CHAPTER 5: I bring the rain

CHAPTER 5: i bring the rain

it was nice and sunny when i left the house in the early hours of the morning.
so nice infact that i was quite happy wearing a thin pair of trousers and a thin jacket.
big mistake.

i sat on the second train of my journey, writing in a small notebook;
"i'm on the train to york now, can't wait to see my boys,
especially jim of course!"
i took a moment to think of what else to write and looked up.
as i stared out of the window i groaned as tiny little dots of rain began to appear.
i was begining to think that the rain was following me.

by the time i got to york station the rain was bouncing off the pavement.
i ran as fast as i could accross the road to the bus stop wishing the bus to copmanthorpe
would get a move on.

of course, as typical as my luck is the bus was late and i ended up looking like a drowned rat
but i was thankful to just be sheltered and i settled on a back seat watching the beautiful houses and buildings go by.

it took half an hour to get to the little village of copmanthorpe but as the bus pulled up i stepped out into the rain, completely lost.
thankfully a kindly old man showed me the way and i got on talking to him.
he was amazed how far i had come....
i thought to myself, i'd walk to the end of the earth for those boys.....

of course, the four were already there soundchecking. i sheltered under a tree by the carpark and watched them. i dont think they had seen me. so i tried my best to flatten my soaked hair and enjoyed my very own mini gig.

within time, as i hummed along to "man bites god" i put my hand in my pocket and realised my ciggerettes were no longer there. they must have fallen out on the bus.
completely irritated i asked a taxi driver where the nearest shop was.
he told me it was 10 minutes walk back to the shops but as he noticed just how soaking, cold and slightly fed up i looked, he told me he could drop me off there for free on his way to pick up the next person.

by the time i had walked back with a new packet of malbro lights clasped in my hands the rain was heavier than i had ever seen it in my life.
i was so dissapointed as i had been up since before 5am getting ready. it barely seemed worth it.

by now the envy boys had gone back to thier van for shelter as the carnival organisers got ready for opening.

not that it looked up to much. a few stalls, a carnival game or two. it would have seemed a bit empty on the nicest of days, yet alone then.

in a desperate attempt to at least keep a bit sheltered i walked around the back of a burger tent, which, naturaly me being vegan, the smell was making me feel sick but the plastic tent cover and the ledge from the pub wall i was leaning against gave at least some shelter as i lit up another ciggerette and looked over to behind the stage. i could see the "black beast" standing there. "lucky sods" i thought "all nice and dry in there"

five mintues later i was standing smoking and humming the tune to martyr when i looked up and smiled, spotting a familiar face.
with a big smile jarvey walked over, a huge umbrella in his hands.
as he reached me he asked how i was and hugged me briefly before saying
"we saw you out here in the rain and thought we'd give you this" he passed me the huge blue umbrella which i put up immedietly and thanked him before he rushed back to the van and i smiled to myself thinking of how it wasn't the first time jarvey had protected me from the rain...

after ten minutes in the bathroom with a brush and my make-up i looked just say presentable again as i put up my umbrella and stood outside the bar watching the place begin to fill up.

it wasn't long before another familiar face appeared...... mark.
he walked over smiling and gave me a big hug.
we were talking about the carnival when ali came along.
he greeted me too as the three of us started to chat.
i told them there was a rodeo bull and ali should pose on it so i could take photos for the forum.
he laughed but refused as him and mark pointed out the army asault course and started laughing about what kind of soldiers the pair would make!


after they wandered off i went over and watched the first band who were named kinch.
they were a pretty cool band but i just wished envy would come on, after all, i was freezing cold.
i decided to occupie myself by wandering around looking at the stalls and attractions.
it didn't take too long as i'd spent my money within five minutes and there wasn't a great deal to see.
never the less, a small miracle happened, as i returned to the stage area to watch a solo singer named oliver j brooke, the clouds parted, the rain died and the sun shone brightly.
within a few minutes i was scorching hot and finally out of my glum mood.

the four boys were taking advantage of the sun too.
within ten minutes of the rain stopping i spotted them on the tennis court round the back of the stage playing doubles.
i smiled to myself and watched them but for some reason i was too shy to go over and watch...
give them their privicy i thought.

they must have been playing for an hour and a half.
i wandered around bored as pretentious teenage girls danced to high school musical songs on the stage in clothes that should never have been designed for children.
every now and then i popped my head round the corner and watched them play for a moment or so before searching desperately for something interesting that i hadn't spotted before.

as if boredom wasn't enough the clouds crept up as drop by drop the rain sneaked back up on the carnival.
groaning i rushed into the pub toilets to warm up and make sure i looked at least half decent before rushing back out and bumping straight into jarvey.

we didn't have much of a conversation. he said hi to me, i said hi back then he smiled and walked off.......
i can remember i felt myself blushing a bit, and i think that was when it occured to me, i had a bit of a crush on him!
i was going to run after him and ask who won the tennis game but i decided against it and ran over to the bunjee run to watch silly little 8 year old boys queing up to get even more wet!
after the amusement of that wore off i began to watch the groups of middle aged women trying to concor the rodeo bull and smiled to myself as the sun once more burst into the sky.

when i finally got bored of watching people making fools of themselves i wandered back to the stage area to watch the band what was on.
as i apporached ali spotted me and smiled.
i went and stood by him as he turned to me and asked if i was enjoying the carnival
i told him "sort of" but that i had ran out of money and had nothing to do.
he nodded but fell silent as we turned to watch the band.
however, a moment later i looked up to see another familiar face approaching us,
the one familiar face i hadn't seen all day.....
jim!

he rushed over smiling as he wrapped his arms around me and greeted me.
at this point ali's phone went off and he wandered away to answer it leaving me and jim to catch up.

there was a silence for a moment as we lit up our ciggerettes before jim turned and asked wether i had been enjoying myself.
i explained that i had liked kinch but mentioned the pretentious teenage girls in which he smiled at and replied with something like
"there's nothing worse than pretentious teenage girls"
before asking how i was and what i had been up to since i last saw him.

it was really bizzare...
i had always had a crush on jim since i first saw him...
even that morning...
but right there, as we just stood and chatted i realised something
i'd grown to love him as too much of a friend to be anything else.

we talked for ages about how he was meant to be at his friend's wedding and giggled at how he was going to "turn up" later when she was too drunk to notice his absence....
naughty jim!

after half an hour his phone also rang.
he explained he was needed back at the van and with one big hug he went off.
i sat myself on the grass, looked up and noticed something,
the whole time i had been with jim
there hadn't been one drop of rain
and i thought it was a metaphore when i said jim brightened up my day, HA!

it didn't last long though.
soon the heavens opened once more,
just as envy were setting up.

however it didn't phase my mood.
infact i was more excitable than ever when the presenter from radio fm set up a mini version of envy and other sins' infamous sport "pheasant" which is a bizzare mix of football and tennis.....gone wrong.

obviously being the only one there sporting an envy t-shirt i felt it my duty to volenteer myself to play.......
and the boys watched in amusement between setting up as i lost to a very drunk girl.

my spirits were higher than ever as the boys finally came onto the stage.
the drunk girl had taken a liken to me and we danced through song after song.
before i knew it envy were announcing their last song.
however, i realised they one more hadn't done martyr.
i told the drunk girl this and cringed as she shouted "lor wants martyr"

ali didn't catch on what she was asking at first and thanked me infront of everyone for coming which made me feel special enough but i really did want them to do martyr so i shouted "do martyr"

jarvey kept replying "lor wants us to do shipwrecked" but as i replied "no martyr!!!!!"
ali said something to jarvey and to my joy they started playing martyr!

after the show i rushed over to the boys and they were as lovely as ever.
jarvey handed me his stage pass and the setlist and i got talking to his mum as they packed up

eventually i knew it was time to say goodbye. sadly i gave jarvey and ali a hug, then jim, then mark gave me a massive hug and a kiss on the cheek which made me smile but as always...the walking away was the hardest part.

thinking about how amazing the day had been i walked along the street of the small village, singing shipwrecked to myself.
i felt glum, as i always did when i had to leave them.
i hadn't realised just how much i loved the four of them until that day....
and for some reason it wasn't jim who was on my mind most....it was jarvey.

i was deep in thought, wondering when i'd see them next when i heard a car horn behind me.
i turned around just in time to see two familiar faces smiling down from the black van....jarvey and jim.
they waved as finally a smile burst through on my face and i waved back knowing that no matter where, no matter how, i would see them again soon, and that was a promise to myself.