The Sea Wasn't The Only Thing That Changed

“Um, Hi?” The guy in the beanie said looking the two of us up and down. “Sorry, we must have the wrong apartment, sorry,” Grace said awkwardly, jabbing me in the rib with her elbow. “We’re just going to-
“FUCK!” said another guy walking towards the door. “I am so sorry, I completely forgot about meeting you two for interviews, fuck, I’m such an idiot.”
“Oh, so you’re Matt O’Grady?” I said pointing at the shorter guy.
“The one and only”, he said with a charming grin.
“And this is Josh, the lead singer of the band”, he said quickly. Josh smiled exposing his perfect teeth.
“G’day ladies”, he said with a terrible, and obviously put on Australian accent, as he shook both of our hands.
“I’m Kaitlyn, and this is Grace”, I said motioning towards Grace with my hands,
“Do you want us….to come back later, you guys seem…” Grace started, looking around Josh and Matt to the inside of the apartment, which was filled with trashy girls and equally as desperate guys, “… busy.” She finished.
“Nonsense! Come in ladies, come in, come in!” Josh exclaimed, moving aside, ushering us through the door.
“Welcome to Chateau Di You Me At Six.”

Grace and I looked at each other knowing what was on each other’s minds, as we reluctantly walked into the already crowded apartment.
“Fuck me”, I said looking around taking how many people were already drunk at 7:30 on a Friday evening. Grace laughed following Matt over to a couch pulling me with her.
“This, is the rest of the gang” he said, sticking a thumb in the direction of four rather good-looking guys.
“Hey”, they all said awkwardly, and Grace and I returned the favour. I noticed Grace eyeing of one of the boys, as he was doing the same, and had to control myself from laughing.

Suddenly, there was this body attached to us, squeezing us into their chest whilst screaming, “AUSTRALIANS!” in a high pitched voice.
When the person released us he introduced himself excitedly as Max, one of the guitarists.
“Can you say g’day for us?” Max said with an cheeky look on his face. Grace and I gave each other a funny look as we said it as if it wasn’t something to be so fond of. Once Max had become accustom to our accents he introduced us to the rest of the band. “Dan, the drummer, Matt, the bassist, and Chris, the other guitarist”, Max explained, pointing to each member as he went along the couch. “Well, I’m Kaitlyn, and this is my best friend Grace”, I said looking towards my now empty side. Feeling embarrassed, I quickly added, “well that was Grace”, I looked around the room, spotting her already getting a drink with Matt the bassist.

I felt someone’s body near mine. I turned around to see Josh with two drinks in his hands. I cocked him an eyebrow raise and he quickly handed one to me. “Thank you kind sir”, I said in a provocative English accent, earning a laugh to escape his mouth once he finished taking a swig from his beer. “Matthew informed me that you and your friend are our photographers now. You poor girls”, Josh said with a soft chuckle, looking around, trying to identify where Grace had escaped to.
“Where’s your partner in crime?” he said.
“Getting drinks with the bassist… Matt I think it was?” I said, Proud that I had remembered at least one name. Me and my bloody memory.
Josh grabbed my wrist and pulled me outside swiftly, sitting down on the couch that was in the perfect spot to look over little Weybridge, patting the vacant spot next to him. I sat down hesitantly, looking at my hands to avoid awkward eye contact. Josh leant in putting his mouth to my ear.
“She’s not a proper slag is she?” He said as I looked up and noticed a look of hurt running through his blue eyes.
“Not one bit”, I said smiling, looking into his eyes.
“You’ve been hurt before, haven’t you?” I questioned.
“No love, I’m the one that breaks the hearts here.”
I left the conversation at that, not believing one word of what he just said.
“So why did you choose sleepy old England?” he asked.
“Because Australia is basically Narnia in the world of music, let alone the city Grace and I come from. We wanted a job in the music industry and England seemed the perfect place to start”, I answered. “And the fact that the English are quite charming”, I added sending a cheeky smile Josh’s way.

As the night creeped on, Josh and I continued to talk about work and the band. I found out he’s been writing songs since he was 15 and has never done anything else.
It was around 11:45 when I saw Grace next she was sitting on Matt’s knee, off her face. I laughed as I walked over to her. She tried to stand up, resulting in falling back onto Matt.
“I am so sorry about Grace, she never really drinks much unless she’s nervous or something”, I said to Matt as she started to play with his hair, styling it into a Mohawk. God, she was just the same back in high school.
“Don’t worry about it, I like looking after girls when they’re drunk, it’s entertaining”, Matt replied with a wink. I hit him on the shoulder, knowing what he was insinuating.
“I won’t, I won’t.” he said holding his hands up. “This one here is too lovely for that. Look, you girls can stay here tonight. Go have fun love.” Accepting his offer with a nod and a smile, I went to go get a drink and find Josh again. He was talking with Max and Dan about where they were going to tour next, once they had toured the US on the Vans Warped Tour.
I don’t know if it was the alcohol or just me, but I was beginning to realise that Josh was a very, very, very attractive guy, and sweet god did he look good in a pair of jeans.
“So Kaitlyn, make sure not to get my bad side, yeah? “ Max said putting his arm around my waist and raising his bottle.
“To cute photographers joining the crew!” he cried, clanking the neck of his bottle with Dan, Josh’s the other boys, and mine, yelling whilst doing so.
“Now, teach me some Australian, Kaitlyn”, Dan said.
“How do you say, ‘Let’s get fucked up tonight’?” with a little giggle.
“I’m fairly sure the Bogans say, ‘LETS GET FARKIN PARO AYE’” I replied.
Laughter poured from his mouth, and we had to listen to him scream that at the top of his lungs about six or seven times, until he had perfected it.

As the night went on and more alcohol was consumed, the easier it seemed to fit in with the bunch of new people I was hanging out with. I discovered that Max liked kissing people on the cheek when he was bored, and Dan likes to dye his hair platinum blonde, and that Chris had a girlfriend Georgie, who was his favourite thing in life besides his guitar. Just as some house music came on, Josh announced to the group that it would be fun to bump and grind like they do on Geordie Shore. So we moved our way to the middle of the lounge room, soon to be joined by a very ‘close’ Matthew and Grace.

As the beat got heavier and the alcohol took over everyone, Josh grabbed me singling me out to the nearest wall. I don’t even think it was the alcohol that was intoxicating us, it was more the curiosity and carelessness.
Looking down at me with his blue eyes he said, “There’s something about you, Kaitlyn”, and pushed his lips onto mine, grabbing me at the hips. It didn’t take us long to get into rhythm, me running my hands through his hair. We soon enough joined everyone back in the middle of the room. Grace pointing out that I was back, resulted in everyone looking at Josh and I. Grace and Matt got a little too into the music before they left and God knows what consumed her, leaving me and Josh with Max and Dan. They thought it would be fun to be like 13 year old school kids, pushing Josh and I into each other and not stopping until we started to kiss again.

Once everyone had left, we all set up camp in the lounge room like a little girl’s birthday party, passing out all over the mattresses into a drunken slumber.