Heartbreaker by Julie Morrigan Read Free Book Online

fully-fledged member of Purple Helix.
     
     
     

Chapter 11
    ‘Although what Andy and Tiff must have thought when they heard the racket Tom made as they went downstairs I fear to think,’ Johnny told Alex. ‘He was lying on his back, howling at the ceiling. He wanted to pay Tiffany to wear her school uniform to gigs. He reckoned that if anything could spur him on to greater things, that was it.
    ‘We put Good Morning Little Schoolgirl into the set to shut Tom up and then practised with Andy for a couple of weeks before we got back into gigging. We sounded so much better with him in the line-up that we were all glad that Chris Preston had left, even though there was nothing wrong with his voice. Andy was more intuitive in his interpretation of lyrics, though, and he had a hell of a range. It made a real difference.
    ‘We played a lot of gigs, pulled a lot of pints, washed a lot of dishes and busked a lot of street corners and tube stations. We had good times, bad times, and we had some really, truly awful times. In fact, it was around that time that I got my heart broken for the first time.’ He smiled sadly. ‘Erica Lawson. Blonde, corkscrew curls and big blue eyes. Sweetest smile you ever saw. I was twenty-one, I thought I was so grown up and sophisticated, living in London, playing in a band. Erica was eighteen.’ Johnny rubbed his eyes. ‘Fancy a coffee?’ Alex nodded and he got up to put the kettle on.
    ‘We’d played our regular Thursday night spot at The Red House, we’d opened for Rogues and Rascals, I think it was.’ He laughed. ‘Their lead singer was permanently out of it. He fancied himself as David Bowie and he kept trying to get the right drug combo to make his pupils odd sizes.’
    ‘Didn’t David Bowie have an accident or something?’
    Johnny nodded. ‘He told me it happened when he was scrapping with his mate over a girl, it isn’t anything to do with drugs. But back then this guy was having a lot of fun trying to get the look.’ He brought a couple of mugs and a cafetière over to the table and sat down again. ‘When we finished the set, me and Tom got chatted up by Erica and her sister Avril. They were twins, identical to look at but with very different personalities. Avril was the gobby one, she made a beeline for Tom. Erica was my girl.’ He grinned. ‘Christ, I adored her. Wrote her poems, would you believe. Then took her to the park and held her hand while I read them to her.’
    Alex smiled, imagined him as a young man in love, courting his girl. It was a sweet image.
    ‘She must have thought I was daft as a brush. I was serious, though. I was thinking about asking her to get engaged. I didn’t think as far ahead as marriage, not then, but I thought we might live together. I was going to ask Tom how he felt about her moving into the flat.’ He pushed down the plunger on the cafetière and poured for them both.
    ‘What happened?’ asked Alex.
    ‘Her sister. She played a trick on me and I fell for it. It cost me my girl.’
     
     
     

Chapter 12
    Summer, 1972
    Tom and Johnny had a crowd round one Sunday following a lunchtime gig. The girls were in matching dresses, Avril’s blue and Erica’s pink. Johnny was on his way back to the kitchen, half-pissed, semi-stoned, when he was ambushed and pulled into his bedroom. The room was dim in the afternoon light, filtered as it was through thin curtains that Johnny rarely bothered to open. Someone had lit an incense stick; the air was cloyingly sweet. He saw Erica as if in a dream, saw the pink dress dance around her thighs as she pushed the door to behind them and covered his mouth with hers. Johnny responded automatically, kissing his girl and holding on to her for support.
    ‘Love?’ He knotted his fingers in her hair. ‘What …?’
    ‘Shhh.’ She put a finger to his lips, stood on tiptoe to breathe in his ear. ‘Don’t talk. Someone might hear.’ Then she kissed him again.
    Johnny didn’t think it was likely anyone