I'll Have Another One Of Those – Wayne 14

[For back story go here: Story so far at 12 June 2020 and more recents Wayne episodes]

Wayne didn’t care anymore. He didn’t care if the party was illegal, legal, borderline or if he would be told off, fined (ha! He had the money), thrown in jail (nice promo) or just told to turn the music down (if anyone dared). He’d invited a good thirty people based on his estimated capacity of the flat and told everyone it was up to them whether or not they showed, he wouldn’t hold it against them but boy would they miss a fantastic night and be kicking themselves forever after for not being there.

Naturally he didn’t invite Dave and didn’t warn him about it either.

In preparation Wayne opened every window and door he could. He opened up the balcony taking down the pully system with Dave’s place, piled up as many single use cups and bottles he could find, stashed bins and bin bags in every available corner and slapped down hand sanitiser on every available surface. The party was probably a dumb idea but he could take the edge off it.

BarnStormerz and Cath were the first to arrive. They’d been bubbling for the last few weeks, but by now they’d forgotten exactly what that meant or how many people made a bubble. They had started with a clear list of who they could visit, in what order and when, but now they were tired of staring at their own walls and faces.

The usual entourage followed. Wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, helpers, body guards, pseudo body guards, photographers, design consultants, fashionistas and life bloggers all jumped into any old bandwagon that would get them to Wayne’s for 9pm. They ensured they were loaded before they left, as well as being loaded up with enough bottles to get them through to the early hours once they arrived.

Wayne was chuffed by the response. This, then, would be his renaissance (he liked the term he’d found in the Observer’s music pages and Google assured him he was using it correctly) and he would head full tilt back into the world he knew. The only world as far as he knew. Forget all this new stuff, forget trying to reinvent yourself or ‘be more honest’, this was honest for him, this was the authentic ManzDown.

Two hours in and Wayne was teetering between enjoying the reckless abandon he’d unleashed and regretting the entire venture. It wasn’t just the added edge the pandemic brought to the party, it was the full on feeling of a social gathering after not being with more than one other person at a time for so long. The cascade of faces, voices, ideas, questions, laughs, drinks that used to provide an exciting ocean on which he’d surf and cruise now had the potential to drown him. He enjoyed the chaos of it all, but he was having to make himself enjoy it rather than relaxing and letting it all happen.

As BarnStormerz gathered in his bedroom and made use of his musical set up, another leading light from the scene DJ’d in the front room, slamming a diverse range of tracks from his phone channelled through the bluetooth speaker array. As the light failed outside, Wayne was pleased to be able to demonstrate the atmospheric and occasionally syncopated lighting system he’d set up across the flat. Whatever his reservations, the event was massive and his credentials were already hyping up on social media. 

“Man, what you been working on these days?” asked a YouTuber.

“Mate I’ve been taking it easy, you know?” said Wayne. “This time has been a great opportunity to take a step back and think about stuff. I mean I wasn’t due to put anything out about now anyway, so it’s not like I’ve been disrupted or anything. I’m feeling pretty fresh though and well ready to get more stuff out there.”

“I heard you were going like experimental?” said his interviewer.

Wayne just laughed, chinked his bottle against the YouTuber’s and headed off to listen to the BarnStormerz.

Things got broken, of course. It wouldn’t be a party if they didn’t. Several glasses and a few pieces of crockery which people pillaged from the cupboard for their own use didn’t make it through the night. And no one came to shut the evening down – which Wayne sort of regretted as getting that kind of controversy could have been the icing on the cake. Still, as he went round his flat in the mid-afternoon next day, clearing up and checking his feeds for feedback he felt he’d made the statement he needed to. Now he just needed to make the music he needed to.

At 4pm the buzzer to his door went off. He intercommed it and was told there was a delivery waiting. With the essence of his new found attitude he buzzed open the door and told the guy to put it outside his flat.

Fifteen minutes later, with the delivery guy out of the way he opened the door to bring it in. For a full minute he stared at the oblong box, about a metre or so in length. Without opening anything he already knew what it was and who it had come from. He also knew, however he felt about it, he wouldn’t be able to say thankyou for a while.