Somebody Else Singing a Song About the Two of Us.

‘It’s 7.04  Friday the 17^th November 1989 and you’re listening to Radio 1 FM, this is the Rebel MC and Street Tough.’ Simon Mayo sounded stupidly chipper for this time in the morning.

I padded along to the bathroom wiping sleep from my eyes. Street Tough might have been on the radio but the Buzzcocks were in my mind.

‘I’m in love again, been like this before.’ I sang as I washed my face. I certainly was in love but I hadn’t ever been like this before. I thought I had but this was the first time my 19-year-old heart had felt the true pangs of love. 
I looked at my face in the mirror and wondered why the wonderful Clare had decided to go out with this Mr Potato head. What did she see in this spotty boy who was playing at being a man? By the time I got back to my room the radio was playing Fairground Attraction Perfect and I smiled to myself. Clare was perfect, just perfect. I pulled on my jeans and shirt and went down to the kitchen for breakfast and turned the radio on. Don’t know much but I know I love you sang Linda Ronstadt was Mayo purposely playing songs about the two of us; I didn’t know much, but I knew I loved Clare.

I‘d been thinking of telling Clare this, but was it too soon? It’d only been a week since we’d kissed the first of a million kisses.  But I did love her. She was something special. I finished my cornflakes just as New Kids on the Block came on the radio. ‘You’ve got the right stuff baby,’ I sang to myself as I walked down the hill to the train station, reflecting that Clare did indeed have the right stuff.

It was nice being in love, even the harsh, cold, wet mornings seemed bearable, it was almost like I was looking at a New South Wales.

By the time I got to work, Simon Bates had replaced Mayo on the radio but as the day progressed it seemed like the radio was sending me messages. Eye Know I LoveYou Better by De la Soul, Come andGet my Love by D-Mob, Kylie singing about having so much love to give you. Song after song about my love  for Clare.  

Back at home my mum had retuned the kitchen radio to Radio 4. Reports were coming in of riots in Prague, one student possibly dead. Prague seemed so far away and my head was so fogged with love that my mind didn’t register the instability that was rocking Europe. Why would Prague ever be relevant to me? I went to my room and switched Mark Goodyer on and I got ready to go to Clare’s. Martika was on the radio now singing a song about my feelings, it was amazing, everything she sang, I was feeling. But should I tell Clare? I just didn’t know, I wished I had more than cheesy pop songs to guide me. It was scary. 

I was lying on Clare’s bed getting my breath back from the marathon snog that we’d engaged in from the moment I’d walked in through her front door. My smile was broad as I ran my fingers through her hair. I decided not to tell her, it was too soon. She would think I was crazy. So I just hugged her tight and thanked my lucky stars. 

‘I love you’ I’d said it without thinking, it was out there now, nothing I could do.

‘I love you too.’ she replied without missing a beat. 

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