ElMax/Henclair OneShots (Elmax Manly)

Wouldn't You Love to Love Her? petersfeather

The first time El hears Fleetwood Mac, she barely makes a sound. She’s sitting on the ground of Billy’s room listening to his radio. He’s doing his hair in the mirror in the corner, getting ready for a date with Steve, humming quietly to the song as the chords float their way through his room and swirl around in the warm air. Billy has a window open, the warm breeze of the summer night pushing in every now and again and the notes that Steve Nicks is practically crooning are mixed with the faint sounds of the bugs of Indiana making themselves known.

Billy hardly ever plays this music, and definitely not in his car. He’s always playing music that vibrates everything around her when they’re in his car. She likes it most of the time; it’s fun when they get to “rock out” together. Plus yelling at the top of her lungs about shouting at the devil while the world goes by in a blur helps calm her more than most things sometimes. It’s like a release of pressure.

At home, it’s easier to get him to play softer music like this. Sometimes she feels soft. She likes all kinds of music; the hard vibrating music that Billy plays, the lower and grittier music that Jonathan plays, the happier and brighter music that both Steve and Max play (sometimes), and the slower and sweeter music that Mike plays. She even likes the weird “psychedelic” music Joyce plays and the rough-but-smooth music Jim plays. All of it is so nice. She didn’t get any of this stuff growing up. She likes getting all of it now. Plus, she gets to learn new words from music (although Jim isn’t too happy about that, sometimes).

But this stuff… “Fleetwood Mac with the gorgeous Stevie Nicks”, as the guy on the radio said… this is something she hasn’t heard before.

She likes this radio station. They play soft songs like this. The music here sounds… spiritual. El isn’t super sure about all of the definitions of that word, but she feels like that’s the right word for this song. She asked Billy if they could listen to this station, looking up at him in the sweetest way she could, until he said go ahead. It didn’t take too long to get the okay. And as Billy hums along in the corner, El knows that he likes this music just as much as she does. Sometimes she wonders why he doesn’t just listen to it more. As nice as yelling about devils and hell can be, this stuff is just as nice. Sometimes, on nights like this where the warmth feels like it’s developing on her skin like a polaroid picture, or a loving hug, like it’s blooming on her cheeks like the flowers that Mike’s mom grows in their front yard, these songs are better than the vibrating ones.

~She is like a cat in the dark… and then she is the darkness…~

This song touches El in a different way than any other song. She feels it in different places than other songs. This song gets her down at the soles of her feet, and somewhere deeper inside of her chest that she wouldn’t be able to name.

When she heard the name “Stevie” she thought “Steve” and was prepared for a deep, masculine voice. When this woman started singing… El’s brain went a bit fuzzy. It gets her thinking something, every part of her curious.

~All your life you’ve never seen a woman taken by the wind…~

It isn’t until the song becomes just music with the singers repeating a word El doesn’t know that she feels like her voice is within her again. Suddenly she’s back in the room with Billy, who is swaying his hips lightly as he sprays his hair with that stuff that makes El cough. Then, completely unprompted, she asks: “Can girls marry girls?”

Billy drops his hairspray.

“Wha-?” He sputters, looking back to her while bending down to pick the can up off the ground.