The People I Know – Michelle: Part 2

Of course, I did not steal my best friends' girlfriend. Sparkie and Michelle had a short lived relationship and were rarely in contact with one another for most part of it. Their coupling ended in a fairly amicable way, mostly due to the fact that, on the whole, people find being angry at Sparkie a strangely difficult thing to sustain.

Months after the break-up Sparkie and I met a girl with extremely short and bright red hair in the nightclub Plush. The girl seemed to talk in a way that suggested that she knew us fairly well and that she had not seen us for quite some time. We talked and joked along with her, said what we'd been up to in the most vanilla of terms and then we parted ways. Sparkie and I walked back to our seats, and when seated Sparkie turned to me with a familiar smile, a kind of awkward/confused almost grin, and said "Do you have any idea who that was?" Sparkie has a terrible memory and I have on many occasions had to prompt his memory about the people that stop him to say hello, but I had to admit that on this occasion that I shared his confusion, I had no idea who the red haired girl was.

My memory at this point is quite hazy on details and so I may be condensing the happenings of a week or two into this single night. I do know that it was that same night that Sparkie or I worked out who the girl with the bright red hair was. In fairness, it was dark and the hair kind of held your attention, so you'll forgive us for connecting the girl in front of us with girl we had known with black hair highlighted with blue streaks months before. As I said I can't quite remember the details of the night from that point, whether we purposely sought out Michelle or if we just bumped into each other again I'm not a hundred percent sure, but we did meet again.

My next immediate memory of Michelle sitting outside The Victor chip shop on Conrwall Way facing the East Kilbride Bus Terminal. We sat on the ground with our backs against the window and the shop had shut making it at least 4am but most likely later. Sparkie had long since wondered off into the either of the night as he so often does, I had met some work mates from my then place of employment McDonalds (my first job) and they, along with some of Michelle's friends and probably some other stragglers, laughed and joked their way through replays of that night and many others while Michelle and I sat and talked and watched. I always loved the aftermath of the dancing in those days; it was my favourite part in fact.

At some point, sitting on the cold ground with the sun fast approaching Michelle put her head on my shoulder. Not an extraordinary thing to do at all, but the strange thing was that I was fine with it, I even liked it. I never liked to be touched much, I'm not as bad now, back then a touch could burn right though me, but with Michelle, as it had felt when we first talked, I was comfortable. It was then that the possibility that I might be with her entered my head. Before that I may have considered that I would like it if she were with me but I was bound by honour to my friend. You don't go out with your best friends ex. That's the rule. That night she took my arm, and her best friend that she had introduced me to that night, Laura, took the other and we danced to the taxi rank singing New York, New York in a way that kids do when you feel alive and that you own the night. As we danced and I sang it was the rule that that kept the smile from my eyes. You don't go out with your best friends ex taunted the rule, but worst of all, I knew it was right.

To be continued.

THIS WEEK
I Watched: - The 40 Year Old Virgin, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Crimson Tide.
I Read: - Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre.
I listened to: - N/A

The People I Know - Michelle

Michelle is unlike any person I have ever met in as much as that from the very first time that I met her she made me feel comfortable. This may seem like an odd thing to say but, for me, it meant a great deal. I'm not good with people, I don't want to get to know them and in very general terms I don't like them. When I meet a new person I often wait until I have someone with me in order that they can take the lead in the conversation and I can stay in the background watching, listening and learning. I watch for facial expressions, listen to tone of voice and judge what kind of person they are before I entertain the notion that I might get to like them. I class myself as an excellent judge of character, by watching and listening I can gauge a person a several levels, detecting why they move like that, or said something in such a way and I mark it all down in my invisible score card. I don't know what the score card says or even how it's marked but Michelle ticked all the boxes in minutes in a way that I've never been able to explain.

The best and quickest way to mark my score card is to watch a person interact with David. David is my best friend (one of the two best friends I'm lucky to have) he is forthright in a way that is almost combative, he likes to joke at your expense (never cruel and mostly impersonal) and his own barometer as to whether you and he will get along is if you can laugh along and give as good as you get. David's barometer is much harsher than mine and far less forgiving but his imposing introduction is effective and efficient.

David and I met Michelle long ago and the inns and out of what was said has been lost in time. What I do remember about our first meeting though was that after laughing off a few of David's jokes about her, at the time, partially blue hair, Michelle turned to me and said "You're Craig Ambrose." As it turns out this first meeting, the first meeting I can remember, was not our first at all. It turned out that I had been at school with Michelle for a full year; Primary Six.

I could not remember her at all but this was not uncommon for me. I was 17 at the time and at some point long before the memories of much of my early childhood was lost to me. I had been the fat kid at school until 2^nd year when I grew tall and broad. I became someone else for the first time when I grew and what had been before seemed and still seems like a past life. Michelle talked to me that day about our interactions from that our life as children. About races at the swimming and missing dinner tickets and the sullen little boy she knew but barely spoke to. At some point we noticed a Yin/Yang pendant in the room and had a good natured argument about which side represented earth and which represented water (we both still maintain that we were correct). When we spoke it was like we were the only two people in the room. The room belonged Margaret and David Hamilton and was at the time occupied by their two sons Mark and Andrew, the former of whom was know to all as Sparkie and who is the other person I call my best friend. It was David who spoke and pulled Michelle and I out of our solitary back and forth. "Can't believe it Sparkie," he said with a smile "Craig's stealing your bird".

To be continued.

THIS WEEK
I Watched: - Undeclared: The Complete Series, Knocked Up, A Beautiful Mind, Lions for Lambs.
I Read: - Indigo Slam by Robert Crais.
I listened to: - The Age of Understatement by The Last of the Shadow Puppets.