Part 31/?
A Broken Sixpence
Part 31.
Sheffield; Post Band Rehearsal.
For someone who’d struggled to get three hours sleep, Alex was functioning pretty well. He even managed to write half a song on the train. If anything, he just needed a bowl of pasta, that would put him right. He was softly rubbing his tummy as he wondered where he could get that from without having to go home. On spying his habit he didn’t know he had, everyone else knew it was time to break.
He got a lift into town, taking his guitar with him. Waving the car off, he looked down the pathway and summoned his remaining strength. The light outside the door told him Emma was home, and the way her door opened immediately warned him she had been waiting keenly.
’Alex, so glad you’re home’
‘Yeah, I’m….back.’ Her stifling hug meant a curl of blond hair had insinuated itself into his mouth as he spoke, and he hastened to remove it and to step back.
‘You coming in ?’ she was pulling him along up the path. He felt irrationally angry about her insistence, her enthusiasm and her grip on his hand. He halted her, ‘I have to eat, I really can’t be long.’
She tilted her head at him and quickly pondered this boy enigma. On paper this was a no-hoper, a moderately successful local Indie kid waiting on some money and recognition. A boy that absolutely never had a girlfriend. No-one dared to suggest Alex was gay, that was made clear from the sex after gigs and the drunken confessions. Being unobtainable just made him even more desirable. All of the pleas from her friends and stern reminders from herself couldn’t usurp the charm of Alex’s face. That face prevented her from just getting a real boyfriend. Why would she want anyone else while this face had been in her life ? And such flawed logic led again to her trying to win him around.
‘I’ll cook, what do you want ?’
The starving Alex refused ‘I just want to get this over with, I ain’t got time for you to cook.’ Even he felt how sharp his words were. ‘I’ll come in for a slice of toast though’ he offered, taking her arm and allowing her to carry the Gibson and letting her lean her head to his shoulder as they walked.