Bette Porter

My stomach is fluttering when I think about tonight. It’s Sunday and that means that tonight, we have the gig at The Cave.

We agreed on doing a mix of covers and my songs. It’s gonna be pretty much like The Planet, only have we added My Undying Love and Nights&Love to the setlist. Setlist. It sounds so cool – the setlist of Shades of Silence. Shades of Silence’s setlist.

Alice already shortened the band name to SOS – typically her. I think back on when we all went to the fair. After I had won – and bought – Burt for Tina, Alice was constantly whining for a teddy bear of her own. So Dane got sick of it, went to the basketball stand and won her one. Alice was ecstatic and was convinced it was the most romantic gesture of the century.

I think back at when I was with Carmen and told myself that life was perfect. Life is perfect now as well – only a 1000fold of perfect. I again have a hot girlfriend who is also very nice, but this time I love the shit out of her. I have funny friends that do really care about each other, including me. I’m in a band that is talked about and we play songs I wrote for my girlfriend. My friends come along with my band and we do stuff together. It can’t get any better.

For a very long time, I haven’t felt this happy. Because the best thing is that it will stay this way. To my utter happiness, my dad has asked Kirsten to marry him. And she said yes. And we’re gonna live together, as a family. I don’t even want high school to end.

Tina is drinking a cup of tea – she’s very careful with her voice. I go to her and hug her from the back. I snuggle closer to her, resting my head on her shoulder. I inhale her vanilla scent and I feel my stomach fluttering.

“Babe?” I ask.

“No need to call me a pig,” she dryly says. She cups my hands that are crossed on her stomach.

“Somebody’s gotta say it,” I sigh. “But you are my pig.”