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‘The letter dude?’ Eden was gasping for breath now.
‘You pierce my heart,’ I recited, proud as a peacock. A super dumb peacock.
‘It’s soul. You pierce my soul.’
‘You pierce my soul,’ I corrected. ‘I am half agony, half hope.’ I looked at her, and she was shaking with laughter, wiping tears from her chin. She looked so freaking happy my heart hurt. ‘I can go on. I’ll recite it right now, don’t press me, man.’
The moment I called her ‘man’ as if she were my best dude friend, I knew I was done for. The laughter overtook me too, and we collapsed on the dead leaves, laughing, hands gripped tight, legs all tangled up, giggling until we had no air left in our lungs.
‘Wait,’ I gasped at one point, looking down at our hands. ‘Isn’t there an Austen dude who says ‘are those your hands or mine? I can’t tell the difference’?’
‘It’s Angel Clare,’ Eden said in a whisper. She had stopped laughing and was just calm now. Happy. Tired from all that breathless joy. ‘He’s in Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Also known as, ‘you’re way off’.’
I laughed, but it was a quiet laugh, not hysterical like before. She was staring at our hands too. Her fingers where tiny and pale, mine calloused from playing the guitar. I pressed her fingers hard, and she pressed mine back.
Of course I was way off. Who could concentrate on Angel Clare and Tess of the D’Urbervilles when Eden was here next to me, breathing, laughing, alive?
‘Right, it’s Angel Clare,’ I said, as if I had any idea what the heck I was talking about.
I felt her smile.
I hadn’t even kissed her yet back then—our first kiss would happen much later. But I could tell when she was smiling without looking at her.
I was looking up at the sky, but my heart was looking at her. It’s the only way I can explain it.
And then I said, ‘And it’s us, too.’
The Elliot sisters chat room
Eden: You said to update you, so I’m updating you.
Update one: I met Theodore Vanderau, the supermodel. He cried and told me that my words saved his life. Then he asked me if I was ok and he said he would be staying next to me for the rest of the show ‘in case I needed a friend’. He’s next to me as I type this. Totally reading it. Smirking. Theodore Vanderau. Surreal.
Update two: This is the best show I’ve ever been to, hands down. It’s raining, did you know that? Have you seen the rain in your Instagram lives, Fee? It’s pure magic.
Update three: There’s a new song. It’s bringing up all sorts of memories. I can’t believe he did that. I can’t believe he remembered, word for word…
Update four: I’m crying. The whole stadium is crying. I think Isaiah is crying too.Whilehe sings. He’s not hiding it.
Update five: I can’t believe it. He has put entire conversations we had in his song. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Those are our exact words from six years ago. Six years, guys. I thought I was the only one who remembered them pathetically like that, word for word, But no.
Update six: Not Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Freaking Tess.
Update seven: He read my poems. He included Easter eggs about my poems in the song.
Update eight: ‘Don’t press me, man’. He said that. He really did! He remembered. He… I’m having a stroke.
Manuela: Eden, honey, are you ok?
Eden: No, I’m not. Update nine: Issy Woo wrote a song for me.
forty
I have put everything into this song.
Everything I am right now and everything I have ever been, I have put it into this song.
It’s drowned in memories, but it’s also the life raft that might save me from these memories. It’s everything everything. Both musically and artistically. It’s soft rock, but it’s also a ballad. It’s got a nice little rhythm and the simple chord sequence of a happy, pop song. It’s an easy song to love. The audience picks up the melody and starts humming along from the chorus onwards.
