Hipster Love: The Story of Kellin Falconer and Valentina Hart
Chapter One: Not Just Another Sunday

"Hmmm....your heart's beating so fast. I can feel it massaging my cheek," Valentina Hart says with a little smile, lifting her head and looking down at her boyfriend, Kellin Falconer, on whom she was lying, cuddling up to.

"I think it's all this worry. And coffee. Definitely coffee," Kellin says with a weak little laugh of his own. He looks into Val's eyes as she stares down at him and lifts a heavily tattooed hand to brush some errant strands of hair behind her ear, laughing as she angles her mouth and blows a quick puff of air across her face to help in vain. "I think this is right about the time most people start drinking," Kellin continues with a narrowing of his eyes. "But me? I just send my heart into hummingbird pace with more caffeine than anyone could need in a year," he sighs, closing his eyes and brings a hand to his face, the other draped nonchalantly across Val's back, a gentle embrace that meant more than it might seem at first glance.

She continues to look down at Kellin with a puzzled look in her eyes, before Val lifts her glasses momentarily, rubbing at her left eye and yawning. The two of them had been lying here on the couch in Kellin's apartment all morning since they had got up. Or rather since they had got out of bed. In reality they had been awake all night, laying back to back in the same bed, afraid to get close enough to touch each other, subconsciously acutely aware that it was what had started this all in the first place after all. Val was dressed in sweat pants and an oversized shirt, one of Kellin's old tour shirts that she loved the soft material of. She always stole it when she came to visit. Normally this would have been the perfect Sunday when Val came into town. The two of them would stay up late watching something on Netflix, usually something geeky and less than cool, before they would spend all day on Sunday just lazing around and enjoying each other's company for as long as they could before Val had to head back home again, or back to the studio.

But this wasn't just another Sunday. In fact it was probably just about as far as they could get from a normal Val and Kellin Sunday, which were as care free and easy as anyone could ever hope for. "Hey, you wanna talk about it? Hmmm?" she asks all of a sudden, her voice full of hope, staring intently at Kellin and furrowing her brow, as if trying to will him to open his eyes and look at her. She wanted him to look at her now more than ever. It was as if she needed him to hold her hand and tell her it was ok. It's not that she was weak or needed a man for anything, but sometimes if she was honest, actually she did. She needed Kellin to be there for her and help her be strong. She had been worried for days about this, after all, and she wanted him to hold her hand, even if he was worried now as well. "I don't think silence helps, Kell," she says with a little sigh, looking down at him and pursing her lips tightly. She wasn't disappointed, it was just making her sad, and she so wanted him to be the one that could help her through what wasn't an easy time. But was he just worried about himself? Kellin had long been a carefree guy who kinda just coasted through real life, always landing on his feet no matter what happened. So when something as serious as this presented itself as a hurdle, would he jump it all alone...or would he wait and help her climb it with him? Val bites her lip nervously before leaning forward and giving him a little kiss on the lips. "Please.." she says softly, trying not to cry. She didn't cry. She was Valentina Hart; nasty woman. Or was she? She felt like after what she had gone through the last week, she didn't really know who she was anymore. Her head was a mess right now.

"I'm sorry," Kellin sighs, lifting his arms to stretch out and bringing them back down, clasping his hands together around the small of her back. This wasn't easy for him, but he knew that he had to try harder. For years, Kellin had been almost a lone wolf. Even though he had had a number of relationships in that time, he was always that guy who loved his own company, spending his nights laid on his couch inhaling Doritos and watching wrestling. He had never "gotten serious" in any sort of adult style relationship with anyone. It seemed so scary, and unpredictable, like it could come back and bite him in the ass any time. Life as life was for Kellin was easy. It was so comfortable in his comfort zone it almost needed a new name to describe just how comfy he could get therein. Leaving that? Well that was terrifying, but the happenings of the last 24 hours had threatened to pull him from his little Kellin bachelor pad kicking and screaming, and that was like his worst nightmare. Was he ready to leave? He didn't know, but he sure as hell wanted to try on his own terms if he was going to try at all.

At the same time, Kellin loved Valentina, and he didn't want her to think she was on her own with things like this. He may have been a 26 year old man-child in the way he lived his life, becoming almost like some sort of college student who had never quite gotten over the comforting womb of campus, nestling in for the long haul rather than emerging into the world. And that was without ever having gone to college. Sometimes he wished he had. He would never have left. But he didn't want the girl who he loved to think he didn't care for her, or that he wasn't goping to be with her through everything. And he was prepared to be. Or at least he was prepared to give it a try. Kellin looks up at Val and runs his hand through his hair. It felt soft when he didn't have his products in it. It was weird, especially when he felt this uptight. He liked to feel at his best, normal, when challenges came up in life. And yet here he was, laid on his couch, his safe place, feeling as in danger as he had ever felt in his life. He smiles softly at her again. It felt forced but it was better than nothing, he guessed. "Like....are you sure?" Kellin asked softly. It was a question he wanted to ask since she arrived and told him everything, but he had felt scared to ask. And when he did, he immediately knew why. The second it came out of his mouth, he wished life had a CTRL + Z functionality. That was a serious bad move.

"Ugh!" Val says loudly, sitting up on the couch so she's almost straddling Kellin. She hated it being like this, and she hated even more that he wasn't just not with her, he was clearly not even on the same page. Not even the same fucking book in fact, clearly. "Am I sure?" she asks in a sarcastic voice, brushing her messy Sunday hair with her hand and leaning her head back, laughing in a rather obviously forced fashion. "Let me just check my diary...is that it? You need me to show you?" she asks him, staring down. But it wasn't in an angry tone. That was what she had intended, but it wasn't what came out when she opened her mouth to let fly. Instead, her voice came with a pleading tone, begging him not to start with her and to not question her. She shook her head and moved to lift her leg over him to stand up, it was so frustrating when she had to deal with something that was not only as terrifying to her as this was, but that she also had to deal with a boyfriend who she was going to have to lead through it by the hand. She didn't want that. She couldn't. She wasn't his damn mother, it wasn't her responsibility to look after him when he wouldn't do the same for himself.

"Val....wait, babe," Kellin says, holding her wrist gently as she stands beside the sofa. "I didn't mean it like that. He sits up and looks at her with a lost look in his eyes. One look and she could tell that he was terrified, like she was. But he had to step up, stand beside her, not try to be dragged along behind her. She needed him to do that, or to at least make the effort to be there with her. She could forgive a trip, a stumble or a fall along the way, but he had to at least try to walk the path with her.

"Kellin...I'm sure, ok?" she asks, looking right into his eyes as she says it. "It's been as regular as damn clockwork since I was about 12. The only thing that's ever been regular about me," she laughs, a humourless laugh that was almost threatening rather than funny. Kellin dips his head a little when she says it, causing Val to put her hand underneath his chin and lift it again to meet her gaze. He needed to face things, to face her. "But it's like 8 days late now. I don't know why, but I think I can make a couple guesses, honey. I know...I know, it's hard to hear. Believe me, it was hard to live it as well. And the money I've saved on tampons this last week has not cushioned the realisation of what's going on, you can trust me when I tell you that," she says with a little hopeful smile at him, at least trying, even if it was completely in vain, to break the ice a little.

At her joke, Kellin laughs a little, as much as he could muster in fact, and nods a little in her direction, patting the seat on the couch beside him to beckon Val to sit back down. But she doesn't, she shakes her head and stares at him again, intently. She needed more from him, he could sense that much. "I need to know that you accept what's going on. That you know what I'm saying to you IS happening. Please..." she says, looking at him. Val loved Kellin, that much was obvious, even if they hadn't, strangely, ever said it to each other yet, but she needed to know that the feeling was mutual before she let herself open up fully here. She wasn't about to lower her guard if it meant getting pushed out when things got tough.

"You...." Kellin says with a look at her, sighing and running his hands through his own hair again. He felt weak when he started to say it, like the reality of things was so scary it was sapping all of the energy from him. But when she said what she did about needing him, and when he saw that look in her eyes, it kind of ignited something in him for the first time. Kellin looked at her, and for the first time in his life, he felt like someone truly needed him to come out of his shell and to be a man, to step up to the plate and really be there for them. When he realises this, he stands, stepping in front of Val and holding both her hands.

"Say it..." she pleads, staring at Kellin hopefully.

"You're...late..." he says softly, with a shrug and another little sigh. He was trying, but it wasn't easy to accept this was happening.

"I'm late," she repeats with a nod, looking at him and smiling a little, she could see the effort he was making to step up at last, and that meant more to Valentina than Kellin could know at that moment. The way she looked at him seemed to encourage Kellin as well. It was the look in her eyes, the hope that she seemed to gain when he made the effort, that seemed to spur him on. He knew then that it was about more than just him. Val was the most important person to him right now. She was perhaps the first person in his life who was more important than himself in fact. And that gave him a warm feeling inside when he realised it.

"You're late...but we're gonna deal with it. Together. I know I've been a jackass since you told me, but Val I'm here for you. I'm here for us both," he says as he leans forward to hug her. For her part, Val felt a warmth inside when Kellin finally said all she wanted to hear. It was so simple, so small, but when he said it, she felt like something had changed for the better; like really changed. She leans in and buries her head in his chest, before the tears come, silently but real and plentiful. At the end of the day, she was still scared, really scared, she just needed her man to be her man, and for the first time, she felt like he really could be.

"Thank you," she whispers into his chest, sobbing slowly and squeezing Kellin, tighter than she had ever squeezed anyone before.