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Gene knocked on the door before Liam opened the door and told him and his older brother Lennon to go in. They were round Noel's house for the big match.
Noel hadn't bothered to get up or even shout for them to come in because he knew they would walk straight in anyway. Plus he was upstairs, Sonny was up from his nap and Noel was tasked with convincing him to get dressed.
"No!" Sonny rejected the jeans Noel tried to give him.
"Come on, we haven't got all fucking day. Just get dressed!" Noel told him impatiently.
He shook his head. "No!"
Noel passed him jogging bottoms. "You love these, put them on or you're staying in your room."
Sonny very reluctantly put them on and then sat with his arms firmly crossed. "I want Mam! She helps me."
"Mam's gone out." he told his son. "You're three, you can put clothes on."
Sara was out with Liam's (very recently divorced) ex wife Nicole since they didn't want to be around when football was on.
"Hmm." Sonny exclaimed moodily, missing his Mum.
"D'you know what top you're wearing? What's happening this afternoon?" Noel questioned, knowing that'd change his mood.
Sonny thought for a moment. He'd had the nap for something special but he was just waking up, he couldn't remember and his Dad didn't seem to be in a good mood so he didn't want to get it wrong. "Football?"
"Good lad." Noel threw him his City shirt and he put it on. "D'you want shoes?"
Noel had decided not to wear his City shirt, instead he'd chosen a dark polo shirt even though he knew Paul was wearing his and Liam definitely would be too, and the kids.
Sonny shook his head and jumped off his bed. "Are we gonna win?"
"Yeah, course we are. It's West Ham and the Scousers have let their chances slip." he said confidently.
Noel took him downstairs where everyone was sat around in the living room. He smiled, seeing all the lads in his family together. Even Paul was over for the day.
They already had the pre match talk on. The commentators were obsessed with how Liverpool just might finish on top. They'd have to win and City lose. Nobody in this house and this city wanted that to happen, not even the United fans.
"Who wants a drink, beer?"
"Me." Lennon answered.
Noel looked at Liam, silently asking if he had permission since Lennon was fourteen.
"You can have one IF we're winning at half time." Liam decided.
"Pop all around then?" Noel suggested, he couldn't drink since he was in charge of Donovan and Sonny as well as his guests.
Liam stood up. "What beer you got in?"
He was wearing a sky blue City shirt, a pretty old one but nevertheless he was representing his team. His youngest Gene was wearing a City shirt too whereas Lennon had chosen to wear a band t-shirt, the Arctic Monkeys.
He and Noel went into the kitchen. "Just y'know beer."
Noel got out glasses out for everyone while Liam raided the fridge.
"Tesco value, really? For fucking match day? How the fuck are we supposed to celebrate with that cheap crap?" Liam complained when he only found six packs of Tesco's cheapest.
"Sara was made redundant, alright?" Noel admitted. "Why d'you think we've not got tickets?"
They kept it quiet for a while but they were kind of struggling with only Noel's income, he was a repairman for British Gas.
Plus they didn't have tickets because their club's recent success meant ticket prices had skyrocketed. There was no way they could afford to go now.
"Sorry man." Liam responded, feeling guilty for getting at his brother. "She'll find something else."
"It's Manchester, in a recession though." Noel pointed out.
"But... We're about to be champions again." Liam responded to lift Noel's spirits.
"How's things going with you?" Noel asked, wishing he shared his brothers optimism.
"Well I got fucked over by another American bird, second marriage ruined." he said, pretending it wasn't affecting him at all.
Noel knew everything that had happened there and that was as close to an admission of how Liam was feeling about it all that Noel was going to get. He already knew Liam had an affair with some American bird called Liza who had only been over here a few months on a work placement, now she was back in the States and pregnant.
"It'll be alright. Nicole's still friendly, right? And you've still got your boys." Noel said, not really knowing what to say.
He felt sorry for Liam but he'd brought it on himself, again. There was just something about American birds that turned his head.
They took the beers, bottles of pop and glasses into the living room and got comfy on the sofas.
"D'you remember when you were in that band?" Paul asked.
He'd been reminiscing a lot, remembering what his family was like when they were young. His brothers were certain they'd be famous but it just never worked out.
"Yeah, what were we called?" Liam asked with a fond smile.
"Oasis!" Noel remembered, the memories from twenty years ago flooding back.
"Like the drink?" Donovan asked his Dad with a frown.
"No, like the... like one of the flyers Paul had." Noel explained, he vaguely remembered them being named after some venue.
"What happened? Were you shit?" Lennon asked.
"There was this gig in Glasgow but we never got the money for the van, after that we couldn't be fucking bothered with it." Liam explained. "Weren't getting gigs, we were sick of that piss stain rehearsal room at the Boardwalk."
"You never wanted to be there from the start, it was only me taking it seriously and it was driving us all mad." Noel pointed out. "It would've ended in a massive bust up."
"Cos Hitler woulda been a more chilled manager than you."
"Sorry for recognising you had a good voice and trying to make us a proper band." Noel couldn't imagine what had happened if they had gotten signed, the stress and tension would have killed them all.
"Have you still got the songs you wrote?" Paul asked, regretting bringing it up because it had brought up bad tension too.
"And the demo tapes, they're in the loft or something." Noel shrugged.
The teams walked out onto the pitch, at the Etihad, City's stadium. Everyone in the room abandoned their conversation and sang Blue Moon with the crowd, full of pride and anticipation for the match.
At halftime the game was still goalless. Elsewhere (thirty four miles away) Liverpool were hopeless Škrtel scored an own goal for Newcastle and there'd been no other goals.
Lennon looked at his Dad longingly, they weren't winning the game but they were still winning the league. "Can I have that beer now?"
"Yeah, go for it." Liam didn't mind but he knew Patsy would but he'd deal with that later.
They spent half time chatting commenting on what the commentators were saying, not agreeing with a word of it because they were dissing City's performance.
Nolan scored for West ham straight after the break. Suddenly City were behind and fighting for the title, they were never going to win comfortably.
"He's a fucking Scouse, in't he?" Liam said putting his head in his hands. "He's giving it them."
He couldn't accept that his team weren't playing well, that they weren't going to finish champions if they carried on like this.
Carroll scored West Ham's second at about fifty minutes. Now they were two down.
They all moaned and groaned and spat angry comments at the screen. Noel pointed out Carroll had transferred from Liverpool. It was nothing to do with the fact that they were West Ham's best goal scorers.
An update flashed up at sixty three minutes Agger had equalised for Liverpool.
"Bet the Scousers are partying." Liam commented mardily.
Liverpool weren't even winning yet but he was right everyone was already partying at Anfield, demanding that winning goal. A draw wasn't enough, it'd leave them a point behind even with City losing.
"They've been celebrating for fucking ages." Noel responded. "They're all mad and we've got plenty of time."
Two minutes later Sturridge scored. Liverpool was winning.
"Oh for fucks sake!" Paul, Noel and Liam exclaimed together.
A minute later, another update. Ameobi had been sent off for Newcastle. Liverpool was against ten while City were still dealing with eleven and finding no return.
Everyone was begging City to pull it back, they just needed two goals and there was still about fifteen minutes left for them to be found. Even Sonny was and he didn't really understand it yet, being three.
Another update popped up. Eighty seven minutes, Dummett was gone too and Newcastle only had nine on the pitch now.
They watched the clock tick down dreading the final result, watching their team just about defend from conceding any more.
The whistle went and the players marched off, the score was nothing to West Ham, they'd stay in thirteenth but it meant EVERYTHING to City and EVEN MORE to Liverpool.
"Turn it off." Paul ordered. "I can't watch the Scousers. No way!"
Noel switched the tv channel quickly, he couldn't watch either but it wouldn't stop half of the other side of the Mersey buzzing, they'd party all night like the City lads had the last time they won.
"Have we not won?" Sonny asked, feeling the suddenly deflated atmosphere in the room.
That made it so much worse for the older members of the room, having to explain City's failure to young Sonny.