My Teenage Romance

“Hey, Gee, you don’t have a problem with me babysitting with Quinn tomorrow after school, do you?” I whispered.
“No, go ahead!” He smiled.
“Thanks! Where’s Joe? Joe!”
“I don’t mind!” my grandfather laughed, a can of Diet Coke in his hand as he came in to the living room and sat in his armchair.

“Quinn, I’ll do it, they say yes!” I informed him.
“Yay! I wanna thank your Dad!”
“Okay.” I said apprehensively. “Gee, Quinn wants to talk to you.”
“Okay, give it here.” He smiled. “Hi, Quinn, is it? Yeah, I’m Celeste’s father.” Gerard laughed. “She got her accent from her mother and from living in England since she was three years old.” More laughter. “Well, you sound familiar too, dude. Oh, I think Celeste wants her cell back. Bye, dude.”

“Celeste, your Dad is cool!” Quinn gushed.
“Yeah, he is. Gee, Quinn thinks you’re cool.”
“The boy knows sense.” Gerard replied, making us all laugh.
“Listen, I gotta go, so, see you tomorrow.”
“Bye!” I hung up on him and smiled as I sat next to my uncle.

“You are really into this guy, aren’t you?” Bob mused.
“Yeah, I am.”
“Aww, I bet you two look so cute together, got any photos?” Gerard grinned.
“I’ll go get them.” I tittered.

“This is what Angel calls our ‘wedding photo’, of when we actually realised that I was his girlfriend, rather than a person he had been on dates with.” I said, showing the picture of our confused faces, smiling. “And this one,” I swapped the pictures. “This was taken on Bonfire Night, I think. At the firework display down in Central Park. I think that’s where it was!”
“Wow… he is hot! If he was older or I was younger... wow!” Alicia commented, making me giggle.
“Remember me?” Mikey prompted, nudging her.
“Yeah, hands off, Alicia!” I laughed.

At that moment, I received a text from Carrie. It read simply, “GIVE ME NOVOCAINE!!!” I laughed, and was soon in hysterics.
“What? What?!” My relatives asked. I kept on laughing, unable to stop.
“The – text!” I managed to pant. Mikey took my phone and read it aloud, looking slightly confused. “Green – Day – song!” I breathed, calming down slightly. “Dear, dear, that was funny!” My father looked at me, smiling.
“What?”
“You are so British, just like your mother.” He replied. I smiled, and silently wondered to myself if I looked like her. I just couldn’t bring myself to ask for a picture, not now. Later, I will. Later.

The doorbell signalled the end of my imagining, and I must’ve been wearing a look of sheer horror when I heard Donna’s voice, as my father looked concerned and asked what was wrong. All I managed to say was, “Everyone just follow my lead, okay?” They nodded, and I got up, smiling as I reached the door.
“Hi Donna!” I grinned, opening the door a crack.
“Hi, Celeste! Happy birthday! Can I come in?” Donna smiled, twirling the green ends of her jet black hair absent-mindedly.
“Um… sorry, my Dad’s just got back from his last tour… he’s very, very sick. What’s that, Dad?” At this point I turned round, and having got the last message, my father groaned and murmured,
“I’m gonna puke!” and ran, loudly, to the kitchen and made convincing retching noises. I mouthed a ‘wow’, directed at my uncle, and turned round, facing Donna.
“Jeez, that must be a bummer, is he okay?” Donna asked, concernedly.
“He- what? Hang on.” I sighed, turning away. “What are you doing?” I inquired, looking at Frank. He had been making odd noises in the background, and Mikey had stuffed his fist in his mouth to prevent himself laughing. I shook my head and went to congratulate my father, and told him to be careful when faking vomiting, as it may induce the real thing. Walking back to the door, I continued, “He’s fine, he just needs to rest!”
“Oh, well, Harvey and I were wondering if you’d go out with us and the guys tonight, but….”
“I’ll be fine, Celeste, go with your friends.” My father called in a gruff voice.
I looked from him to Donna and grinned.
“Gimme ten minutes.” I smiled, closing the door.
“Okay. It’s kinda cold out here….” Donna mumbled. I sighed and told her to close her eyes firmly and I put my hand over her eyes as well as we manoeuvred up to my room. She sat on my bed and looked round.
“Birthday prezzie.” I said, explaining the linen that she was confusedly eyeing.
“Sweet.” She nodded as I began nervously and absent-mindedly tidying my room.
“Hey, chill, girl, you don’t need to tidy up. I’m your friend and I’ve known you for three years, and I know and love you, as a friend, exactly how you are. So stop!” Donna laughed.
“Oh, sorry. Was I doing it again?” I asked.
“Yes!” she replied.
“Sorry. I am trying to stop! When you say ‘out’, where do you mean?” I inquired, looking through my wardrobe.
“The mall. My place. The gang’s places.” Donna replied, fiddling with a hole in her grey jeans. She was wearing them with a dark blue shirt and had her green headband on, which was decorated with fake black daisies.
“Okay then.” I chuckled, pulling out a sparkly black jumper and some heeled boots. I then remembered that Quinn was only an inch taller than me, and picked up my gold Converse instead.