About a Girl

chapter eight

The morning after Kurt and Lily spent the night together, Lily woke up to Kurt making her pancakes for breakfast. She kissed him and almost cried at the gesture, thanking him about 20,000 times. As they ate, he told her that he'd talked to his mom and she had agreed to let Lily move into the guest room in the basement. After they finished the pancakes and Lily did the dishes – this took a lot of convincing and eventually she ended up having to agree to let Kurt kiss her as hard as he wanted in order for him to let her do the dishes...this left her with a beet-red face for about half an hour – the two got in Kurt's car and drove over to Lily's house to pack up and move her stuff.

It took them all afternoon to move her few belongings into the guest room, probably because they smoked one or two joints as they worked. When they were done, they spun vinyl on the record player and danced around the room together. They ended up laying on the floor together, telling jokes and passing a cigarette back and forth.

Lily was so happy when she was with Kurt. Ever since she was a kid, he had made her feel special and important in a way that no one else had. He had always treated her as an equal – even when she was a little girl – and just made her feel like she mattered. He always wanted to see her drawings or listen to her read her favorite books, and he would sit and talk to her for hours. It was things like that that made it impossible for Lily not to love him, and eventually develop a crush on him. She admired him so much. He was insanely talented and one of the best people she had ever met. He was kind and loving and so full of life. Lily lay on the floor next to him thinking about all this and didn't realize she had fallen silent for a long time.

"Helloooo," said Kurt, poking her gently (it was apparently not the first time he had said it). "Ground control to Major Tom. Whatcha thinking about?"
Lily bit her lip to suppress her smile as she turned and looked at him. "Nothin'" she whispered. "Tell me about your band."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "You don't wanna hear about my band."

"Yes I do." Lily pouted. Kurt smiled but still refused to answer her. Lily frowned at him and, seconds later, crawled on top of him, causing Kurt to exclaim in surprise as the wind was nearly crushed out of his lungs by the unsuspected weight of Lily sitting on his stomach. "Tell me!"

Kurt was laughing now. "Ok, ok!" he said, still out of breath. He wrapped his hands around Lily's waist and shoved her off his stomach and onto his lap so he could breathe.

He told Lily everything that had happened with his band, NIRVANA, in the past 3 years. He told her about how he and Krist Novoselic had started the band in '87, how they'd gone through multiple drummers before finding Dave Grohl, and made their first album Bleach in '89 for $606.17. He told her about their single Smells Like Teen Spirit, which had been a huge and completely unexpected hit, and how their album Nevermind had launched them into fame. He told her all about the amazing year they'd had. They'd been on the cover of Rolling Stone, had a European tour, and a tour of Australia, Japan, and Hawaii.

Lily sat and listened to him talk, her eyes glued to his face, completely entranced by what he told her. She couldn't believe that Kurt Cobain, someone she'd known and loved for so long, had become famous. But then again, of course she could believe it. Kurt was one of the most talented people she knew.
When he was finally done talking and the two sat in silence, Lily finally spoke again. "Wow..." was all she could say. But really, that summed it up.

"Yeah, wow." Kurt replied. He looked up at Lily, who was still sitting on his lap with him laying flat on the floor. She was so pretty. He could probably stare at her forever.

It was another few moments before either of them spoke again, and when Lily finally broke the silence, it was because she had thought of something that made her stomach turn. "Kurt...What about Courtney?" she asked quietly.

Kurt blinked. "What about her?"

"You're still dating her." Lily said, looking down at her hands and picking at her nails. "Are you gonna go back to her?"

"What?" asked Kurt in disbelief. "No! No, of course not." He sat up, wrapping his arms around Lily and looking her dead in the eye. "Lily, I've been wanting to leave Courtney for over a year." He smiled as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I have a reason now."

Lily threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. "I really like you, Kurt." she whispered. He laughed softly, putting his hand on the back of her head and running his fingers through her long, soft hair.

"I really like you too." He brushed his lips against her ear, making her shiver, and whispered, "I'm really glad you kissed me."

Lily blushed bright pink and tried to hide her face in Kurt's hair. "Yeah?" she asked, biting hard on her lip.

Kurt rolled over so Lily's back was to the ground with his arms and legs on either side of her, leaning in close to her face. "Mhm." he murmured, so close their lips were almost touching. Lily's face was the same shade as his hair at this point.

Just as Kurt was about to close the small distance between them, the front door slammed open, announcing that Mrs. Cobain and her husband were home from running errands. Kurt jumped up off of Lily and she scrambled to her feet. The two of them raced up the stairs, trying desperately to stifle their laughter. That proved to be a futile effort as Kurt's mother asked "What's so funny?" as soon as she saw them, setting them both off completely. Lily helped her start dinner as Kurt helped his stepdad unload the car and do various chores around the house (changing light bulbs, taking down a broken mirror, and fixing the creak in the door to the basement).
The four of them ate dinner together, and then it was time for Kurt to get in his car and drive back to Seattle. He hugged everyone goodbye, squeezing Lily especially tight, and promised to call. And then he was gone.

Lily helped clean up from dinner and then went down to her room in the basement. She lit a cigarette and sat next to the open window, blowing smoke into the night sky and thinking about everything that had happened in that last 24 hours. She finished her cigarette and crawled into bed, falling asleep with a smile on her face.

The next day, she rode her bike to the nearest record shop and bought two albums: Bleach and Nevermind.