Page 5 of When We Were Young

When Bailey sings, his voice is as incredible live as it is on the recorded tracks. The camera angle switches to the side of the stage, showing a group of people watching from the wings.

‘There!’ Chloe points to a girl dancing, her arms raised over her head.

Bailey launches into the chorus, serenading the dancing girl. She beams at him. I feel a goofy smile form on my face, but it’s removed by a sudden slap of recognition.

‘Oh my God!’ I gasp. ‘That’s my mum!’

‘I knew it!’

The girl remains in shot for a full five seconds before the focus switches to Bailey’s fingers on his plectrum.

‘Do they show her again?’ I ask.

‘No, that’s it, but he keeps looking her way. It’s her, right?’ Chloe scrolls backwards, finds the shot and pauses.

‘I think so.’ I’ve never seen her look like that, happy and carefree. She’s beautiful. I’ve never thought of my mum as beautiful before. And I can’t imagine her ever going to a festival, let alone dancing in the wings of the Pyramid Stage. It can’t be her. My mind’s spinning.

‘Will you ask her?’

‘She’d say it’s not her. And the way my grandparents reacted… they were covering something up. Why would she say she knew him one minute and deny it the next?’

Chloe plays the video again.

Bailey closes his eyes and sings:

Here she comes in a cloud of yellow feathers

Can we ever be together?

There’s always something in the way.

Here she comes, all around her yellow feathers

It’s an image that I’ll treasure

And now they’re dragging me away.

Chapter 4

May 1994

It was Will’s round, and he was trying to remember what his mate, Matty, was drinking when the girl behind the bar asked, ‘What can I get you?’

He did a double take. There, standing before him with raised eyebrows, was the arty girl from the station.

It had been weeks since he’d had to stop busking there, and he’d given up on ever seeing her again.

‘Two bottles of Bud, please,’ came a voice from his left. He was too late; she went off to fetch the drinks and by the time she came back, her colleague had already taken his order.

She caught him looking at her and asked, ‘Are you being served?’

‘Er, yes, thanks.’

She nodded and moved on.Shit. He watched her back as she scooped ice into a glass, reached up to the optics and poured a shot. She turned and stood right in front of him, topping it up with the soda gun. A strand of dark, wavy hair escaped from her ponytail and dangled onto her cheek. She was close enough for him to see a smattering of freckles on the bridge of her nose. He should say something now he had the chance: tell her he’d seen her at the station, ask about her art. But every sentence he constructed in his head made him sound like a stalker. Even when all eight drinks were paid forand sitting on a tray in front of him, he still had nothing. Absolutely nothing.

He took the tray back to his friends’ table and handed out the drinks. They were only three rounds in, but they were already getting loud, all talking over each other. Will didn’t sit back in the same seat; he chose one with a view of the bar instead. He took a sip of beer to swallow his frustration and vowed to go back up there when he had something less creepy to say.

‘Guys, did I tell you my little brother here got arrested?’ said Aidan, pulling him close and grinding his knuckles into Will’s head.