Danny: Takes you right back, doesn’t it? First dates and teenage hormones and feeling like you’ll die if someone doesn’t kiss you.
Zak: Pea’s smile was like warm sunshine. You know those days when it’s been a long winter and there’s a break in the weather and you can go outside with nothing on your feet and feel the warmth of the sun on the sidewalk? Pea’s smile felt like that.
Pea: We stood there for a bit, just looking at each other, and I allowed myself to believe maybe he felt something for me. And then he opened the door and gestured for me to go in underneath his arm. He smelled like spice and summer.
Zak: The place was an American diner, but it was kind of exaggerated American, you know? It didn’t feel like a diner you’d actually get back at home. But the burgers looked good. Pea was quiet. I wondered whether her dad had told her to make sure she helped seal the deal.
Pea: We ordered burgers and fries and Cokes, I think. I had no appetite. My stomach was churning. I wanted to ask what they’d thought of the place, whether they’d made a decision. It had been a good three hours since they’d left our house, so I was sure they must have talked about it. In the end, I settled for asking if he’d had a good day.
Zak: I told her I was pretty beat. The burgers came and they tasted like crap. I mostly ate fries dipped in ketchup. I knew I was being a bit of a dick, but somehow I couldn’t rouse myself to do better. I guess maybe I was just tired, like I said.
Pea: I felt like it was going really badly. Started wishing for it to be over. But then I thought of something to try. I asked him about the band on his T-shirt.
Zak: I was wearing a Pavement T-shirt. She hadn’t heard of them. I had no idea whether they were big in England. She pointed to her T-shirt, asked if I’d heard of Blur. I shook my head. Then we started naming bands we liked until we hit on some we had in common. Nirvana and the Pixies. I started singing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and she joined in and she sort of lit up. Music did that to me, too. It was like magic. She said she was surprised I was into that kind of stuff, and I asked whether she’d assumed I just listened to my brother’s stuff on repeat. She laughed, and there was something so incredible about the sound of it, the unrestrained joy. It wasn’t until later, when I was in an unfamiliar bed and on the edge of sleep, that I realised that was the first time my brother had come up that evening.
Danny: Since these interviews, I’ve been listening to Pavement on and off. They passed me by in the nineties, a bit like Pea, but they’re pretty good. Some music from that time sounds so old now, but I think their stuff holds up pretty well. Have a listen.
Pea: He said he’d run back to the hotel when we were finished and grab me a Pavement CD. I said I wished I’d brought a Blur CD, so we could swap. And he said he could borrow the Blur CD from me when he walked me home. I didn’t even see Shane Lambert approaching. I was too busy falling in love, or lust, or whatever.
Zak: This kid came up to the table. Pea told me afterwards he was the younger brother of the kid her dad had fired that afternoon. He put both his hands on our table and looked from me to her, his eyes full of fury. He said her family would regret what they’d done, that if you mess with one Lambert, you mess with them all. Then he was gone. Out the door. He must have seen us in there from the street. Pea was a bit shaken. I could seeshe was close to tears. I said why didn’t she go to the bathroom and I’d take care of the check and meet her outside.
Pea: I was so flustered. Zak was great. Sent me off to the toilets to sort myself out and paid the bill. I stared in the mirror for a minute or so, blinking back tears. What if Zak told Maggie about it and said it was all too much trouble? I knew Mum and Dad were counting on this. And what would it be like at school, when Shane got his mates involved?
Zak: When she appeared, her eyes were red. I put my arms around her and gave her a hug. I just wanted to touch her.
Pea: When he put his arms around me, I could hardly breathe.
Zak: I wanted her to feel better. And yes, I was kind of curious about her. She had this way of pushing her hair away from her face and hooking it behind her ears that made me smile. Back at home, at high school, it was all girls I’d known forever, and I was always second choice to AJ, even though I was the older one. But Pea was looking at me like I was someone interesting, and not because my brother was famous. I was a sucker for that, I guess.
Pea: We walked to his hotel and, as promised, he disappeared to get me the CD. It was calledSlanted and Enchanted. I said thank you and turned to walk away. I thought he might have forgotten that he’d said he would walk me home. But he called after me and covered the distance between us in a couple of loping strides, and we fell into step. He asked whether I was trying to get rid of him, and I laughed and said no, that I thought he might be tired.
Zak: I was so tired, man. You know the kind of tired that feels a bit like being drunk? But I didn’t want the evening to end. It didn’t take us long to walk back to her place. Not long enough.
Pea: He asked what it was like, living in a theme park. I shrugged. It was all I’d ever known. He said he thought it was pretty cool. I didn’t know what to say to that, so I told him to wait while I got his CD.Parklife. It was in my CD player. Mum called out from the lounge to ask how my evening had been and I said I’d be there in five minutes. I was a bit out of breath when I got back outside. He took the CD case from me and our fingers touched and I took a sharp breath in.
Zak: I leaned in and kissed her. It wasn’t really like me, to move so fast, but I was worried the next time I saw this girl I’d have my brother with me and I wanted to stake my claim, I guess.
Pea: First kiss. Not on the Wonder Wheel but under a streetlamp by the park entrance. I remember he put his hands on my face as he leaned in. It was magical. It was over too quickly.
Zak: I thought maybe I’d got it wrong, that she hadn’t wanted me to kiss her. And then she broke out in this huge grin, and I did too, and I said goodnight and turned to walk away.
Pea: I stood there for a minute or two, my body tingling all over, waiting to see if he’d look back. But he didn’t.
Danny: So, that’s it. First date. Shall we see how the next day panned out?
Maggie: I was awake at three the next morning. Zak and I had agreed to meet for breakfast at eight. So I lay there with my head on that lumpy hotel pillow, the room just a degree or two too warm, going over everything we’d seen the day before. Truth was, I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend six weeks of my life in this one-horse town. But there was something about the family I liked. We hadn’t spent much time with Cathy but I got a reallygood vibe from her. And Pea was sweet. I wondered how her dinner date with Zak had gone.
Zak: I must have been in a really deep sleep when my alarm went off because it took me a while to come round. Maggie had asked at reception for a wakeup call for me. It was seven forty-five. If I got out of bed straight away, there’d be time for a shower before our breakfast. But I didn’t, and there wasn’t. Pea flashed into my brain, once and then again, and I smiled to myself. I’d listened to her Blur CD on my Discman twice after walking back to the hotel the previous night. The first time, I wasn’t sure about it, but by the second, I’d started to like some of the songs. They were catchy, and the lyrics were a bit unexpected. I was planning to listen to it once more before giving it back to her that day.
Maggie: I got to the hotel restaurant at three minutes to eight. Zak arrived at about twenty past, and by that time I was on my second bowl of fruit and my third coffee.
Zak: Maggie and I hadn’t had much chance to catch up the day before, because she’d wanted to go to her room and call her husband when we got back to the hotel, and then I’d gone out with Pea. She got straight in there, asking me what I thought of the park. More specifically, what I thought AJ would think. I said I thought it was perfect. She looked surprised.
Maggie: He definitely hadn’t thought it was perfect the day before. Something had changed.
Zak: She asked me whether something had happened with Pea, and I was back there for a moment, my hands on her warm skin and my lips on hers. My face must have given it away.
Maggie: I couldn’t believe it. We’d been there less than twenty-four hours and he’d seduced the daughter! Sorry… I don’t mean to laugh. It’s not a joke, but, it did strike me as funny at the time!
