Chapter 78

“Conor, I can’t do this” I breathe, climbing up the steepest hill in the world.

“We’re nearly there, come on” he laughs, taking hold of my hand and dragging me up. I wouldn’t exactly call this a hill. It’s more like a mountain. It’s rocky and muddy.

“Well that’s my converse ruined” I moan. My white converse are now black...

“I told you to wear suitable shoes”

“No you didn’t! And even if you did, I don’t even know where we’re going so how should I know what suitable means?” I complain and he laughs.

“Just hurry up”

“I think I’m literally going to pass out” I take another deep breath and climb up onto another rock. “I didn’t even know they had stuff like this in England”

“What stuff?” he frowns.

“Mountains!”

“It’s not a mountain, Lucy. It’s a few rocks that you have to climb on”

“This is not a few rocks” I complain. “Are we nearly there yet? We’ve been walking for at least an hour now” I moan.

“Yes, Lucy. We’ll be there in three minutes, max” he chuckles.

“This better be worth it” I mumble. “My converse are ruined, my feet are cold and-“

“Shut up!” he interrupts me jokingly. I roll my eyes and continue to follow him. “We’re here!” he smiles, looking down at me when we get to the top of this hill/mountain/rock thing. We’re extremely high and the view looks amazing but I don’t think this massive walk was worth it. “Lucy?”

“Yeah?” I look up at Conor.

“It’s behind you” he laughs. I turn around and see... a waterfall? Since when was there a waterfall in Brighton? That’s if we’re in Brighton anymore. We’ve walked so far, it wouldn’t surprise me if we’re back in Cheshire at the moment.

I’m not complaining though. The walk was definitely worth it. It’s obviously not a massive waterfall but it’s not too small. It’s getting dark as well so it looks really effective. There’s no one around here and I literally feel like I’m in another world. It’s so peaceful and beautiful.

“Conor, it’s so...” I trail off. I don’t know how to finish it.

“Do you like it?” he frowns.

“Yeah!” I nod furiously. He grabs my hand and pulls me towards a bridge that goes over the bottom of the small waterfall.

“Was it worth the walk then?” he laughs.

“Definitely” I nod, keeping my eyes locked on the waterfall. I kick some stones off the bridge and into the water, and watch as they make a tiny splash at the bottom. Conor laughs slightly so I look up at him. “When did you find this?” I frown.

“I’ve known about it for ages but I never took much interest in it. Jack and I used to come here all the time when we were little and we were bored” he shrugs.

“It’s so nice” I smile and he nods.

“It would be the place to go at summer. No one ever comes here so me and Jack used to jump in it” he chuckles and I laugh slightly.

“When was the last time you came here?” I frown.

He shrugs, “When I was about, eleven”

“Oh my God” I gasp and he laughs. “As if you managed to get here when you were eleven. I nearly died and I’m fifteen”

“I’m fit though” he smirks and I roll my eyes. “I feel like I’m about to fall through this bridge though so can we go?” he panics, holding onto the rail of the bridge, tightly. The bridge is constantly swaying from side to side and the floor of it is wood. Whenever you step on it, it sways and creaks.

I laugh, “Okay”

We make our way off the bridge and talk near the waterfall for a bit. I’m dreading the trip home so I’m trying to postpone our journey for a bit by keeping Conor talking.

“I’m freezing” he rubs his hands together. I fucking knew he’d be complaining. I start laughing and pull the spare gloves I brought out of my pocket, passing them to him. “Why have you brought two pairs of gloves?” he frowns.

“Because I knew you’d be complaining” I roll my eyes and he laughs.

“Let’s go” he starts walking down the narrow path. It’s really steep but we’re going downhill now so it’s a bit easier than the way here.

“Conor, are we even in Brighton anymore?” I frown.

“I’m not sure” he shrugs. “We’re coming back here in summer to jump in it”

“We’d probably die!”

“Will we fuck. Me and Jack would go to the top of the waterfall and jump from there”

“You’re crazy” I shake my head and he laughs. “You know what you need to do?”

“What?”

“Decorate your house. It’s three days until Christmas and you’re not even in the Christmas spirit” I frown and he sighs. “I’ll help you decorate. It’s fun, I swear”

“Fine, whatever” he shrugs. “You’re helping take it all down though”

“Fine, whatever” I mimic his voice. “I need to go to town tomorrow. I still need everyone’s presents”

“Ok, we’ll go” he nods.

“Thank you for taking me here. I loved it” I smile. It really was amazing. It’s been nice to spend time with him as well and the fact he’s thought to bring me here makes happy.

“No problem” he smirks, looking away from me.

We finally get home and I quickly put my shoes in the washing machine so my Mum can’t see.

“Do you think they’ll be alright in the washing machine?” I ask Conor as we watch them spin around.

He stays silent and shrugs slightly, “They should be alright”

“You get the blame if they’re not”

“What? Why me?” he pouts.

“Because you came up with the idea” I smirk, leading the way up to my room.

“Yeah well, if I told you to jump in a fire would you?”

I shrug, “Maybe”

“What the fuck!?” he gasps and I burst out laughing.

I change into my pyjamas and Conor decides on going home quickly to get something comfier to sleep in. He’s been about forty five minutes now so I take the opportunity to go downstairs and talk to my Mum for a bit. How long does it take to get some clothes? He must be with his family or something for a bit, he wouldn’t just go home without telling me.

“Lucy!?” Mum screams, just as I walk into the kitchen.

“Hey!” I smile.

“Why are your shoes in the washing machine!?” she looks in the washing machine in horror.

“What?” I get closer and see them spinning around. “Oh my goodness. Who’s put those in there?” I gasp.

“Lucy, I know it was you!” she shouts. “You’ve put them on a high wash. They’re going to be ruined!”

“Whatever that means”

“I give up” she sighs, pressing a few buttons on the washing machine before continuing to make a cup of tea.

“Hey Lucy” Lauren smiles, walking into the kitchen and sitting on the bar stool next to me.

“Hey” I smile. “Oh, Mum. Conor’s staying tonight”

“He’s always here” Lauren laughs and I just smile. I don’t really know how to take that.

“Aw, he’s lovely” Mum smiles, sitting opposite us on the table.

“Is he nice?” Lauren smirks and I roll my eyes.

“Most of the time”

“What do you mean?”

“When we argue, we really argue” I laugh. I can’t win in an argument against him. He’s always the one to sort things out but he’ll always have the best comebacks to push me off the edge.

“Everyone has arguments, Lucy” Lauren shrugs.

“Not like ours” I sigh. I don’t even know why I’m getting into this. It feels nice talking about it though and I know I can trust them both.

“Yeah but you’re obviously keep getting back together so you clearly have a good relationship” she shrugs. “Do you love him?”

“Yeah” I frown and nod.

“Aw” Lauren squeals and my Mum rolls her eyes.

“My first boyfriend was when I was fifteen!” Mum chokes.

“I am fifteen Mum and Conor is my first boyfriend” I frown making Lauren laugh.

“Well it wasn’t a relationship as serious as yours. I don’t even think we looked at each other in school and only spoke when we was online”

“Oh my god, I remember that” Lauren laughs. How these two have put up with each other since high school, I will never know.

“Well I take relationships very seriously” I cross my arms across my chest and they both laugh.

“Do you kiss?” Lauren winks. She doesn’t know half of it.

“Yeah” I chuckle.

"What else do you do?" she smirks.

“End of conversation now. I do not want to know any of this” Mum interrupts us making us both burst into laughter. The knock at the door interrupts our conversation and I jump out of my seat with a smile on my face. “Guess who?” Mum rolls her eyes.

“Shut up, Mum” I frown before leaving the kitchen to open the door.

“Hey” I smile as he steps through my door. He wraps his arms around my waist and I wrap mine around his neck, pecking his lips before unwrapping my arms from around him.

“Lucy, come here a second” Lauren shouts. I groan and follow her voice, Conor following behind me.

“What?” I snap.

“Oh hey Conor!” she smiles widely and I groan again.

“Hi Lauren” Conor smiles, nodding slightly.

“We’ve just been talking about you” she smirks, looking at me then back to Conor. I look at my Mum for help but she’s just hiding her smile behind her mug.

“We really haven’t” I shake my head, pushing Conor’s arm slightly to guide him out of the kitchen but he just laughs.

“Really?” Conor smirks.

“Yeah, Lucy’s just been telling us what you get up to” she winks and Mum starts laughing.

“Mum” I moan. “Time to go” I grab Conor’s arm and pull him out of the kitchen while he’s laughing loudly. We get to my room and I sit on my bed.

“What have you been saying, Lucy?” Conor smirks, sitting next to me.

“Nothing, they’re lying” I shake my head.

“Course” he slurs. I turn to him and frown.

“Have you been drinking?”

“What? No” he shakes his head but his eyes tell me differently.

“Where the fuck did you go?” I raise my voice slightly and straighten my back. I interrupt him before he can reply. “And don’t lie to me”

“I went to Alex’s” he sighs, lowering his head.

“What’s going on at Alex’s?” I panic. Eleanor’s at Alex’s and if Conor’s come back slightly drunk, I’m worried about how Eleanor’s going to come home.

“He’s just invited a few people over for drinks” he shrugs.

“But Eleanor’s gone there tonight” I frown, tilting my head slightly.

“I didn’t see her” he frowns. I dig into my pocket and get out my phone, calling Eleanor immediately. She answers on the fifth ring.

“Hel-“

“Eleanor, where the hell are you?” I raise my voice.

She sighs heavily, “Can I come back? I’ll explain everything then”

“Why wouldn’t you be able to come back?” I ask. She’s living with me so I don’t understand why she’s asking if she can come back home.

“Because you’re mad at me”

“I’m not mad” I sigh. “Are you alright getting home or do you want me to come and get you?”

“I think I’ll be alright” she says hesitantly.

“I’ll get her” Conor mumbles, shrugging slightly.

“You sure?” I ask him and he nods, smiling slightly.

“Conor said he’ll get you if you want”

“Um... Yeah ok”

“Ok, stay where you are then” I tell her. She’s not going to go anywhere else but I don’t know what else to say. I’m kind of worried about Eleanor. She was quiet and seemed off edge.

Conor stands up from my bed as soon as I put the phone down, and puts his hands in his pockets.

“Don’t even think about having another drink there. You go straight there and back ok?” I warn him and he rolls his eyes.

“Yes Mum” he smirks.

“Don’t joke with me” I hold in my laugh but his smirk gets wider.

“You know you want to laugh” he winks, laughing slightly.

“Just go” I laugh dryly pushing him out of my room.

“Don’t I get a kiss?” he pouts. I roll my eyes and peck his cheek. He sighs, “It’ll do”

“Now go” I laugh, pointing out of my door. He laughs and jogs downstairs and out of the front door.

About fifteen minutes later, my bedroom door opens and Eleanor walks in with Conor behind her. I close my laptop and look at them both.

“What happened?” I look at El.

“Hello to you too” she rolls her eyes and sits on the bed. “Basically, he made out like it would just be me and him in his house but his cousins and some people came round for Christmas so Alex just told me to wait in his room for a bit but I came down about fifteen minutes later and he was mad at me for coming down” she frowns, shrugging slightly. “Anyway, they were all drinking and shit so I went back upstairs and that’s when you called me”

“Alex isn’t like that” Conor frowns, shaking his head.

“Well you obviously don’t know him as well as you think you do” El looks him up and down.

“What? You’ve know him for a week or two and you think you’ve known him all your life? Fuck off” Conor rolls his eyes.

“No I don’t think that. You weren’t there when Alex shouted so you fuck off” she raises her voice, stepping towards him.

“Guys!” I shout before Conor can retaliate to her. I know he’ll say something really bad if this gets any worse so I need to stop this. “Conor, you weren’t there when Alex said that to Eleanor so stop causing an argument. And Eleanor, just shut up” I snap at them both and I can tell Conor’s getting angrier by the second.

“Fuck this, I’m going” Conor mumbles, opening my bedroom door and walking out of it.

“Look what you’ve done now” I snap at Eleanor and follow after Conor. “Conor, wait!” I catch up to him at the bottom of the stairs and he turns around to face me.

“No, I know what Alex is like and I’m not staying with her if she’s slagging him off like that. She’ll go sucking up to him tomorrow or something so I don’t even get why she’s saying all this” he uses big hand gestures and runs his fingers through his hair.

“You just ran your fingers through your hair” I mumble.

“What are you talking about?”

I sigh, “Before, I said that you run your fingers through your hair when you’re nervous, annoyed or angry and you disagreed with me”

“You’re such a freak” he laughs lightly.

“Come back upstairs” I pout, taking hold of one of his hands.

“No” he frowns, shaking his head.

“Please” I sigh and he moans.

“She’s pissing me off”

“I’ll sort it out, come on” I pull his hand and lead him upstairs, hearing him groan in annoyance behind me.

“He’s back then” El rolls her eyes.

“Right, I’m leaving” Conor turns back around.

“No you’re not” I step in front of him so he can’t move. “Why don’t we just leave this situation and talk about it when you two are one hundred percent sober? I don’t want this to ruin my Friday night” I shake my head.

“It’s Thursday” Conor looks at me, confused.

“So?” I frown.

“Calm down” he raises his hands in defence.

“Are you two going to continue acting like five year olds or can we enjoy our night?” I raise my eyebrow and look at them both at either side of me.

“Fine” Eleanor sighs and we both turn to Conor.

“Yeah, whatever” he shrugs.

“Thank you” I let out a sigh of relief.