KIMBERLY NOLAN:
With Jai, people saw his slacker image and stopped looking, but there was more to him than that. He took these pictures, just tuned out the world and found amazing things that we were all looking at but none of us could see. The bouncers didn’t know that, though, they just saw trouble. This wasted Asian boy who’d walked in with two black eyes. They were going overboard, pulling him out by the hair and stuff, so I guess there was some racism in it too. I started to follow them so I could explain and check he was okay, but I’d just been Exorcist-sick in the toilets. The floor was like jelly under my feet, so I stopped when I got to the stairs. I thought if I was leaving, I’d better find Zoe first and tell her. Something was wrong with me. I felt dizzy and sick, which was weird because I hadn’t even really been drinking.
FINTAN MURPHY:
If Kimberly says she hadn’t been drinking, then I suppose we have to take her word for it. There’s a first time for everything, after all.
LIU WAI:
Kim was plastered.
ANDREW FLOWERS:
No, I wasn’t counting Kim’s drinks, and no, I wasn’t spiking them either, if that’s what you’re asking me. She’d been gone for some time, so I just assumed she’d left when Jai got kicked out. Zoe and I weren’t getting along, and I could never quite stand Liu Wai, so I politely excused myself.
LIU WAI:
I think I was just saying that Jai had broken the rules, like, the club is nonsmoking. Andrew told me I could wank him off with a pair of chopsticks and stormed out. I mean, aside from being a low-level hate crime, doesn’t that imply to you that he’s got a small penis?
ANDREW FLOWERS:
I’m sure she remembers better than I do. I’m afraid I didn’t necessarily see Liu Wai as a person back then, she was just some strange Chinese tumor attached to my girlfriend.
LIU WAI:
I’m from fucking Essex.
FINTAN MURPHY:
Yes, Andrew and Zoe, the famous loving couple…
LIU WAI:
Andrew and Zoe were always challenging to be around. Nowadays, I think we’d call their relationship quite toxic? Just a kind of unsafe chemical spill of a couple. Like, the only possible solution for both parties was extraction. I’m sure Zoe was upset to see him go, she blamed herself when things were bad. It was just that most of the time, Andrew looked visibly uncomfortable around her? You’d see him sort of itching to get away.
But then he’d always be dropping in, always hanging around, always inviting himself out. A lot like Kim when you think about it. Given what happened between them all later, it’s one of those things you can’t help but torture yourself about afterwards. I mean, let’s get it straight. He never loved Zoe.
ANDREW FLOWERS:
Perhaps it might seem circumspect from the vantage point of years passed, but I truly couldn’t stand Fifth, and I’m sure that’s why I left. In nightclubs, as in life, it’s my opinion that too many cocks ruin the broth. And Jai couldn’t even remember his own name, couldn’t even remember his own PIN—believe me, I tried to get it for the cab fare. So, monstrously, yes, I decided to take him home rather than let him sleep it off in the gutter. If I’d known Kim was struggling that night, I’d have taken her home too. That’s just the kind of guy I am.
FINTAN MURPHY:
A selfless act from Andrew Flowers? Another first. After recent events, I’d say we all know for certain what kind of guy he is…
LIU WAI:
I want to be fair, but honestly? I don’t know what Zoe ever saw in him. I consider Andrew Flowers to be one of the most unpleasant human beings I’ve ever encountered.
KIMBERLY NOLAN:
Well, Liu lives to judge people. I’m not saying she’s wrong on Andrew, but being cynical about everything doesn’t make you Nostradamus.
JAI MAHMOOD:
If Andrew really did take me home, it’s probably because it suited whatever was happening in Flowers-land.
KIMBERLY NOLAN:
We all scattered, and when I got back to the booth where I’d left them, the only thing I could find of Zoe’s was her bright-red jacket. I was feeling so weird, I couldn’t tell how long I’d been gone, so I think I assumed they’d all left without me. They were probably just on the dance floor or something. Fifth’s this typical Manchester nightclub, a sweatbox that never drops below boiling point.
I was shivering, though.
My teeth were chattering and I was breaking out in goose bumps, so I grabbed Zoe’s jacket and put it on. The room’s this wide-open mezzanine-type space, like the Roman Colosseum or something—you can see the top floor from the bottom and everything just surrounds you. There was a song playing, “Flux” by Bloc Party, the part where the singer starts screaming “We need to talk” over and over again. And I knew then, from the way I was frozen stiff and the room was looming down on me, from the way everyone had vanished and this song kept insisting, “We need to talk, we need to talk,” I knew something bad was happening to us.
FINTAN MURPHY:
Jai’s absolutely correct, I wasn’t out that night, and I’ve never claimed otherwise. I don’t drink for a start. I’m sure Zoe invited me, but I suppose I was busy or not in the mood. The reason I can discuss those events with some certainty is that I went there the following day looking for Zoe’s missing jacket. She’d emailed me mentioning how upset she was to have misplaced it, so I thought I’d see if it was in the lost property to surprise her.
In the event, it was me who ended up being surprised.