking the bathroom and the booth where we had been sat. Nothing. No sign. Asked the bar guy if he’d seen anything. Said he hadn’t.

I sighed. I think I kind of knew where they were anyway. Wasn’t really expecting them to be at the pub.

As if my life would be that simple.