Big Dump

I was in a foolish mood and this came out. I think it's nice to break up the overall gloominess of this place.

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“So, it is two glasses of wine with every lunch and dinner now,” Thom said, grinning briefly over his plate.

“Between one and two, I’d say one and one quarter, why do you ask?” Jonny answered, handling the knife methodically.

“You popped a pill yesterday.”

“It was just to concentrate,” Jonny said, off-handedly.

Thom gave up on his food and leaned back against the chair, crossing his arms, “You said the same thing to me 20 years ago.”

“Yes, and you were kind enough to let it slide,” Jonny noticed.

Thom cackled, amused. “I didn’t let it slide, I researched the thing.”

“Did you now?”

“Well, yeah. I found it in your Mum’s medicine cabinet. The words ‘Highly Addictive’ stood out nicely.”

“And I thought you were a cool bloke who’d jump off a bridge without a shirt on, with jeans riding dangerously low on your hips.”

“What now?”

“Just one of the images I had of you back then.”

“I’d never do such a thing. With jeans riding dangerously low on my hips? Is that a quote from a diary of yours?”

“I’d read it somewhere. Point is, you seemed cooler.”

“I was cool. I was drunk on your self-destructiveness. It was like a step stone for my entrance. I could see the headlines: Jonny Greenwood on the slippery slope to oblivion; Thom Yorke saves his tortured band mate.”

“Nobody knew us back then. And that wouldn’t be cool. Dual suicide – that’s cool. With jeans riding dangerously low on our hips.”

“What is this obsession with jeans?”

“I admire protruding pelvic bones. Anyway, you seemed that kind of cool. Remember when we bumped into each other in a pub? By the bathroom?”

“The most romantic memory I have. Remind me?”

“You said ‘Hullo.’”

“Classic.”

“No, it’s the way you said it. It was so… low.”

“As in ‘Jeans riding dangerously low…’”

“Shut up, no. It was a growl, almost, and you were smiling that cool smile of yours.”

“Oh yes. My ‘I have got to piss smile’ is the most charming of all.”

“No, it wasn’t that. I still didn’t know you that well back then, so it seemed that you were always like that – nonchalant and suave.”

“Suave! I had a stain on my shirt and I am quite sure I smelled a bit from being in the pub for so long.”

“So you remember it then?”

“Of course I do, I thought I looked like the biggest idiot on the planet.”

“Well, it’s all rose-tinted now.”

“Were there flowers blooming in the urinals?”

“At least I wasn’t the one who was ‘drunk on your self-destructiveness.’”

Thom blinked a couple of times. “I was your knight in shining armour.”

“You didn’t do anything.”

“I thought I’d do something if I caught you again.”

“Ah. A hesitant hero.”

“Well, nobody loves a nag.”

“An uncool nag, I should say.”

“Shut up, I am throwing away the pills.”

“Suit yourself. Though you need aspirin more than me.”

“Goddamit.”