The first time I saw Noel Fielding I was sitting in the Velvet Onion, watching my best friend get absolutely wasted. I mean obviously I wasn't there for the soul purpose of that, that would be rather silly. She and her boyfriend at the time had just broken up and I had been called to go out with her on "best friend duty" which I didn't know even existed to be truthful. Anyway back to Noel.
Jackie (said best friend, duh) had snagged some guy into the booth with us and was eating his face or some other activity while I cringed and tried not to look. Luckily for me, when I looked away I caught a much nicer sight. A tall, pale, beautifully hair styled sight. Unfortunately he was making out with some girl, but still, better than looking at my friend doing the same thing, right? Around twenty minutes later I bailed, Jackie said she was fine and urged me to leave with her eyes, not to mention text message when her and her randomly selected man separated faces. Oddly enough, the next time I saw Noel it was only a week later.
I work in a café with a small bookstore included, which is incredibly exciting as you can imagine. So when I heard shouts outside I couldn't help but peek through one of the heavy velvet curtains. See, it's a rather odd little store, all of our windows are covered and you'd almost think it was Halloween all year round but, hey, I definitely am not complaining. Anyway, right as I peeked through, the bell on the door rang and all I caught by the time I looked that way was a blur running and ducking behind a small bookshelf. Obviously intrigued I crept over and knocked on the wood, hoping that whoever had barged in wasn't going to attack me or be a robber or any of those other crazy situations that I had often spent shifts thinking about.
"Hey uhm…you alright down there?" I'm sure I sounded nervous but at the time I was…well yeah, nervous.
"Did anyone follow me in?" I raised an eyebrow, not caring that whoever was down there couldn't see me. Obviously the bell would have been rung if anyone else had entered. Sighing, I walked over and locked the door.
"No, and I've locked the door so can you please stand up and tell me what's going on here now?" I can still remember (and have a little chuckle) at the look on his face when his head slowly came up over the bookshelf. He looked like a paranoid mouse to be exact. And then he looked confused.
"Wait a minute, where are ya from? You haven't got an accent!" His face then, had turned into a smile. Talk about a roller coaster!
"Err, yeah well, that's because I'm from Canada, so yeah. Anyway, can we get back to the part about me finding out what exactly is going on?" I hated when people pointed out that I didn't have an accent, as if I didn't know! I had moved here three years ago on a whim and it was something that never stopped coming up. Surely I'd be used to it by now, but nope.
"Oh! That's wicked! Ah, and I was out trying to get some shopping done and this girl and her mates saw me and the must have called some more girls because suddenly there were tons of 'em and I decided to leave and they all followed! Luckily your shop here was a little out of the way and they didn't notice me pop in. Thanks by the way love." He had a cheeky smile on his face and I couldn't help but smile a little, he was pretty cute. It was around then that I realized that this was the same guy from the Velvet Onion! In fact…if I recalled correctly he was even wearing the same shirt and oddly fashionable silver boots. If he was anything like me then perhaps he had been in the middle of 'laundry week' as I liked to call it.
"Alrighty then, So what's your name then? And no worries, not like I could have really said no anyway. You can call me Roxie"
"I'm Noel, Noel Fielding. Is that your real name or is that just what I get to call ya?" He had a smirk on his face and I gave a little chuckle, finally something that I could relate to, good old sarcasm.
"Nah that's my name. nice to meet you Noel." I offered him a seat and got us some coffee. " so what are your plans now? Think the coast is clear then?" I watched as he made his coffee, noting that he liked his sugar with coffee and creme.
"Well, I can't say I'm in a huge rush to leave if ya don't mind, I mean, unlock your door though, don't let me affect your business or anything." I sat my coffee down and quickly unlocked the door, hoping that nobody had tried to come in because I can't say that I had been paying attention.
Sitting back down, I noticed that he looked a little surprised.
"Oh I can't join you? Well I'm inviting myself, not much else to do anyway." He laughed and took a drink of his coffee. "So tell me about yourself, I recognize you from the Velvet Onion last week, not to sound like a creep, but other than that all I know is that you get chased around by groups of girls for some reason." He looked confused but seemed to remember when I was talking about.
"Oh that was a horrible night." He cringed a little and fluffed his hair nervously. "I was right out of my mind that night, hasn't been a good couple of weeks you see. But anyway, as for the girls…well it's not as weird as ya might think, I swear! I guess you could say I'm kind of a celebrity over here. Ever heard of The Mighty Boosh?" Laughing at my confused looking face I assumed, he continued on. "Well me and some of my mates had this tv show on BBC 3 and it all kind of started from here, I do another one now, maybe you'll have heard of that one, Never Mind the Buzzcocks?"
"Oh! I've seen that a few times but I really can't say I've ever seen you on it, although I haven't watched it in a while so maybe that's why, unless this is all a scheme of course and you're really just some guy off the street?" I smirked and he put a hand over his chest.
"Roxie that hurts, I would never!" We both laughed and then his mobile went off. Apologizing to me, he answered it.
"Hello? A'right, yeah I'll meet you there in 'round twenty minutes then? Cheers." Hanging up, he slipped his phone back in his pocket. "Well love, that's my cue I suppose, thanks for 'avin me though!" And with that he was gone, rushed right out the door. Sitting a little disappointed, I pulled my own cell out to send Jackie a text: 'the weirdest thing just happened to me…explain more when I get home…prepare to be confused because I sure am.' Hearing the bell ring, I quickly shoved it back in my pocket and stood up, grabbing the coffee cups on the way to greet whoever had come in.
"Sorry again, I know it might seem a little cheeky but I was wonderin' if I could grab your number? Not often I can just talk to someone and not have them think of me as some weird celebrity to be honest" He had a shy smile on his face and I really couldn't have said no if I had wanted to…which I didn't (duh, obviously a babe, though we established this already). Nodding, I snagged a napkin off of the counter and jotted down my number and name for him, folded it, and handed it over. He grinned, chirped out a 'cheers love' and was out as fast as he was the time before. I shook my head and smiled, a small blush on my face, and grabbed my phone out again.
'Definitely gonna have to chat when I get home, you probably won't even believe me!' Jackie was going to be so anxious to hear what I had to say, she was terrible at waiting. I slid it back and continued to sort the newly released books. What a strange day.