AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The baby has been kickingme all evening. The first time I felt it I just couldn’t cope with how magically emotional it made me feel. I called Max and he came running like an athlete through the apartment to try and find me. He cried as his hands rested on my belly and he felt his little girl kicking like a good’un.
I can feel myself smiling wildly over at Max. He’s sitting on the floor, cross legged acoustic guitar in his lap, quietly plucking whilstNirvanaplays in the background and something about this new normal we have found ourselves in is making me feel whole. Like we’re heading in the completely right direction even if some of the lines of our relationship are getting a little blurred.
“You know you’d think I’d be bored of all your emo music, but I bloody love this song.” I smile over at him.
“Emo! Ali, this is Grunge. Early 90’s Grunge. The proper stuff,” he assures me with a knowing look, and I can’t help the smile that tugs at my lips again.
“But you like it?” he asks.
“I do!”
“Heart-Shaped Box, You know it’s apparently about—”
I cut him off.
“Courtney Love’s vagina. I know.”
Max lets out a strong belly laugh and his smile is as wide and natural as it ever has been. I love him when he’s like this. Open and carefree. Worry free.
“But I still love it,” I tell him, and he nods again.
“It’s a bloody good song. Kurt’s a genius.”
“He is. You say this isn’t emo, but I’d sayKurt Cobainwas the king of my teenage heart, so…”
“I think there’s a story in there somewhere.”
“I think there is, Max,” I conclude, with a wink towards him. His cheeky smile reaches his eyes as he places his guitar off of his lap and scrabbles across the floor to come closer to me. Still on the floor, with me on the couch he looks up. Eyes wide and expectant as he takes my bare foot in his hands.
“Spill, Cannock.” He laughs and I roll my eyes as his hand runs along the ball of my foot.
“My first real boyfriend, Johnny Dawson.”
“Yes…” Max drawls at me as his skilful fingers twist and curl expertly over my foot.
“He was a big fan of Kurt and co. He knew I was too. He made me a heart shaped box in woodwork class in school and presented it with me at a senior school disco,” I say with a bubble of laughter.
“Have you still got it?” he asks me curiously.
“No, I don’t think so. It wasn’t exactly heart shaped, just the lid. But still.” My teenage heart thought it was the most romantic thing in the world.
“That probably took him days and days. I bet the poor bastard still thinks about that box and wonders what you did with it,” he tuts at me.
“Hmm, maybe.”
“Maybe what.” His eyes are curious.
“Maybe I just wasn’t that memorable for him.”
He laughs again.
“Angel, I very much doubt that. Was he your first?”
I laugh, feel my cheeks flush pink as I nod.
“How old were you?”
“We were both sixteen.”
