24

Out drinking on my birthday, I bumped into Cornelius from Swansea Love Story. He'd just been kicked out of his hostel for arguing with his girlfriend, Amy (who I saw falling out of a pub a few days later) and was tapping near one of the nightclubs. I sat next to him and we had a chat for about twenty minutes until a police van arrived. He told me the filmmakers had paid him a grand, and that he was bitter about his infamy in town for being "that junkie", whilst they profited from the film. (I noticed Andy Capper recently boasting on the vice website about having landed a deal with CNN.)
He went on to talk about a local businessman called Giuseppe who occasionally gives him some part-time work, and some other rather grim stories about not using condoms with Amy, and running from a man holding a dildo.
I asked him if he planned to go back to college one day, and he gave me a rehearsed answer; but I could see in his eyes there was no way back.


WIPERS - NO FAIR (1981)