David and I pulled up at the Olympia Exhibition Hall where the 70s Music and Fashion Festival was held. And of course, it was packed. The driver let us out at the back of the building where we could easily avoid the fans that swarmed around the festival.

“Stay close by me alright?” David pulled me tightly against him.

I’ve been to enough concerts to know what I should or shouldn’t do.

We walked into a room that was full of people, and neither of us could see Syd. I grabbed a chair and sat down while David walked over to pick up a bass guitar.

“I thought you were playing lead guitar?”

“No, Syd will play lead on his own songs,” he chuckled.

“That makes sense.” I felt a bit dumb for asking.

Luckily, Syd showed up with his guitar and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Him, David, and Jerry Shirley, who was the drummer, walked out of the room and onto the stage. I watched from the side like every other concert.

They opened up with Terrapin, which always brought chills down my spine. The audience was moving to the groove of the wonderful tune and then they picked up the pace by playing Gigolo Aunt.

“Are you supposed to be back here?” A man crept up beside me and asked.

“I’m with David Gilmour.” I replied sternly.

“Yeah, right, and I’m with the Queen.”

“She’s with the band, leave her alone, mate.” Syd’s manager told him.

He shot a double take at me and turned around to walk away.

“Thanks.” I smiled friendly.

“No worries, love.” He replied.

After they finished the Effervescing Elephant, they began to play the Octopus, which I sang along to. It was such a catchy tune, and I’m pretty sure that the crowd was singing it too.

However, Syd didn’t look like he wanted to be on stage. He was acting rather strange, and he would do odd things. Half of the time he wasn’t really singing into the microphone.

The show lasted a little less than 20 minutes, and the “band” came back stage. We sat around in the room for a bit until Syd grabbed his things and left.

“Are we going to stay for the rest of it?” He asked. 

“You can, I want to go see Courtney actually.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No it’s alright!” I smiled. “I’ll see you tonight.”

He kissed me. “I love you.”

“I love you.” I giggled walked away.

I jumped in a cab and told the driver the address of Courtney’s apartment. I sat quietly in the backseat as I looked out the window at the streets of London passing me by. I was actually quite nervous to see her since my last visit was quite scary. The last thing I wanted was a best friend who doesn’t even recognize me because of the drugs.

But when I got there, I really didn’t expect to see what I did.

The entire flat was filled with smoke and the smell of booze and pot lingered in the air. There were about 15 people crammed all around in their fucked up haze. It was disgusting, really.

“Courtney?!” I shouted as I walked around.

“Hello?” I heard her answer.

I turned around and saw her sitting against the wall with some stranger. “Who are all of these people?” I asked.

“Uhm…” she leaned forward to look at them all. “That’s Brian… that’s Mark… or Mike… I don’t know what his name is!” she giggled.

I looked at her in disgust. “What the hell is wrong with you?” I said a little meaner than I had hoped to.

“Oh lighten up, Em. It’s just a little fun!”

“No, this is fucking pathetic.” I looked at her closely and she stood up onto her feet, almost falling over.

“What’s gotten into you?” She furrowed her eyebrows.

“You’re asking me that? I should have never let you taken that damn drug. Look at you, Court! Who the hell are you?”

She giggled and looked down at the stranger she was sitting next to. She slowly turned her head back at me and rubbed her hand along her face as she let out giggles. “I don’t know!” she burst into laughter.

I shook my head in disbelief. Courtney was never this bad when it came to drugs, and I felt like it was my fault for letting her take the acid. Who else’s fault would it be?

“Talk to me when you’re not a drugged up bitch.” I snapped. I really didn’t mean to say it.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Emma!” She sarcastically yelled. “I’m sorry that no one can date the fucking lead guitarist of Pink fucking Floyd and have a perfect fucking life!” Every swear word was emphasized as she spat the words out of her mouth. “You know, I wish I never brought you to that damn party back in 68’!”

“Little too late for that, you think?” I sneered.

Just then, she slapped me right across the face, her long nails cutting right beside my eye. I took a step back and put my hand over the burning scrape I could feel.

I took one last look at her. One last emotionless glare before I stormed out of her flat. Would she even remember any of it? Probably not.

--

The door to my flat flew open when I walked in, and slammed at the force of my push. David quickly set his guitar down and came up close to me.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

I walked directly to the bathroom and grabbed a washcloth before running it under cold water. I dabbed it to my face gently.

“What happened to your eye, Em?”

I looked in the mirror and noticed how my cheek was all red, with the clear red line of where her nail scratched me. It was a pretty bad scrape, not to be dramatic.

“Emma! I can’t help you if you don’t tell me!” he became frustrated at my silence.

I turned and stared at him as he looked back at me, confused and worried. I took a deep breath in and began to tell him everything.

“I should have gone with you.” He told me as he was inches from my face, dabbing the cold cloth onto the wound. I stared into his captivating blue eyes.

“It wouldn’t have changed anything.”

“No one lays a finger on my girl.” He concluded.

It was quite for a bit until he finished helping me. I jumped off the bathroom counter and walked out into the living room.

“David?” I asked in a sweet voice. “Can you play me a song on guitar now?”

He smiled and kissed me before going over to pick up his guitar. He began to play “Here, There, and Everywhere” by the Beatles so perfectly and smoothly until we turned off all the lights and crawled into bed.

Every morning, I would wake up and go through a day that no one could predict; but it was all worth it in the end. All hours of the day, I looked forward to cuddling in his arms. No one else mattered.

And all those things that people say about us will never make me change my mind. David and I have each other forever, and we both know it.