[00:00.000]Everywhere is monsters.
[00:01.450]Tits out, wet-mouthed, heads back.
[00:03.570]Shouting and screaming just to prove they exist.
[00:06.000]
[00:06.670]Becky’s at the bar with the usual mix
[00:08.970]Of decadent fabrics and desolate lighting.
[00:12.340]Everybody here has got a hyphenated second name.
[00:15.270]Blowing more breeze
[00:16.340]Than the wind at the weather vane.
[00:17.870]
[00:18.390]Industry slimeballs, showbiz big-deals.
[00:20.960]The cool new band with the retro feel,
[00:23.280]It’s the wrap party for their video.
[00:25.390]Becky danced in it.
[00:26.560]The director, Marshall Law,
[00:28.080]Head to toe in yellow velour,
[00:29.790]Is holding court about the science of image
[00:32.080]While the sycophants giggle and grimace.
[00:34.120]Becky fidgets, tells herself,
[00:36.100]‘Must stop being so cynical,
[00:38.140]Everybody here is a human,
[00:40.390]Even these pitiful posturing pop stars and idiots.’
[00:43.850]She tells herself to look again -
[00:45.700]Nothing is hideous.
[00:46.530]
[00:46.950]So while Marshall Law is wanking on about his artwork
[00:49.610]She smiles at the guy opposite,
[00:51.270]Bright eyes, dark shirt.
[00:52.500]He raises his eyebrows in the direction of Marshall.
[00:55.510]‘My name’s Becky,’ she says,
[00:57.610]‘What’s yours?’
[00:58.440]
[00:58.720]She was like nothing that he’d seen before.
[01:01.000]Strong body, soft edges, with something so raw
[01:03.920]In the core of her iris.
[01:05.210]He said his name, ‘Harry’.
[01:06.950]And never in his life had he felt so happy.
[01:09.680]They got talking,
[01:10.950]Free bar. Exhausting decorum
[01:12.760]He drank until she was so absorbing
[01:14.810]He blanked out the party.
[01:16.220]The floor spun, he stared at her face and felt sure,
[01:19.040]Something was happening here.
[01:21.210]
[01:21.600]He was kinda nervous,
[01:22.700]His eyes kept doing circuits of the room.
[01:24.490]He drank as fast as they could serve him,
[01:26.500]Then this dude comes over,
[01:27.820]Sticks out a thick hand,
[01:29.500]And Harry looks at her
[01:30.770]Like he’s just found himself in quicksand.
[01:32.760]He gives this guy a wrap, they shake hands
[01:34.950]Sweaty cash passed between palms,
[01:36.870]No fuss. Bish bash, yes, bosh.
[01:39.160]He looked at her guiltily,
[01:40.510]She waved it off, smiling
[01:42.120]‘You a shotter then, right?
[01:43.380]I don’t care.’
[01:44.290]
[01:44.570]‘Becky, all I ever wanted was a place of my own.’
[01:47.070]His eyes, wide and trusting,
[01:48.570]He’s staring at her, desperate for something to click.
[01:51.320]He is opening up. This is it.
[01:53.450]‘A real classy place, the whole bit,
[01:55.490]Like a speakeasy, right?
[01:57.120]Chandeliers and lights
[01:58.380]That shine off of the glasses
[02:00.020]No hype, and no arseholes.
[02:01.580]Instead of rotting our guts out
[02:03.070]In shitty old boozers
[02:04.590]We can be grown men, listening to music,
[02:07.070]Real music. Played with heart by real bands,
[02:09.990]Not just posers looking like they’re
[02:11.580]Giving blowjobs to mic stands.
[02:13.750]And I’ll be in a waistcoat, dead grand.
[02:16.110]Harry’s Place.
[02:17.260]Or, at least, that’s the plan.’
[02:18.970]
[02:19.140]She was half listening,
[02:20.410]Half not listening.
[02:21.550]Kept getting distracted by the lights flickering.
[02:24.420]He looks like an outline that needs filling in.
[02:27.290]He leans in close, starts whispering:
[02:29.470]
[02:30.410]‘The thing is, and it’s weird,
[02:31.830]I never felt so able,
[02:33.140]To talk like this to anybody, ever,
[02:36.080]Recently Becky, I’ve been really feeling the pressure.
[02:38.660]I can’t tell you how good it is
[02:39.990]To get this off my chest.’
[02:41.540]
[02:42.080]Becky’s holding tight to her glass.
[02:43.980]Good coke, brain fast.
[02:45.330]She watches his face as he talks.
[02:47.240]Little bump on her fingertips
[02:49.110]Expert. Quick snort.
[02:50.560]Sucking on a cigarette, feeling vaguely bored.
[02:53.250]
[02:53.690]It’s true if you believe it.
[02:56.240]The world is the world
[02:57.460]But it’s all how you see it.
[02:59.590]One man’s flash of lightning ripping through the air
[03:02.280]Is another’s passing glare, hardly there.
[03:05.210]It’s true if you believe it.
[03:07.080]The world is the world
[03:08.930]But it’s all how you see it.
[03:11.040]One man’s flash of lightning ripping through the air
[03:13.780]Is another’s passing glare, hardly there.
[03:15.420]
[03:17.430]‘If I’m being honest, well it is,
[03:19.050]It’s like a trap,
[03:20.100]I ain’t trying to be flash
[03:21.280]I just need to raise the cash for the dream.
[03:22.410]I hardly touch it myself
[03:24.300]Look, it ain’t that
[03:25.430]But once I set myself a task,
[03:26.800]Well, there ain’t no going back.
[03:28.210]And I am halfway there,
[03:29.670]I am, nearly, anyway,
[03:31.440]The point is,
[03:32.640]I kinda had to push all of my friends away.
[03:34.000]I can’t have nobody
[03:35.750]Knowing what I’m up to
[03:37.010]I keep it very secret but the thing is
[03:39.180]I would love to,
[03:40.320]Just for one day,
[03:41.320]You know, live like any other guy.
[03:43.030]I can’t have a girlfriend, you see
[03:44.700]‘Cause I don’t like to lie.
[03:45.960]It’s safer all round
[03:46.940]That I just keep my head down.
[03:48.190]And, yeah, the business is booming,
[03:49.690]Yeah, the business is really booming.
[03:51.370]But my family think I work in recruitment
[03:53.820]So, I get up every morning
[03:55.620]And I put a shirt and suit on
[03:57.280]And I get on a train, I go up town.
[03:59.150]It’s all professional users.
[04:00.970]I sell in the boardrooms and not the boozers
[04:02.980]To, like, CEOs and these modern day Scrooges
[04:05.930]Who get their secretaries to bring me coffee,
[04:08.350]It’s so stupid.
[04:09.120]Meant to be hard times, right, a recession?
[04:11.460]But these guys are buying more than ever, I reckon
[04:14.680]And I…
[04:15.240]
[04:15.740]He’s got nice eyes,
[04:16.400]Shame about his issues, though.
[04:17.470]The party pushes on, her cynicism’s getting vicious,
[04:20.090]Show nothing,
[04:20.860]Keep smiling.
[04:21.720]
[04:21.940]She catches the eye of her mates,
[04:23.320]They’re dancing by the bar
[04:24.860]They’re in a state.
[04:25.820]Nod for ‘save me’
[04:26.780]They understand, dance over,
[04:28.690]Put their arms around her shoulders -
[04:30.200]‘Becky, we’re bored, let’s go’.
[04:32.300]His mouth slows to a stop,
[04:33.700]He seems to lose his composure,
[04:35.000]She smiles at him
[04:36.150]‘Yeah, was nice getting to know ya.’
[04:37.420]
[04:37.820]No, not like that, don’t leave.
[04:39.740]Please.
[04:41.470]Don’t make her go, we’ve just got started.
[04:43.990]
[04:44.430]Their teeth are bare, their feet are planted
[04:46.130]Their smirking at him like he’s dirt,
[04:47.900]And now his heart is
[04:48.930]Damp with the fury of
[04:50.710]Finding and losing
[04:52.090]This miracle girl.
[04:53.200]He feels weak with confusion, like
[04:55.200]What had he said?
[04:56.370]How long had he talked?
[04:57.930]He watches them walk to the doors
[04:59.460]His blood roars.
[05:00.560]
[05:00.840]In the back of the cab, the girls sit there giggling.
[05:03.470]The driver lets them smoke out of the window
[05:05.370]So they’re shivering.
[05:06.450]They pass a bottle of wine back and forth
[05:08.430]Let it clash against their teeth.
[05:10.030]The cab moves fast through the streets.
[05:11.810]‘Who was that guy you was with?’
[05:14.340]Becky shakes her head softly,
[05:15.890]‘Him? I don’t know, probably alright,
[05:18.090]But I could tell he was one of them “save me” types,
[05:20.700]And I couldn’t be dealing with that.
[05:22.450]Not tonight.’
[05:23.870]