About a Girl

chapter nine

The following weeks passed by in a blur.

Kurt had promised to come home for Christmas, and he called Lily every day. She was always on his mind, and Dave and Krist were soon dying to meet her – or for Kurt to shut the fuck up, either was fine. He broke up with Courtney the same night he got home from Aberdeen. She was less than thrilled about it, but his mind was made up. He kicked her out of their apartment, ignored her calls, and deleted every message she left on his machine. His bandmates were overjoyed when they heard that the couple had broken up, and even joked about throwing a party. Kurt dismissed that idea though. He was relieved to be out of a bad relationship, but he wouldn't tolerate anyone being mean to Courtney just for the sake of being mean. He was a good guy, but more than that, he didn't care. When it came to Courtney, he was apathetic. Lily was the only girl in his life now, and also the only thing he wanted to talk and/or think about.

Luckily, Lily felt exactly the same about Kurt. She walked through her days with relative ease now. She was free from her parents house, being well fed almost every day, and she had Kurt on her mind almost every second of every day. If she wasn't thinking about Kurt, she was listening to her NIRVANA records and writing. She filled notebooks with pages and pages of words. She wrote every thought in her head, she wrote short stories, she wrote poetry, drew pictures, and wrote down her observations of every little thing around her. She was even sleeping better. She still stayed up until nearly 2am every night, but when she finally went to bed, she slept through the night. Her favorite time of day was when the phone rang and Kurt's voice was on the other end of the line. When she went to parties on the weekends and heard people talking about Kurt's music, she didn't walk in the other direction. Instead, she would join in the discussions and share opinions and ideas about the songs, never hinting that she knew the lead singer. She went for walks like she always did, but for the first time in years she actually looked around her instead of staring at the ground beneath her feet.

Snow fell as the months changed from November to December, and Christmas got closer and closer. Lily didn't buy anyone presents – she never did – but she helped Mrs. Cobain plan her Christmas Eve party.

Two days before Christmas, Lily was on the phone with Kurt talking about how excited she was to see him again. As always, Kurt was on the same page. He missed her like hell and couldn't wait to see her.

"You really have to leave on the 28th?" asked Lily, for maybe the 10th time. "You're sure you can't stay longer?"

Kurt sighed. "Yeah, I have to be in Seattle for New Years'" he said. "NIRVANA's throwing a big party to celebrate our great year." Lily could tell by his tone that the party had not been Kurt's idea. She laughed sadly.

"I just wish you could stay longer." she said. Kurt was quiet for a minute. "Hello? Are you still there?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm here..." Kurt said, sounding distracted. "Lily, I just had an idea. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. You should come back to Seattle with me and stay for the rest of your winter break. You can come to the party, meet Dave and Krist and everybody, see the city. What do you think?"

Lily was speechless. There was no way that Kurt was inviting her to stay with him in Seattle over winter break...was there? "A-Are you serious?" she asked, hardly daring to believe it.

"Yeah, of course!" Kurt replied, sounding excited.
"Come on, Lily! It'll be great!"

Lily didn't know what to say. She agreed. An opportunity like this was too good to miss out on, she knew that.

After she hung up, Lily told Mrs. Cobain the plan and then started on her homework that needed to be done when she went back to school. Usually, she would procrastinate this until the last minute, but this was a special occasion. When she was done with that, she slipped between the blankets on her bed and went to sleep, her mind buzzing with anticipation and excitement.