The Soul Of The Boy

Chapter One

Up the hill, through the park; across the road and up the six steps that leads to my front door. That's the route I travel every morning to visit my parents. Running through the park is always the highlight of my day because I can just absorb all the beauty it possesses; the luscious green grass, the large pond that is home to four small ducks; the glorious fountain that stands in the centre and the children's area that fills the whole park with joyous laughter. I spent a lot of my childhood here and it was without a doubt, my favourite place in the whole world. I would spend many an hour just sitting here and watching the day go by, it was like my second home. 


"Hey, Mum and Dad," I say entering the kitchen just to be greeted by the image of my parents that are both still half asleep but have work in half an hour.

"Morning Ang." I chuckle at their 'sleepy' tone, which draws out a yawn from me and as always, Mum had to comment.

"Angela, honey, you need to go to bed earlier. You look exhausted."

"I know Mum, but I decide to just read a chapter before bed but once I picked up the book, I couldn't put it down." I defended my regular two am bedtime.

"Well, at least you're not on the internet, I s'pose." Dad chuckled and picked up a homemade pancake from the breakfast table before drizzling lemon juice on it. "Right, I've got to love you and leave you both." He quickly kissed my Mum, ruffling my hair and then shoved the rolled up pancake into his mouth before leaving to go to the restaurant.

About six years ago my Dad decided to open his own restaurant chain and from day one it has been a massive success. My Dad is head chef there and I may be biassed but I have to say his food is remarkable, and other people must think so too because he now has sixteen restaurants throughout Wales and he will soon be expanding into London. Of course he can't be the chef in all these restaurants so he has to hire ones who follow his recipes to perfection; he makes them all do trail runs first of course.

After Dad left, Mum seized the opportunity for 'mother-daughter bonding time ' she loved so much only because she gets to invade my life in almost a '20 questions' sort of way.
She decided to start this delightful conversation that I "so" wanted to be having by handing me a pancake and saying "So, how are things with you and David?"

"Good. Actually, things are really great." I smiled out of habit at hearing his name and the acknowledgement that we were actually happy.

"Good. I'm glad." She replied awkwardly and I knew immediately what was going to follow.

"So ... Um ... Have you two ... Been intimate yet?"

"MUM!" I yelled placing my head into my hands ready for the earth to swallow me whole and let me die from embarrassment. I swear to God she has no boundaries whatsoever.

"What! You've been together nearly six years honey and you've been living together for the last 2 weeks. Not to mention the fact I'm your mother, I should know these things so you feel like you can talk to me." 


"I'm only staying there because for some reason you forced me to and no, you don't need to know t. It's called privacy, look it up. And just so you know; no, we have not had sex." I replied in an annoyed tone so that she knew she'd crossed the line. There are certain things that you do not ask your teenage daughter. This is one of them.

I guess having sex at seventeen is pretty normal these days, considering the legal age is sixteen, but I haven't been ready to, until just recently. I haven't brought the topic up to David yet and neither has he; he did once before but I told him I wasn't ready and he hasn't mentioned it to me since which probably means I will have to.


"Well, that's good." I grabbed my plate so I could chuck it in the sink and run before she was able to ask any more inappropriate questions. As I wandered into the hallway I heard her mutter to herself, the sentence itself was unbelievable "a virgin huh? I'm starting to like that boy a little bit more now."