“I really like this song. I haven’t heard the rest of Watch the Throne, though I can’t stand some songs on there that I have listened to.” “Same – I’m not even a fan of Jay-Z or Kanye – but I do like this song.” My expectations of Daniel would have sunk a little if I liked him in that way. I loved Jay-Z and Kanye. “I really like them…I’ve seen them both live, not together, obviously, but, like, separately – they’re really good live.” “Ah, cool,” he replied. ***** After lying down, giving me his hat to wear, and resting his head on my legs, he asked me something no one – a guy anyway – has asked me before. “So, I want to know everything about you. I’ve talked too much about myself. Go on, tell me about you.” I was stumped. I didn’t know what to say. “Er, what do you want to know?” “Everything.” ***** For a while, we had a surprisingly comfortable, and silent, moment. It reminded me, funnily enough, of that Pulp Fiction scene when Uma Thurman says something like: “That’s when you’ve found somebody. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence.” “You know I only turned 18 a few months ago?” “I know, I know! It makes it so much worse, doesn’t it?” “When I was 10, you were 16.” “Don’t joke about it,” he said. “It’s not funny.” “When I was 8, you were 14.” “It’s not funny,” he repeated. “It so is, man.” “Not for me.” There was a weird sadness in his voice that I couldn’t quite place. “Okay, I’ll stop.” “You know, seriously, you’re like the better-looking fe-
male version of me, it’s crazy.” “I don’t feel like it yet, but I am legally an adult,” I reminded him. “Yeah, but still.” “I know what you mean. It has this whole ‘paedophile’ vibe to it.” “Yeah.” Daniel was breaking records on the ‘no one has ever asked me before’ poll. People would just kiss me and not bothering to ask me if I thought it was okay. I’d just let them because I had no idea at the time to say no. I wanted to kiss him, though, I really did. I was taken aback at first – properly taken aback this time. I said no because I felt too grimy. I allowed him to kiss me on my neck, cheek and head, but nowhere else – those were my only restrictions. I regret feeling the way I did – the whole ‘grimy’ thing – because I bet he would have been a nice kisser. He said I was pretty and, stupidly, I grew to like him a little more because of it. At some point or other, I knew I had to check the time, and I did. It was 7’oclock. The tubes were running, now. After making our way to the ticket barriers, we both stopped, stood there, and hugged, slowly coming to the realisation that we had to part ways. In the end, our goodbyes were said, we both agreed to keep in touch – we had too – and he went on his way, letting me keep his hat. I rummaged round in the pocket of my jeans, found my Oyster Card, tapped it on the reader to let me through the barriers, went down the escalator and got onto my tube platform. I didn’t look back because it’d probably make me feel a little sad, like everything that we had in the space of that hour we were properly alone would be gone and become a little less special. I took my phone out when I was sitting down on one of the platform benches, searched for Daniel’s number when he rung me a couple of hours ago, and added him to my contacts. I saved his number under ‘Daniel – Cherokee Number 2.’ ♦
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