David
The underpass was dirty, badly lit, and fucking cold, but the music flooding the air was beautiful.
David shoved his hands deeper into the seemingly endless but decidedly empty pockets of his coat. “Have you got any change, Jonny?”
“Yeah, I have a fiver for that overpriced cup of coffee I’m going to have to get to keep me going tonight. And I’m not parting with it for you to give to that busker up ahead.”
“I’ll get you a coffee somehow, I swear. I’ll even stay behind and do all the dishwashing tonight.” David raised his eyebrows hopefully.
If there was one thing David had learned in the past week they’d been working together for his uncle Louie down here in London, it was that Jonny hated dishwashing. And yet, after a whole evening surrounded by people and noise, David found he quite liked going back to his uncle’s quiet warehouse space for a couple of hours and doing the washing-up. Doing it alone would be no great hardship. He’d discovered a certain pleasure in making everything clean again, stacking all the plates and glasses in neat, organised piles. It helped him come back together and wind down enough to sleep.
Jonny slipped his hand into his back pocket, pulled out a crumpled fiver and held it out. “All right, deal. What is it with you and buskers? I swear you’ve never walked past a single one without giving them something, even when we were back in Sheffield. No wonder you’re broke.”
David shrugged. “Just spreading the love.”
“He’s playing Christmas songs. How is that spreading the love? It’s a cynical ploy for more money. And you’ve fallen for it.”
Even though it was sometimes infuriating that Jonny interpreted the world in such absolute terms, his bone-deep honesty with how he felt was just what David needed. With Jonny, he always knew exactly where he stood.
They’d only known each other since the start of university four months ago, when Jonny—‘the cute guy in geeky black glasses’ who David had been staring at before class—had walked over to where he was sitting in the lecture hall and charmed him by saying, “Hi, you don’t look like a complete weirdo. Mind if I sit here?”
They’d remained friends ever since. And Jonny continued to charm him.
How he continued to charm Jonny was still a bit of mystery though, since all Jonny’s other friends were as outgoing as Jonny himself.
“It is Christmas. And I know you love Christmas too, so stop being so cynical.” Hyperaware of making sure he was gentle, David elbowed him in the ribs and knocked their heads together. Although Jonny wasn’t that much shorter, he was slender and willowy, and walking beside him made David feel that the tightly muscled bulk of his chest and arms was of giant proportions. Not that it bothered him.
“Perhaps I’m just not struck with wonder like you.”
Secretly, David quite liked being struck with wonder.
“He can play though,” he added, a little mesmerised by the almost otherworldly sounds echoing around them.
How the busker had taken such a recognisable song and made it sound so beautifully different with only an acoustic guitar, he didn’t know.
“I seem to recall you giving that guy with the upside-down wok some money yesterday.”
“It was a hang drum.” Hang drums made the most beautiful sounds.
