Chapter 26

My leg refused to stop bouncing up and down while Simon drove on the highway. We had come back from California three weeks ago and since we spent Christmas with my parent we were going to his house from New Year's Eve. I would be meeting his mum dad, and brothers. The only family I ever had to meet was JJ's and that was much easier to do at a young age. People liked children and didn't ask hard to answer questions. Did she know about the beginning of mine and Simon's relationship? I wouldn't blame her if she didn't like me

"Relax, babe, they're all going to love you."

"Yeah, you keep saying that but it's your family and I'm not good at first impressions."

He didn't argue with me, it wasn't that he agreed with my statement, there was no use in trying to change my mind. So instead he put his hand on my thigh and rubbed his thumb across my stockings. As a show of effort I had thrown on a pink baby doll dress and a pair of nude pumps. Simon insisted I didn't need to get dressed up, all he was wearing was dark jeans and a Nike sweatshirt. I ignored him and did what I wanted to anyway.

By some miracle, it was actually snowing, something that rarely happened in England. There wasn't too much where I would be dangerous to drive, not even sticking to the ground yet. If it got any worse we would stay the night in Simon's old room. His childhood room. A warm feeling settled inside me, being in the house where he grew up.

On Christmas I watched Dad and Simon grow closer from a conversation of Football. Dad didn't follow it so much and allowed Simon to talk him through it, which he obviously encouraged him to be a Leeds fan. He gloated about teaching me how to properly kick a ball and even his the crossbar, instead of just being able to play the video game. By the time we were leaving they had already made plans to watch the games together when the season started.

What did I have in common with his family? Simon only had brothers, who surprisingly, weren't into makeup and hair. And ever worse, they weren't Leeds fans, the only thing Simon taught me all about and I couldn't even bring it up in conversation unless to start an argument. What if this dress was too much? It did look like I was trying too hard.

"Time to stop psyching yourself out, we're here," Simon's voice pierced through my thoughts. Followed by the sound of the driver's door shutting and mine opening. He leaned over me and unbuckled the seat belt, sweetly pecking my cheek before pulling me out of the car.

My head shook back and forth, "I-I'm not ready."

The loving man he was, his hand went behind my neck and he touched our foreheads together. "For the hundredth time, everything will be fine, yeah? I love you, now shut up and take these cookies you slaved over." Not waiting for me to protest, Simon dragged me to the front door and walked right it. "We're here!" He yelled down the empty hallway.

"No one cares!" A deep voice shit back. Seconds later a woman appeared, she was absolutely stunning. Having the same blonde hair all blue eyes as Simon, one could only assume it had to be his mother. She was short and petite. The smile on her face only grew the closer she got to us.

"Oh honey, I'm so excited to see you, its been months. Talking on the phone doesn't do it for me, I have to see this handsome face or I go crazy." Her hand reached up to cup his face. My lips fell into a grin of their own from the motherly contact.

"Missed you too, Mum, this is Kelsey." A blush spread on my face when Simon wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

"Hello Mrs. Minter, it's so good to finally meet you," was my voice shaking?

"Oh, it's Anne, my dear, she said quickly before continuing. "You're a pretty little thing, aren't you? Simon spent ages talking about you and never did I imagine this, and I mean it, he would not shut up about your hair and your eyes, which are lovely by the way. He must have spent h-"

"Kelsey made cookies!" Simon cute his mom off before she could embarrass him further. From the redness of his face, she had already done a good job.

Shyly I held up the peanut butter cookies I baked after making sure several times that no one had an allergy. "It's the least I could do for having me over. If you need anymore help with cooking, I'm no chef, but I make a good assistant."

"I might hold you to that," Anne winked. "Love, the boys are in the living room, why don't you go in there to introduce Kelsey?" Simon immediately obeyed her wishes, taking my hand while we walked down the hallway. It was cute, seeing the son side of Simon, listening to his mum like he was a young boy and not 23. I was the same way. Anne seemed sweet but I could already tell she was like that with everyone.

On the couch watching the TV, was an older man and two guys who looked a bit older than Simon. It was none other than his dad and brothers. His brothers were the first to notice us when we walked in. They looked at me with a shocked expression, than at each other, than at Simon all on the matter of seconds. "No fucking way she's your girlfriend," one of them blurted.

"That's Nick," Simon sighed and pointed to the guy who had said something, he was quite the looker, like his younger brother. "That's Alex, and that's my dad."

"You can call me Charlie," he wasn't rugged like my dad, instead being thin with soft features, that's where Simon got it from. It was surreal, like I was staring at the future. This must have been how Simon felt when he met my family.

"Hi," I chirped, waving my hand in the air awkwardly, "I'm Kelsey."

"Did he pay you to come here?" This time, Alex took a jab at his brother, who was easily getting frustrated. It was a family thing though, I used to watch Deji and JJ go back and forth, sometimes for hours. Because of them I found myself lucky that I didn't have any siblings growing up. Those two were enough. As for Simon's brothers, they meant well but I couldn't see him be the center of all jokes.

Putting on my sweetest expression I hugged myself around Simon's arm, "he couldn't pay me enough to stay away."

That put a bratty little smirk on his face and kept Nick and Alex quiet, for now. He kissed the top of my head just as his mum came in to join us briefly, only to ask if I would help her in the kitchen. Although I was terrified to be by myself with Anne, I told Simon to stay behind. The whole point of this trip was not so Simon could stay up my ass the entire time.

At first the two of us stayed quiet, not knowing how to start the conversation and I hated that. There had to be something we had in common. She needed to like me, I didn't think it mattered to Simon either way but getting close with his family was more for me than it was for him. "What are we making?" I asked softly, keeping my distance to not get in her way.

"Oh, I don't know. There's a few things in the oven already, I'm just trying to figure out what to do with these," Anne gestured to some vegetables on the counter. "Getting my boys to eat healthy is difficult but I like to make it for myself anyway."

An idea sprung to mind after I made sure I had everything I needed. "My mum used to make a dish all the time to get me to eat my vegetables, it was my favorite. Would you mind?"

"Not at all, as long as you teach me how to make it."

"Deal," I smirked.

We both got to work chopping up carrots, peppers, celery, potatoes, all sorts of foods normally no one liked. Especially Simon, I know how much he hated anything naturally green. The key to this, instead of masking the taste of vegetable with unhealthy foods, I steamed and lightly seasoned them so they could give off their maximum taste. I wouldn't be able to make it like Mum, that was obvious but I'd try my best. At least Anne and I were getting along.

It was a fairly quick thing to make. Amongst all the unhealthy finger foods like buffalo wings and french fries, the assorted vegetables were just as good if they gave it a try. Anne looked impressed that I could even come up with something like this. Or that I knew how to cook at all, I don't know.

"How do you feel about my son?" She asked while looking thoughtfully out of the window. It was still snowing, the ground now being filled with a thin sheet of white.

"I love him."

"That much is true, but how does he make you feel?"

It wasn't a question I was expecting, let alone prepared to answer. Always being a woman of little words, coming up with anything worth saying was damn near impossible. Yet here was his mum, expecting a response.

"There's no real answer to that, not one that I can come up with anyway. Simon makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. He loves me, of all the people he could have and he loves me."

The look I got from Anne was one of approval, "funny. He says the same thing about you. Let's bring this food out to the boys, yeah?" She grabbed two plates and so did I, no one ate a regular meal on New Year's Eve. The four of them cheered when they saw me and Anne, even though I knew they joyous cries were not for us. Before we even set the plates down, hands were flying out, grabbing whatever they could. Charlie, Alex and Nick avoided the vegetables like the plague, but Simon, having had my cooking before, dove right in. Everyone looked at him like he was insane, which would have been dramatic if Simon had ever voluntarily ate something healthy. He looked around to catch his family's eyes. "What? Honestly, it's really good. You lot should try it, Kelsey is an amazing cook when she wants to be.

Reluctantly they all grabbed a mouthful, I wasn't sure if it was because they really wanted to try it or if they wanted to prove Simon wrong. Eagerly I waited for all of them to take a tentative bite. I watched their faces transform from doubtful to amazed. "No way you made this!" Nick said incredulously.

"There's not many things I can make, but I assure you this is the one thing I can. Do you like it?" I asked shyly.

"Like it?" Alex answered, "this is fucking great."

"Language!" Anne scolded, to which her son apologized sheepishly. Together we watched movies that they watched every year as tradition. All the anxiousness that circled around my body before we stepped through the front door completely vanished. No more tough questions to answer. Alex and Nick teased me for listening to Simon and following Leeds, to which I shot back and argued their greatness the best I could. That earned me a proud look from Simon. A little bit of wine was passed around, they were nothing like my family and how they got on New Year's Eve, but I didn't mind.

Then it was ten minutes until the new year, and I'd be starting it with Simon. It got me thinking about June when I came to live with them seven months ago. He always knew that we'd be together, even when I was doubtful and did everything in my power to ruin us. I'll never forget my thoughts when I first laid eyes on him, which weren't all that poetic or even worth remembering but boy did I think he was something worth looking at. It wasn't his looks that made him attractive, it was his persistence and constant reminder that he'd always fight for me. And his laugh, how it changed from how funny he thought something was, all of them as goofy as him. I loved his positive attitude and grumpy morning voice, all of it. All of him. He was made for me.

Five minutes.

The first time I pissed him off, when I kissed Harry, I wasn't even aware of his feelings. We hadn't really known each other than, or at least, I didn't know him. Simon always paid attention, knew things I didn't want to admit to anyone or myself. It's sort of funny to see how frustrated he was with me while he waited so I could get my shit together. Anyone else would have given up, I mean even Harry did. Before I got to tell him I made a mistake he was already running away. Everything happened for a reason, that's what I always lived by. Harry and I were meant to be in each other's lives, but it was me and Simon with the love story.

Two minutes.

Fuck. I was so in love, more than I ever thought humanely possible. To see someone from the moment you woke up to the second you close your eyes and go to sleep, never once getting tired of them. We were so disgustingly obsessed with one another.

One minute.

I looked over at Simon to see him already watching me, was he thinking the same things as me? How far we came, the things we've been through, how much he has to put up with me. Did all of that go through his head. If it did he obviously didn't mind, his one dimpled smile split on his face. Never will I get over that face, the look in his eyes, love written from head to toe, all over him.

"Three! Two! One!" Everyone else around us started cheering but Simon grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into a kiss. It wasn't long and passionate like I very much wanted it to be, trying to keep it PG 13 for the family.

We pulled apart and he whispered, "I love you," in my ear. After that Charlie and Anne excused themselves to go to bed. Midnight already seemed to be a stretch for them. Nick, Alex, and Simon played video games for a little while longer. Simon, being himself, forced me to verse Nick in Fifa so I could beat him, which I felt bad about. His brother was in denial that it even happened.

It was nearly three in the morning when a yawn exploded from my body. Normally I wouldn't be tired until the sun came up but today was stressful and took a lot out of me. Simon noticed my state and intertwined our fingers.

"Alright, we're going to sleep now."

"Aw, come on, one more game!" Alex whined.

"It's late, we're tired. We can play tomorrow morning. None of us can leave anyway, the roads are shit." He was tugging on my arm while he brothers kept complaining. I told him I could go to sleep alone but he only told me to shush and kept leading the way.

His room wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. The walls were white along with his bed set. Most of it was bare, like he took his entire past and moved it with him, I wondered if that made his parents sad. It was nice to see that there was still a desktop computer sitting in the corner. Something to remember their little boy. My room still had everything in it, my posters and flower duvet that I never got the chance to replace. I knew Mum and Dad would never change it.

It felt like heaven to peel of my dress and put on a pair of joggers and a tank top, my heels had been long gone. I was standing in the middle of the room, ready to put my hair up for the night when Simon approached me. Without a word he lifted me up off of the ground and laid me down onto his bed, climbing up after me. His lips captured mine and his teeth sank into my bottom lip, pulling it away from me. Hands roughly grabbed my body, squeezing my breasts with no remorse.

"Baby, your parents could here us."

"The only person they might hear it you," his voice was gravelly in my ear as he shoved my sweats that I just put on down. But I wasn't about to tell him to stop. Simon was sexy all of the time, and every so often, when he took the reigns I simply lost control. We could be anywhere at anytime and with that lust filled look in his eyes, I'd be putty in his hands.

Sloppy kisses ran down from my mouth to my breasts to my stomach, the tickles of his skin on mine made my thighs shift to ease the pressure I was feeling. "You know what we've never done before?" He asked me with his head still by my waist. "I can't believe I've went this long without it."

"Hm?" I had no idea what Simon was talking about and not enough clarity in my brain to form a coherent question. But instead of answering he quietly continued gliding his tongue around the softness of my skin. My hands weaved through his short blond hair, yanking it when I had to in attempt to dull my moans. It was so difficult not to let everyone hear us and we haven't gotten into anything really heated.

Once he pulled off my panties Simon moved to me naked legs, allowing his teeth to graze on my thighs. There was a pool of a wet mess already forming between my legs was pathetic. I used to hate the feeling of being vulnerable in front of someone but with Simon it almost felt good to be able to freely want someone so bad without having to wonder if they wanted you too.

It wasn't until Simon positioned his face in between my legs did I realize what he was planning on doing. We had never done this before and Aaron and I certainly hadn't either. This brought a load of insecurities and I tried to close myself off to Simon. "Maybe this isn't a good idea."

"Why?" His face popped into my view, eyes nearly black with lust.

"It's just- I haven't, you know." I couldn't being myself to say it out loud. When did I turn into such a little bitch?

"I figured that. Don't you want me to be your first?"

Of course I wanted him to, ideally he would be my last. To me, this was so much more intimate than we've ever gotten. In a way it was like my first time. To be fair, it was exciting to have a first something with Simon.

Carefully I relaxed my limbs the best I could and rested my head on the pillow, "okay."

He kissed each of my inner thighs, then I felt his hot, quick breaths on my core. My hands, that were still in Simon's hair tightened and I groaned slightly. "You need to be quiet, princess," he reminded me. But him talking only made my fidget more.

"Holy fuck," my voice was strained and high pitched when his tongue slid across me. It was a strange and foreign feeling, but my body responded eagerly. As if they had a mind of their own my hips lifted up to bring more pleasure. Simon wounded his arms around my body to keep my planted to the bed so there was no escaping the overwhelming waves of euphoria.

I turned my head and bit on my shoulder to keep from waking the entire household when the tip of his tongue flicked back and forth across my core, creating the friction I needed. Even Simon responded with small noises from my reactions, indicating just how turned on he was getting. It was stupid but I couldn't help compare him to my past, Aaron never got excited unless I was doing something to him, or, at least he was getting something out of it. Which is exactly why he never felt the need to please me. With Simon, the bulge in his pants grew bigger from my moans.

Showing me just how much he knew my body he placed two fingers inside of me all the while not letting up on his sucking and licking on the most sensitive area. While I'd always prefer him inside of me, for the only reason that was the closest we could ever get, this was definitely next in line. His mouth was so warm and moved at the perfect speed. Slow enough to keep me wanting more and fast enough for the steady pulses of pleasure. I was surprised he wasn't complaining from the constant pulling of his blond locks.

Simon was coming undone as well from the looks of it. The closer I was to reaching my high he was moaning and bringing his free hand up to palm my breasts. This gave me the freedom I needed to move myself against his mouth, his tongue, feeding into the tension in my body until it shuddered in a climax. Kept in place by my hand, Simon continued the movements of his tongue until I gently pulled him away and went limb on the bed.

Lazily dragging himself up to my face, he kissed me deeply. Never would I have expected to do anything like this with Simon when his parents were in the next room. Something told me that was a reason he got so turned on. My chest was visibly raising up and dropping down from how hard I was breathing.

"I'll be right back," he mumbled before rolling off his bed.

"Wait. Don't you need me to...?"

His face turned bright red. "Uh, no. You've got that covered already, it looks like."

At first I wasn't sure what he was saying until I watched him readjust his sweats. Then it clicked. He came from getting me off.

I put on my underwear when Simon left the room, not bothering with my joggers because they were far away. Snuggling under the warm covers, I watched the snowflakes fall from his window. The last time I had seen snow fall was the Christmas before JJ left in year 10. As much as I hated the cold I always admired how beautiful and soft the white flakes looked, even if only from a distance.

The light turning off was the signal that Simon had made his way back. My eyes were still fixated on the outside when I felt his arm snake around my stomach, pulling me tightly into his chest. In his arms was the safest I ever felt. As soon as we decided we were together at my birthday party, we slept in the same bed whenever we could. After that, sleeping without him felt impossible. There were nights where he stayed up later than usual recording and I wouldn't be able to fall asleep. Being so dependent on someone scared me but that's all I knew with Simon.

Just as my eyelids were growing heavy my phone started to ring. Being so tired I was almost tempted to ignore it, but it was almost four in the morning now so I figured it must have been important.

Fuck, was I right.

The called ID said 'Mum,' I pressed answer right away. "Hello?"

"Kelsey?" She was sobbing, that was immediately noticed. "It's your father, he got into an accident, I need you to get to the hospital as quickly as you can."

"Wait, what?" I stood up from the bed and I started to throw on clothes. "Where are you?"

"The hospital we went when you broke your arm, God I can't remember the name."

Taking a deep breath I tried to sound calm for her, "It's okay, I'll be there soon I know exactly where it is." Mum told me to be quick again and I hung up the phone. Simon, obviously alarmed by my frantic stated was right next to me.

"We need to go." I briefly told him as I was already rushing out of the door.

My arm was grabbed, "what's wrong?"

"We need to fucking go Simon! It's my dad, I don't know what's going on but can we please go!" It was taking everything in me not to cry, I wasn't exactly sure what was wrong, or what happened yet.

Luckily not needing anymore convincing, Simon put on his shoes and we raced out of the front door. No longer did I think the snow looked peaceful, it looked dangerous. I always wore my seatbelt, but that night I held onto it for dead life, knowing it couldn't protect me as much as I thought it could.

Simon tried to comfort me by intertwining our hands but I shook him off. "Keep both of your hands on the wheel," I snapped. I didn't mean to but I was afraid and didn't know how to handle my emotions.

Thankfully the hospital was closer to his parents house than it was to ours. As much as I wanted him to speed, it wasn't safe with these roads. It made a 20 minutes trip almost an hour. All the while my mind kept thinking about jumping out and running the rest of the way. My dad needed to be okay. He was the toughest man I knew, he could get through whatever happened.

"FUCK!" I screamed suddenly, infuriated that there wasn't anything I could do. Simon glanced at me before gluing his eyes back to the road.

After what felt like ages we pulled into the hospital parking lot and I flew out of Simon's Range Rover. Momentarily slipping in the ice, I caught myself before sprinting to the entrance, the car door shutting not long after and I knew Simon was right behind me.

The nurse was sitting at the desk when I bolted in looked stunned. "Bryers! I need to see Bryers, he's my dad, please, is he okay?"

Her face turned to one with sympathy and it left an unsettling feeling deep inside me. "He is in room 243," was all she informed me.

By this time Simon caught up, together we ran down the halls, following all of the signs precisely, making sure not to make any mistakes. It looked like we made it when I saw Mum.

But she was talking to a doctor.

No, a doctor was talking to her. Telling her something. Just before I could reach her, before she noticed me Mum covered her mouth and fell back into a chair, shouting uncontrollably.

That's how I knew.

Tripping over my own feet, my knees skidded to the ground. I could hear voices calling my name but they fell into the background compared to the ringing that blasted through my ear drums. My vision blurred nearly while and I felt sick to my stomach. In fact, I started dry heaving all the while my entire body quivered in the middle of the hospital.

Hands wrapped around, but didn't try lifting me up. If they had I would have started screaming, It must have been Simon because Mum was in front of me, holding my face, saying something I don't remember.

All I knew was that he was gone.

My daddy was gone. Just like that.

I had to blame someone, that's how my mind worked and I blamed Simon. If he drove faster I could have said goodbye. I could have told my dad I loved him one more time.

Now I'll never get to do that again.

Oh god, what was I going to do? It hurt so much.

On all fours I huddled in the floor feeling numb and in the most pain ever sizzling through my body. I was crying, but it was a silent mess. No matter who it was trying to talk to me I wouldn't listen, desperately trying to remember Dad's face the last time I saw him. He was so happy, so proud of the woman I was becoming. I could see it in my head when I closed my eyes so I refused to open them for a long time.

It'd be the last time I'd ever see him.

Don't hate me.