Chapter 107

Conor’s POV

We finally go out to get something to eat and when we do, I order a massive steak burger with chips. I’m fucking starving.

We spend around 2 hours in the restaurant just talking about the plan to leave and about our time here. Obviously eating and drinking in the process.

“Right, are we going?” Adam lets out a big sigh.

“I don’t want to go” Lucy moans.

Same.

“Our flight’s at nine thirty so we have four hours to get there. Like I said before, we’ll leave here in half an hour, get to the airport for seven and then we have plenty of time to get to our flight on time” he explains making the majority of us moan. “We can go on holiday again another time. Maybe somewhere sunny next time” he shrugs and all our eyes light up.

“Serious?” Lucy gasps.

“If we don’t miss this flight, I’ll consider it. We can get it cheaper seeing as you all leave school in June” he chuckles.

“Oh my god!” Eleanor squeals and I cringe at the sound.

“Let’s go then” Matt laughs. We all follow his command and stand up.

“Conor!” I hear Josh shout. I turn my head to see him, Calum, Dan and Craig eating at their table. “Don’t forget to say bye to us before you leave!” he laughs.

“We won’t” I call back, ignoring all the attention we’ve both brought to ourselves. I give them a quick wave before catching up with the rest of the group that have just walked out of the restaurant.

When we get back to the cabin, we gather all our packed bags into the living room, next to the front door.

“Okay, you lot check we haven’t left anything” Matt nods at Lucy, El, Jack and I. We all split up and rummage through all the rooms to check we haven’t left anything. Lucy’s charger’s still plugged into the wall... I pull it out and check the rest of the room before meeting everyone back in the living room.

“Luce” I hand her the charger.

“Oh my god, thank you” she gasps. I smirk slightly before throwing myself back onto the sofa.

Lucy’s POV

I can’t believe we’re leaving in about half an hour. We’ve had such a good time! Me and Eleanor are actually getting emotional about this.

“Lucy, although you nearly died and I’ve had to spend a week with the devil, this has been the best holiday I’ve ever been on” El sniffles and I start laughing. “You nearly dying made it interesting”

“Oh thanks. Nice to know that my misfortunate’s give you entertainment” I roll my eyes.

“And I’m not the devil” Conor inputs.

“Hey, I wasn’t talking about you but if the shoe fits, feel free to wear it” she shrugs.

“Ha ha, how original” he rolls his eyes.

“Can you two have a conversation without it turning into an argument?” I raise an eyebrow.

“No” they both say in sync, glaring at each other after it.

“Time to go guys” Dad rounds us all up.

“No” El cries.

“Good god Eleanor, it’s only a ski resort” he frowns. She just sniffles and grabs her suitcase, making me laugh.

We head out of the door and make our way to the main reception building. You get free wifi here.

As Dad checks us out of the hotel, we see Josh, Calum, Dan and Craig coming out of the restaurant. They catch onto us and start jogging over.

“Oh my god, are you leaving now?” Calum sulks. Eleanor nods and sniffles. “Aw, El” he coos, bringing her into a big hug.

“I’m going to miss you all” Josh smirks, looking at us all.

“We’ll miss you too” I say for the team.

“Well it was nice knowing you” Craig nods and I start laughing at his way of saying bye.

“We’ll see you soon, yeah?” Josh smiles and I nod.

“Bye!” I smile widely, pulling him in for a hug. He squeezes me tightly before giving Conor and Jack a ‘man’ hug and giving Eleanor the same hug as he gave me. We hug the rest of the group and say bye before I see Lily running over to us. “We need to give you something!” I gasp, opening my carryon bag.

“What?” she smiles in excitement. I pull out the envelope with her share of the winning money.

“We thought it was only fair for you to have some” I smile. She opens the envelope slightly and gasps.

“Oh no, I can’t take this. You won it!” she gasps.

“Yeah but we couldn’t have done it without you. You deserve it” I nod.

“Thank you so much!” she squeals, hugging us all.

“Do we get some?” Craig asks, looking into the envelope.

“Did you teach us how to snowboard?” Eleanor frowns and he shakes his head. “Did you win the competition?” she asks and he shakes his head again. “Then no, you do not get some” she shakes her head.

“Simmer down” he gasps and I burst out laughing.

“Thank you for everything anyway” I smile at Lily.

“No problem! Thank you!” she laughs, smiling brightly. “I’ll hopefully see you all again soon. I’ll miss you” she pouts.

“Right guys, I’ve checked us out. Taxi should be here in five minutes” Dad says, walking over to us.

“Aw! I’ll miss you all” Eleanor bursts out crying, making me burst out laughing.

“Fuck sake” Conor mutters, rolling his eyes.

“Can we all get a picture?” she cries, pulling her phone out of her jeans pocket.

“Yeah” I shrug. She hands her phone to her Dad and we all huddle together for the picture. Matt takes a few before giving the phone back to El. We have a quick look through them all before Dad interrupts us again.

“Right, are we all here?”

“Yes, perfectly” Eleanor sniffles. I frown in confusion and look around to see everyone else mirror my expression.

“I said ‘are we all here’, not ‘can we all hear’” he frowns, rolling his eyes. We all start laughing before looking back at Dad.

“The taxi’s here now” he chuckles. Me and Eleanor look at each other in shock. We quickly give everyone another hug and follow Dad and Matt outside. The boys and Lily follow us out. El lets out a giant cry when we get outside, making me laugh even harder.

“Jesus Christ, if you cry any louder you’ll trigger an avalanche” Craig cringes and Conor high fives him, laughing along.

We quickly say yet another goodbye while the taxi driver packs all of our bags into the boot of the taxi. We finally get into the car and wave to everyone as we drive away.

“Well that was fun” Conor breaks the silence. Dad laughs quietly to himself whilst the rest of us stay silent, the only noise coming from Eleanor’s sobs.

“El, it was only a holiday” I frown and she moans. “You’ll laugh about this when we get home”

“This was the last full day we all spent together until I go back” she pouts.

“Aw!” I coo.

“Good riddance” Conor rolls his eyes and I nudge him with my elbow.

“I know you’ll miss me” she snaps.

-

So we’re now on the aeroplane sat in the same order as last time – Matt, Dad, Eleanor, Jack, me then Conor. Eleanor has actually stopped crying now and is laughing with Jack about something they did on the way here. I don’t know...

“Dad?” I ask, leaning over so I can see him.

“Yeah?” he smiles.

“When I mentioned a skiing holiday to you, you said I’d come home with at least one broken bone” I smirk, bringing up the fact I’m completely fine.

“Yeah but you nearly died” he frowns, shrugging.

“Oh yeah” my face drops. “Still no broken bones!”

“I don’t think it counts, Lucy” he chuckles. “Anyway, your Mum doesn’t think I let you do the competition so can you just say you went against the rules without me knowing if she asks?”

“I didn’t know you were scared of Mum” I frown, smirking slightly.

“I’m not, just do it okay?” he raises his eyebrows and I nod, rolling my eyes.

We eventually land back in Heathrow Airport and may I say, it feels so good to be back ‘home’. I just want to get back in my own bed.

After getting off the plane, checking into the country, finding our suitcases and getting a taxi, we finally arrive back home. It feels so weird to see my house.

I smile as I climb out of the taxi and see my Mum running out of the house, in her slippers, towards me.

“LUCY!” she screams, wrapping me in her arms. I laugh and hug her just as tightly. “How are you now? Are you okay?” she gestures to me falling down the hill.

“One hundred percent fine” I guarantee her.

“Oh that’s so good, I was so worried!” she hugs me again. She pulls away and welcomes home everyone else before Angela and Lauren come strolling out of the house casually and welcoming us all back with hugs.

“How are you, Lucy?” Angela asks after giving Conor and Jack hugs.

“I’m much better, thank you” I giggle.

“Aw, Lucy” Lauren pulls me in for a hug. I laugh and pull away.

“Can we go inside?” Dad interrupts us all. The taxi’s now gone away, leaving us all on the driveway with our suitcases gathered around us.

“Oh yeah, sorry” Mum laughs. We all get a suitcase and take everything inside. We dump our stuff at the bottom of the stairs before all gathering in the living room.

“Where’s Anna?” Conor frowns.

“Oh, I let her sleep in Lucy’s room because she has school tomorrow and Angela was over here” Mum explains.

“Sorry Lucy, is that alright?” Angela asks, a worried expression filling her face.

“Yeah, it’s fine” I chuckle. I don’t mind.

“So tell us all about it then!” Lauren squeals. After talking about the whole trip, and trying to calm Mum down about letting me compete in the competition (she calmed down as soon as we mentioned the £500 we won), we all decide it’s time to go to sleep. I’m literally dead.

“Anna can stay in mine if she likes” I offer as Angela and Mum talk about how tired she’ll be, going home now.

“No, that’s not fair on you and Eleanor” Angela shakes her head.

“I’ll drive you all back if you like” Mum shrugs. “It’ll only take me two minutes. And the boys aren’t going to want to walk anyway”

“Are you sure?” she frowns.

“Positive” she nods.

“Okay, thank you!” Angela smiles. “Lucy, please can you get Anna?”

“Yeah sure” I nod, jogging upstairs into my room. My god, it feels weird to be in here. I go over to my freshly made bed and shake Anna slightly. “Anna, wake up”

“Mmm”

“Come on, you need to go home love” I giggle slightly. She slowly opens her eyes and sits up.

“You’re back!” she gasps, wrapping her arms around me.

“Yeah, to see you stealing my bed” I tease.

“Last time I remember, I was asleep on the sofa so don’t blame me” she puts her hands up in defeat and I start laughing.

“It doesn’t matter” I laugh. “Anyway, your brothers are downstairs and my Mum’s going to give you a lift home now so come on”

“Okay” she huffs, standing up and following me out of the room.

“Did you bring anything here?” I ask as we walk downstairs.

“Nope”

We meet everyone in the hallway and Mum quickly runs out into the car.

“Right, are we going then?” Angela turns to Conor and Jack, after asking Anna if she’s okay and stuff.

“Yup” Conor nods, running his fingers through his messy hair. He smirks when he sees me noticing his action. “No school tomorrow, woo!” he cheers as enthusiastically as possible but he’s too tired to try.

“I’ll be in bed all day” I laugh dryly and he nods, agreeing with me.

“Come on then you two” Angela smiles, walking out of the house with Anna. “See you soon everyone” she says to no one in particular and Anna gives us a small wave. “Oh and it was lovely meeting you Eleanor. I’m sure I’ll see you again soon”

“Yeah, definitely!” Eleanor smiles widely. “Bye!”

“Bye Lauren, bye Matt” Angela smiles widely. They’ve probably already said bye before Anna and I came downstairs.

“See you soon” I smile. I give Conor and Jack a hug.

“Call me tomorrow or something” Conor mumbles and I just nod, too tired to respond.

“Text me when you’re leaving and I’ll come and say bye” Jack smiles at Eleanor, kissing her on the cheek.

“Okay, bye” she forces a smile.

“See you” he waves before leaving with Conor. “And thanks for the holiday!” he pops his head back through the door.

“You’re welcome” Dad laughs.

“Thank you!” Conor does the same and Dad just rolls his eyes.

As soon as they leave, Eleanor and I rush upstairs, get ready for bed and go to sleep.

-

I wake up at 2pm the next morning. I feel tired and gross so I decide to take a shower. It literally feels so good to be back home. It’s amazing, although I do miss Sweden already. The first thing I noticed when we got back last night was that there’s no snow anymore on the floor.

I jump out of the shower and change into some fresh pyjamas. I brush through my hair and leave it to dry naturally. I open my suitcase that’s magically made my way into my bedroom and take out all my dirty clothes. I carry the heap downstairs and throw them into the washing machine.

I go back upstairs to unpack the rest of my stuff while my phone charges. When I’m finished, I dump my suitcase on top of my wardrobe and jog back downstairs to make Eleanor and I some breakfast. I have no idea where everyone is but I don’t care. I’m too tired and hungry to care.

I make two hot chocolates and four slices of nutella on toast for Eleanor and I. I take everything upstairs and see Eleanor sat up on the bed, scrolling through her phone.

“I got you these” I give her the food.

“Thank you” she smiles. Being the sociable people we are, we spend a good half an hour in silence just scrolling through our phones and replying to texts we’ve missed while we’re in Sweden.

Like I promised Ben, I send him pictures of Sweden and tell him what we did there which he seems really interested about. I’m surprised he’s even on his phone during school. I feel like being on holiday was such a good way to take our mind off things for a while but now that we’re back home and Eleanor’s leaving again, I just have a feeling that all this trouble’s going to start again.

I wish I could have a normal conversation with Ben without him mentioning anything about me and Conor, and without Conor freaking out about it. Ben’s so nice when it doesn’t have anything to do with mine and Conor’s relationship.

“We have school tomorrow” Eleanor moans.

“We have had like four weeks off now” I shrug. “I don’t mind going back”

“I wish I could say the same thing. I hate school”

“Mind you, we have exams and stuff coming up now” I remember.

“Shit gets real now”

“Well we leave in June” I shrug.

“Yep, only another seven months to go!” she squeals sarcastically.

“Oh come on, it’ll fly by” I laugh.

“It’s alright for you, I’d be over the moon if I had to go back to a school like yours”

“How do you know what my schools like?” I smirk.

“You tell me about it all the time!” she gasps. I start laughing as she huffs. We’re interrupted by my Mum swinging open my bedroom door.

“Morning girls” she smiles, walking over to my curtains and blinding us with the light.

“Mum” I moan.

“Eleanor, you might want to start getting ready love. Your parents want to be home for eight o’clock” she gives Eleanor a sympathetic smile.

“Yeah, okay” Eleanor sighs. Mum makes her way out of the room and me and Eleanor just sit in silence.

“I can’t believe you’re leaving” I moan, breaking the silence.

“Don’t set me off, Lucy” she hides her face in the pillow. “Please come to visit me whenever you’re free” she muffles.

“Yeah, definitely” I chuckle slightly.

“Hell, I’m even going to miss Conor” she groans.

“Well I’m sure you can call him every now and then” I tease and she lets out a forced laugh. “I’ll skype you”

“Good” she says monotonously, lifting her head off the pillow and sitting up. “I think I’ll get a shower”

“Okay” I smile, nodding slightly.

While Eleanor’s in the shower, I take the opportunity to get the camera I took to Sweden and transfer all the pictures onto my laptop. I need to get some of these developed to put on my wall because some are amazing.

There’s a picture of me sat on Conor’s suitcase as he drags me through the airport which I love. And there’s one of us winning the competition. Overall, there are 1368 pictures... I’ll look through them later.

My phone starts to buzz and I check the caller ID to see it’s Jack.

“Hey!” I answer enthusiastically, spinning around on my spinny computer chair.

“Hey, when’s Eleanor leaving?” he asks. I can hear the panic in his voice.

“She’ll be coming out of her shower any moment so I’d say about an hour. Her parents want to be home for eight or something” I inform him and he breathes.

“Right okay, can you text me when I should come?”

“Jack, calm down. Eleanor’s not going to leave without saying bye to you” I chuckle.

“Yeah, I’m just panicky”

“Are you going to cry?” I tease and he scoffs.

“No. Who do you think I am?”

“Well, I know you’re pretty sensitive” I shrug, biting my nail.

“Ha ha, funny” he says and I can practically feel him rolling his eyes. “Lucy, how good does it feel knowing everyone’s at school today and we’ve missed three days of it?”

“The best feeling in the world” I smirk at his excitement.

“I know! I woke up at half two today. It feels amazing” he sighs.

“Well don’t get too used to it, we go back tomorrow”

“Yeah, that’s what Mum said” he mutters. “Anyway, I’m going now. Bye”

“See you later” I end the call just as Eleanor comes back into the room.

An hour later, my family, Eleanor’s family, Jack and Conor are stood outside my house watching Lauren pack the bags into the boot of her car.

“Oh my god, I’m going to miss you so much” Eleanor cries in my arms.

“I’ll miss you more” I sniffle.

“I know you will” she sobs and I laugh dryly. “Thank you so much for having me” she hugs my Mum tightly.

“You know you’re welcome any time, we’ll see you very soon Eleanor, don’t worry” Mum lightens the mood and I smile slightly, wiping away my tears. This is emotional. Spending 4 weeks with your best friend then having to leave her all of a sudden for another few months. It’s hard... Especially when she’s helped me through so much shit with Conor and everything.

“Bye Adam, thanks for the holiday and everything” she gives my Dad a quick hug.

“Anytime El, see you soon” he smiles.

“Conor, I’m going to miss you so much” she falls into Conor’s arms and cries even more.

“What the- I’ll miss you too” he chuckles, wrapping his arms tightly around her. I can tell he’s forcing himself not to cry.

“It might seem like I hate you but deep down, I do love you” she mumbles, still holding onto him.

“Aw, I know you do” he rubs his hand on her back before pulling away and winking. She rolls her eyes and turns to Jack.

“Jack” she cries harder, falling into Jack’s arms now. I laugh slightly, wiping away more tears. How am I actually going to cope without Eleanor? She’s my go-to person for everything. The only thing that’s stopping me from crying so much is the fact that I know I’ll be seeing her again in another couple of months. It should be soon. I know my Mum won’t let it be too long.

“You need to call me every day and stuff, yeah?” Jack says casually, wrapping his arms around her and rocking slightly.

“Yep, definitely” she nods confidently, pulling away.

“We’ll see each other again in no time, don’t worry” he smiles sympathetically at her. She quickly pecks his cheek before standing back and looking at everyone.

“Tell your Mum and Anna that I love them” she says to Conor and Jack. Conor rolls his eyes and Jack just nods.

Lauren and Matt quickly go round the group giving everyone hugs and saying bye. Eleanor gives me one last hug before making her way into the black car. The engine turns on and the car slowly makes its way off the driveway. We all wave before the car drives off down the road.

I wipe away my tears and let out a deep breath. My phone buzzes so I quickly pull it out and see I have a text from Eleanor.

From - Eleanor: missing you already!

I open the picture attached to it, to see a picture of her in the car with tears down her face. She’s not doing anything on the picture which makes me laugh slightly. I show it to the boys so we decide to send one back. I pull a sad face, Conor sticks him middle finger up and Jack just poses in it.

To - Eleanor: we miss you too xxx