Weeping Angels

Part XXI: A New Dawn.

Kettu didn’t want to open his eyes.

He didn’t even want to move.

He felt amazing, satisfied, fulfilled. The best he’d ever felt in his life.

He felt a hand slide slowly up his bare chest and smiled.

It hadn’t been a dream, after all.

He opened his eyes and smiled at Nina, her black hair in a mess of tangles, her blue eyes shining brightly. He leaned up, wrapping an arm around her back, caressing her soft skin as he kissed her passionately.

“So, how was your first, second and,” She giggled, “Third time?” Nina gave a sly grin.

“Unbelievable.” Kettu beamed, looking around at the abstract paintings again, “Although,” He whispered to her as he shifted under the covers, “I couldn’t help but feel like we had an audience.” He motioned a thumb toward the paintings. Nina laughed, rolling over away from him.

“Well, we certainly gave them a show, didn’t we?” Nina laughed harder. Her laugh was infectious, Kettu couldn’t help but joining in with her.

“We did!” Kettu chuckled, “I think I’m going to have bite marks for weeks!”

“Well, that’s what you get with a she-wolf.” Nina winked. Kettu grinned and kissed her again.

“I can live with that.” He smiled. They gazed into each other’s eyes lovingly, when Nina’s expression turned to one of panic.

“Oh, God, what time is it?” She bolted up, shifting her eyes over to the blue illuminated display of her alarm clock. “Shit!” She shouted, taking Kettu by surprise.

“What’s wrong?” Kettu asked, sitting up in the bed as Nina began scrambling around, gathering her clothes up off the floor.

“I’m late for class!” Nina said as she pulled the same pair of jeans she had worn last night up off the floor.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Nina, I didn’t mean to-” Kettu suddenly felt awkward.

“Don’t be.” Nina said, smiling back at him as she put her bra on, “It was worth it.”

Walking home, Kettu felt like he could skip. Nothing had come close to being this good in his life. Now, not only had the world lit up around him in a gorgeous symphony of light, and colour, but the hole in his heart was finally filled, he felt, at last, whole inside. He smiled as the freshly fallen snow crunched beneath his boots as he came to the door. Even now, the most depressing place that he could remember seemed filled with life somehow. The dimly lit corridor, the rusting elevator, even the apartment itself, it all seemed vibrant.

He kicked off his boots and made his way over to his answering machine, the red light was flashing, indicating a message. He pressed the play button.

“Hey, Big K!” Ben’s voice shouted over the speaker, “You missed out on one hell of an after party! But I suppose you had better things to do!” Ben’s voice filled with raucous laughter, “But, anyway, buddy, listen. Chris Tollins says we need to make up a demo with our songs on it, and he specifically requested that song of yours, you know, the one you sang for Nina? Yeah, that one. He wants that on the tape as a single, can you believe that?”

Kettu’s jaw hung open, just when he thought things couldn’t get better, when he thought that all was as good it was going to get, things just kept getting better and better.

“You son of a bitch!” He heard Jack scream. Undoubtedly, he was completely wasted. “You magnificent, wonderful son of a bitch! Big K! We love you man! Woo!!”

“Jack sends his regards.” Ben laughed, “anyway, when you manage to pry Nina off you for a few minutes, give us a call so we can start figuring out when to set this up.”

“Who wants bellybutton shots??” Kettu could hear Phil hollering in the background,

“I gotta go, Phil’s going to get himself killed. Talk to you soon, Kettu, and again man, you did great.”

Beep.

Unbelievable.