Mr. Inhibition

Rob and Carol went at eleven and, as Dad is on nights, the house fell into funerary silence until he got up at two thirty. Thus the day passed.

Tonight was Claire’s birthday “do” and I was dreading it. I set off just after seven and walked down through Moxthorpe with growing butterflies. I was ushered in by Mrs. Pearson, who took my coat and showed me into the living room – Claire was already there, along with her boyfriend Adam Hilty (who is confident, mature and just as I imagined him), Claire's cousin John Jackson, her sister Linda and brother Trevor, and Deborah and Tony. Lee arrived shortly after, and then Christine C. and Adrian Butler and finally Evelyn.

Soon, with drinks flowing, everyone began dancing. I was Mr. Inhibition himself, and sat instead mixing shorts and getting gradually more and more pissed. I was sitting next to Evelyn and we talked most of the evening: I got her drinks and was generally quite sociable with her, which I suppose I enjoyed really.

Anyway, at the end of the night with most of the others gone Evelyn, Lee, John, Linda Pearson and I danced frenetically about, drinking QC out of the bottle while Claire tidied up. It really does break the ice, and I was being really friendly with everyone at the end. I got a lift home from Claire’s boyfriend (memories very vague here) and stumbled into bed feeling awful, the room lurching up, down and sideways.