Page 17 of Our Song

Instead, as the maître d’ discreetly melts into the background, I find myself raising my hand in a stupid half-wave and saying, ‘Hey.’

He looks up at me, his face unreadable.And suddenly, for a second that feels like an eternity, I’m back there, I’m back then.I’m in a practice room in Connemara in 1999, I’m on a stage in 2002, I’m on a table in a flat off Camden Street in 2003, I’m at a bus stop on Westmoreland Street, I’m in all the times and all the places where Tadhg Hennessy and I locked eyes and couldn’t look away from each other.Then he smiles that slightly awkward smile, straight out of 1999, and shakes his head and sort of laughs as if he can’t quite believe what he’s seeing.

‘Wow, Lol,’ he says.He looks down at the table for a brief moment, but when he looks up again the smile is a full-on beam.‘Fuck, it’s good to see you.’

And despite the fact that I’d planned to be haughty and aloof, despite the fact that I’m afraid he’s trying to steal my song, despite everything that happened the last time we saw each other, despite all of this, something is happening to my face, I can’t help it, and I realise that, despite all my better instincts, I’m smiling right back at him.

Oh,shit.

Chapter Seven

1999

In an ideal world I’d have given Tadhg some time to forget about my weirdness at the céilí before seeing him again.Like a week.Or maybe a month.But I had to go to the music room the next day.I couldn’t miss the opportunity to possibly start a band.That didn’t mean I wasn’t nervous, though.

‘I just have to go to the loo,’ I said to Katie, as we made our way through thecoláistecorridors.I needed a moment to compose myself.

‘Stop dithering!’said Katie.‘We’re already late.’

‘I’ll follow you on!’I said.

As I pushed open the door of the band room a few minutes later, it struck me that maybe Tadhg wouldn’t be there and I’d been making a fuss over nothing, but he was there all right, already holding an electric guitar.There was no sign of his Evil Twin bandmate.Katie’s new BFF, Brían, was sitting behind the drum kit, and Katie was standing by an impressive electrickeyboard.Standing next to Tadhg was the shiny-haired girl who had glowered at me for speaking English on the bus the day before.Well, she needn’t worry, it would be Irish-only in this room (apart from words like ‘yeah’ and ‘okay’, which even the sticklers couldn’t object to).

‘Laura!’cried Katie.‘You remember Tadhg and Brían from the céilí?And this is Caoimhe.’

‘Hi,’ I said.

‘I’m just after telling Tadhg I thinkmaybewe’ve seen his band on Grafton Street,’ said Katie.

‘Oh yeah,’ I said.This was my chance to be a normal person.I turned to Tadhg and said, as casually as I could, ‘I thought I recognised you.’

Tadhg said, ‘I thought I recognised you too.’

Before I could say anything preposterous back to him, Caoimhe saved me from myself and said, ‘We were just going to try working out a song.Do you play an instrument?’

‘Um, guitar,’ I said.

‘Really?’said Tadhg.‘Cool.’He didn’t say it in the disbelieving tone some boys used when they found out I played the guitar.He actually seemed impressed.‘We can both play guitar.There are two electrics.Do you want to play rhythm or lead, Laura?’

‘I think I’ll play rhythm,’ I said, though I didn’t really have to do too much thinking about it.If I was going to play the guitar in front of the boy of my dreams, I wanted to play in a way that gave me a chance to impress him.In my nervous state, I’d make a show of myself if I tried picking out any lead guitar lines.

‘I’ll play bass on the keyboard,’ said Katie.Although Katie’s main instrument was the not-so-rock-and-roll clarinet, she had done piano up to Grade One, so she was definitely up to the task of playing a simple bassline.

‘What will you do?’I asked Caoimhe.

‘I’ll be singing,’ she said.She looked uncertain, and I realised that, despite her head-girl vibe, she wasn’t cocky.‘If no one minds.’

It was settled.I took down the other electric guitar from the wall and pulled the strap over my head.It was a battered Squier Stratocaster.I felt a little thrill of excitement as I grabbed a lead from a box and connected to it an amp.An electric guitar!I’d only ever had a go of one in a shop before.

‘So … What song are we doing?’I said, after I’d tuned the guitar.

It turned out that while I was dithering in the loo, they had decided to figure out ‘All Day and All of the Night’ by the Kinks, a classic tight, loud pop song.

‘We all know it,’ said Tadhg, ‘and the chords are easy.’

‘Yeah, I can play it,’ I said.I’d played it on my own in my room on my dad’s old guitar plenty of times.And now I was going to play it with a band!

‘I’ve already written new words for it in Irish,’ said Caoimhe, holding up a piece of paper.‘They’re not a translation.But the idea is the same.’

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