Is she my girl ~ Elijah Hewson

Is she my girl?

Flashback 2005

I can still vividly recall the day my family moved to Killiney when I was just six years old. My dad carried in boxes, struggling with their weight. My parents had bought the most beautiful house I had ever seen.

Paul Hewson or Bono as he was commonly referred to as, accompanied by his young son Elijah, happened to be taking a walk nearby. It was unknown to me then but we were now living next door to the Hewsons.

I'm not entirely sure how it happened but Paul offered his assistance without hesitation and that was the start of my dad and Paul's friendship.

I stood there as a shy six year old, beside my dad observing the conversation. Elijah's curious eyes fixated on me and I couldn't help but feel a flutter of nervousness inside.

It was a brief moment but even at such a young age, there was something special between us.

"Maeve say hi to Elijah" My dad had told me pushing me towards the little boy. It's funny to think back on how shy I was considering how blunt I appear to be nowadays. I distinctly remember that I firmly said no and hid behind my dad's legs.

Eli had always been more outgoing than me and even at six years old this was still very much true. He had approached me and smiled. His smile was funny, he was missing his two front teeth.

He grabbed my hand eagerly.

"I have a really cool truck at home do you wanna see?" Eli had asked me, I remember looking up at our dad's for confirmation and they both smiled ushering us along.

"You can call me Eli" He told me seeming very sure of his statement. I remember that he didn't once let go of my hand as we made the short walk across the green to his own house.

Since that day we had been the best of friends, practically growing up alongside each other.

Flashback 2011

"I'll be home later mam!" I shouted running out the door practically sprinting to Eli's house.

This was a daily ritual especially during the Summer. Eli and I didn't really like being out in the sun that much, we were both a bit sheltered so we usually sat in Eli's bedroom playing with his guitar. It also didn't help that the both of us didn't have that many friends.

We were both a bit desensitised to real life. We had both grown up surrounded by money opting to stay in each other's company, he made me feel safe.

I knocked impatiently at the door, slamming my fists against the Hewson's door.

"Coming-COMING JESUS" A voice replied from behind the wooden door.

"Hi Eve!" I said happily once Eli's sister had opened the door. She was quite a bit older than Eli and I.

"Maeve you nearly broke the door again" She replied unimpressed but I could see the sides of her mouth quirk up.

"Sorry I was just excited" I replied shyly.

"Not sure why you're that excited to see my brother but he's upstairs" Eve told me laughing.

"Thanks Evie" I said appreciatively.

"You're welcome kiddo" Eve said ruffling my hair with a smile.

I ran excitedly to Eli's room. Our houses were close enough to each other that we could use walkie talkies to communicate, the night before Eli told me he had learned something cool on guitar and I was eager to see.

"ELI" I shouted outside his door.

"What's the secret password?" A voice said.

"Captain underpants" I replied impatiently. The voice behind the door seemed satisfied with my answer and pulled open the door.

"Get in" Eli said pulling me inside his room.

"My mam said we should go outside today it's really warm" I told him as I made myself comfortable on his carpeted floor.

"Ehh I don't really want to"

"Yeah same I think we should just stay here"

We always ended up like this sitting with each other, munching snacks while we messed around with all the cool music equipment his dad had bought him. We were both about to start secondary school in September and thankfully our parents ensured we were both attending the same one.

Eli and I had an attachment to each other and there no way we would have survived going to different schools. We were both a bit socially awkward and because Eli was Bono's son he found it quite difficult to make friends.

We could both trust each other. Our dad's were best friends and we'd known each other since we were six and although we were only eleven, we knew our friendship was very important to us.

"Show me the guitar thing" I said ushering him to play.

He looked a bit strange, it was obvious his mam had made him get a haircut. Eli was in stage of trying to grow his hair out and refusing to get it cut but usually Ali got her way.

"You're gonna love this" He replied giving me a cocky smile.

He played a terrible version of a new Foo Fighter's song that had just came out, that we were both obsessed with. Even though it was awful, I still thought he played brilliantly.

In my eyes Eli could do no wrong...

"So what did you think?" Eli asked placing the Gibson guitar down next to him.

"So good Eli, I loved it" I squealed.

Author's note,

Hi there! I'm very excited to start the writing process for this book. I thought it was important to show Eli and Maeve's dynamic as young kids to better understand them as adults. I hope you enjoy x