Let's Take Over the World

My Life Right From The Start

Chapter 1

I wondered round my small flat, throwing away the random pizza boxes that had collected in every room. Today was my last day of living alone. My parents had said agreed that they would pay the rent and the bills for this place until I found someone to stay with me. They said that they weren’t going to be cunts about it, though, and agreed to split the rent between themselves and whomever came to live here.
I suppose it was lucky, though. I just happened to know someone whose parents were just as desperate for him to move out as he was. His name is Danny, and okay, I don’t actually know him, per se, but we’d been talking a lot online and we’d spoken on the phone. And it’s not that his parents didn’t love him…it was just that he’s made their life hell for the past seventeen years. So they were more than willing to pay £400 a month to have him out of their hair.
I double checked that there wasn’t any more random floating takeaway wrappers floating around--not that Danny would give much of a shit, but still--and sat down in a beanbag to watch TV.
I must’ve fallen asleep after that, because the next thing I knew, I was being startled awake by the doorbell ringing. That’ll be Danny, I thought, getting up to answer the door. I opened the door and I can’t say that the sight I saw didn’t shock me.
I’d seen pictures of Danny before, but he’d clearly changed a bit since they were taken. Standing before me was the very definition of “emo.” Black hair, with random blonde streaks sticking up at the back, dark makeup framing his eyes, studded cuffs on his wrists and he was dressed head to toe in black. His jeans weren’t in any better condition than mine, with the knees torn out and several other rips up and down the legs. He had snake bites, too, but I’d already known about them--he’d convinced me to have my lip pierced. He had a great smile on his face, though, which set off everything else about him.
“Hey, Ben.” he winked at me, wondering into the apartment.
Danny was with his parents, which surprised me nearly as much as his appearance. I don’t really know why it surprised me so much, because, you know, what else would he do? Take everything he owned on a train? No. I guess it was just a that they would drive all the way from Hull to Nottingham and back to get rid of their son. Or maybe they’d driven him because they wanted him to be alright. Yeah, that was more like it.
I invited them all in, but Danny’s parents said they could only stay for a little while. I showed them all where he would be sleeping and they dumped all his things in there.
“Yeah, there’s no bed, just a mattress. I couldn’t afford both and I guessed that you’d be more grateful for that than a bed frame.” I said.
“Oh, Benny, you know me so well already.” he winked again and I had to laugh. I may not have met him before, but I knew him well enough to know he took very little in life seriously.
“Well, we’d better be getting off around now, I think.” Danny’s mum cut in. “Thank you, Ben for letting Danny stay with you.”
“You’re welcome, Mrs Worsnop.” I smiled politely and she turned on Danny.
“Don’t be a cunt.” she hissed. Danny feigned a hurt expression.
“But I love you , mummy, what would make you say such a hurtful thing?”
“I said don’t be a cunt. So don’t. We’ll see you soon, okay?”
“Okay. Bye.”
“Bye, Daniel.” his dad said as they left.
Danny turned to me. “They don’t like me.”
“Well,” I began, knowing he was right, “I’m sure they do. I mean, you’re their kid. They love you.”
“Maybe, but they don’t like me very much. I piss them off a lot.”
“Yeah, I know.” I admitted. I went back to the living room and sat down in a beanbag to watch TV. I hunted down my pack of cigarettes and offered Danny one.
“Benny, I can see that this is the start of a beautiful relationship.” he said as he took one, flopping down in the other beanbag. I threw my lighter at him, which he caught expertly.
We sat and watched the TV for a while in companionable silence. I only had freeview, so there wasn’t shit loads to choose from. When we decided there wasn’t anything decent on, we decided to order in some food.
“I can’t cook and the only food I have is leftover takeaways, so take your pick,” I threw my somewhat…oversized collection of takeaway menus at him so he could choose whatever he wanted.
“Are you, like, rich or something?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re only nineteen and you live on your own and your parents are paying for everything for you.”
“I suppose that you could say my parents are better off, but my dad’s paying most of it since he feels like a dickhead because he stayed in Dubai when me and mum moved back here.”
“Okay,” Danny seemed to accept this as explanation enough. “I’ll have Chinese food tonight please.” he smiled sweetly at me and placed his order. I phoned the place and they said they’d be about an hour. I gave the controls to Danny, who had acquired another cigarette, and went to my room.
I picked up my acoustic and tuned it real quick. I started fiddling around with a few chords and a few riffs and I felt something coming together. I quickly pulled open my laptop and switched it on. I started playing again, fitting the parts together. I plugged in my les paul and started recording and before I knew it, I’d written six minutes of guitar.
A new record; it only took me forty-five minutes. Usually to get this much it would take well over an hour. I grabbed my bass and started laying a bass line over the guitars. I programmed in a drum beat and listened to my creation.
“Wow.” I looked up to see Danny standing in the doorway. “Is that really all you?”
“Yeah.”
“Dude, that’s fucking awesome!” he looked genuinely impressed. “You did all that in the time it took for the Chinese to get here?” he held up a bag full of food.
“Yeah, I suppose I did.” I said, feeling really fucking proud of that. I got up and went to eat food with Danny.
“So,” he started around a chicken ball. “Are you, like, in a band or something?”
“No. I was, but we split up. Too much coming and going to be arsed to put up with it really. When I moved home we decided just to leave it.”
“Oh, okay.”
“You know, you’re the first person outside of that band to hear anything I’ve written.”
“Fuck yeah!” he high-fived me, laughing. “Can you teach me how you do that?”
“I don’t really know how I do it. Just years of practise, I suppose. Do you play?”
“A little. I’m not very good, though. And my parents would never buy me a guitar because they’re dickheads.”
“I’ll try and show you a few things.”
“Thanks, man. Sounds like a plan.”