My Teenage Romance

“How far have you got with him?” Frank inquired.
“Frank!”
“Oh, that far.”
“We’ve only been dating a month!”
“Have you kissed yet?” Ray asked, rolling his eyes at Frank.
“No,” I admitted.
“You haven’t?!” Frank exclaimed.
“No,” I sighed, adding hastily, “But I want my fist kiss to be just right, all romantic, not rushed because it’s what should happen. I would think you and Bob would understand that, Frank.” I finished smugly. Everyone laughed.
“It seems we have a mini Leah Miller on our hands.” Bob observed.
“Minus the bugs.” Mikey added.
“Oh, Geesus!” I cried.
“What the fuck?!” Gerard laughed.

“How’s the tour going?” I asked.
“Great!” Bob replied.
“My friend’s and I’ve got tickets to your N.Y. show. Standing. We’re gonna try and be at the front. We’ve been obsessing over it for months, ever since we got the tickets! We greet each other with, ‘Thirty five days left!’, and then run round having spazz attacks!”
“So you and your friends are big MCR fans?” Alicia asked.
“Obsessive. I quote them all the time, we all do. My school either doesn’t know them, or hates them. Besides my English teacher, she’s just as obsessed as we are! She’s coming to the show too, it’s gonna be so weird!” I laughed.

“I’m so bummed you couldn’t make it to our wedding. It would have been even more of a blast with you there.” Mikey remarked randomly.
“Aww, I feel loved!” I smiled.
“You should always feel loved, because no matter what, we’ll always love you, as a fan, a friend and a relative too.” Gerard said seriously. I was so moved, I almost burst in to tears.
“That’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.” I whispered, my voice choked with emotion. Gerard squeezed my hand gently under the table.

“So how are you celebrating your birthday?” Frank asked.
“I’m having a sleepover with all my friends, and your concert.” I replied, smiling at the thought of a whole four days of uninterrupted bliss with my friends. “It’s kinda weird being the only Brit in the school. Random people come up to me and ask about the Spice Girls and Oasis and other British bands! A senior asked me what it’s like having a monarch the other day, I was like, ‘Umm… you tend to hate the PM instead, there’s a kinda respect there so that whatever he or she does, you can’t hate the monarchy.’ it was weird!”

“PM?” Bob asked, looking really confused.
“Prime Minister.” I explained.

On the way back to my house, a sing-a-long started. It consisted of ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’, as covered by MCR, ‘Yule Shoot Your Eye Out’ by Fall Out Boy and ‘All I Want…’ again.
“I’m so happy Carrie has joined our ranks and become a music fan! She’s addicted to Green Day, and she’s developed a taste for Simple Plan and other American punk bands!” I remarked after the second singing of ‘All I Want…’
“Green Day, eh?” Mikey smirked.

“Yeah…” I murmured, getting out of the car bemusedly. There was a cluster of people, reporters, it seemed and random teenagers. “Not again…” I remembered vividly the experience outside my school in England similar to this about three years ago, and sighed, doing exactly the wrong thing, and only realising this when it was too late. With my father, uncle, aunt and the rest of the band behind me I tapped one of the reporters on her shoulder and asked her to let me through.
“Hey, it’s MCR!”

“Who are you?”
“What are you?”
“How are you in the band?” I then spent the next ten minutes being pelted with questions such as these, the stupidest of which being, ‘Why should we listen to you?’ to which I replied,
“What do you think I am; a politician?!”

After my father telling them all to ‘back off, she’s just a kid, and she’s my daughter!’ I squeezed back in to the house.
“What in fuck’s name was that?” I sighed.
“Never mind that, how did they know where to come?” Frank wondered.
“Some kind of media leak, I guess.” I replied, running a hand through my hair exasperatedly.
“This, this is not good.” Mikey breathed, flopping on the sofa.
“Really, Mikes, I had no idea!” Gerard exclaimed sarcastically, flopping next to his brother.
“Let’s hope that they won’t start following you.” Frank said to me. I laughed slightly and remarked,
“I can’t be that interesting!”
“You’d be surprised. You’ve been kept unintentionally secret for fifteen years, all your life, and then, bam! You’re exposed. They’re gonna be interested, especially with the, err… impulsive fans.” Alicia explained, smiling a little.
“She’s right. I remember when Alicia and I got married, it was manic!” Mikey reminisced.
“Well,” I sighed, sitting on Mikey’s other side, “I am not afraid to keep on living. I’m gonna carry on. I’m gonna try to stop quoting you guys so much!”
“That would be a very good idea!” Ray laughed.

‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’, the MCR version began playing from my phone, signalling that I had a call, so I excused myself to my bedroom and answered it.
“Hi, Quinn.”
“Hi, honey. How was it?”
“Great, thanks!” I beamed.
“What’s your aunt like?”
“She’s really nice, and really pretty!” Quinn laughed. I smiled, imagining the cute way his nose wrinkles up when he does laugh, the tinkling tones like music to my ears. I sighed lovingly, forgetting that he could hear me.
“What?” He asked, still laughing slightly.
“Oh, nothing, nothing.” I smiled. “Just happy I found you.”
“Aww, honey, that’s so sweet! I am so lucky to be going out with you!” I could hear the emotion in Quinn’s voice. There was also a hint of something else, something hard to place. I dismissed it from my mind and concentrated on the conversation.
“So, how does babysitting a friend’s brother tomorrow after school sound?”
“How old is he?” I asked sceptically.
“Eleven. He’s cool, I agreed to come over and help my friend look after him, and he said his sister wanted some female company as all his friends and a load of hers are guys. So I said I’d ask you. It’ll be a blast, like an intimate party.” Quinn assured me.
“If my dad and grandparents say yes, I’ll go.”
“Thanks, honey!”