Chapter 109

It’s the next Friday and Conor and Jack are round at my house. Tomorrow, we’re all going to Mike’s house for a ‘gathering’ just so we can all get together. Lois, Liv, Leila and Charlotte are getting ready for it at mine then they’re all staying at mine for the night.

Ben and I have been pretty distant with each other in school so I’m hoping he’s alright with me tomorrow. I just feel like he’s too scared to be around me because of Conor. I don’t want him to feel that way.

But I have been getting on well with Sam. The guy who stuck up for me when James came over to me in the nightclub? Yeah, we’ve been talking a lot and he’s actually really nice and funny. Conor’s obviously not happy with us talking as much as we do but he finds Sam hilarious. Sam was telling us that he finds some girl in our year seriously attractive which makes Conor more relaxed about us being together. Conor and I always take the piss whenever she walks past us and Sam’s with us, so we said we’ll set the two of them up.

So at the moment, Jack’s watching some show on telly in the living room whilst Conor and I just talk on the sofa.

“Lucy, I’m home” Mum calls through the house.

“I’m in the living room” I call back and she soon opens the door to the room. I turn around and smile.

“Oh, hey you two. Are you alright?” she smiles at Jack and Conor. Jack finally releases his glare from the TV and smiles at my Mum.

“Yeah thanks, how are you?” he smirks.

“I’m great” she returns the smile. I roll my eyes at Jack’s purposely flirty gesture to Mum that he usually does just to annoy me. “Conor and Lucy, now that you’re together can I talk to you?” she asks us. I look up at Conor who has a worried expression on his face. His grip around me gets tighter and he fidgets slightly.

“Yeah” I shrug. We all turn to Jack who’s smiling widely at Conor’s ‘awkwardness’. His face drops when he realises he has to leave the room.

“Just help yourself to the fridge or something, Jack. They’ll only be five minutes” Mum chuckles. His eyes light up as he practically gallops out of the room, closing the door behind him.

“Where’s Dad?” I frown, realising he’s not here and he usually takes a lift with my Mum to and from work.

“We made our separate ways to work because he has to stay a little bit later tonight for a meeting” she huffs and I just nod understandingly.

“Anyway, I need to talk to you about what goes on behind closed doors” she kicks off the conversation and sits on the coffee table in front of the sofa Conor and I are sat on. My heart starts beating faster because I’m worried about what she’s about to say, and Conor instantly removes his arm from around my waist, putting me on edge immediately.

“Right” I edge her on.

“I know what you’re doing and I don’t really know if I’m happy with it” she shrugs, cutting straight to the point. What the hell?

“You don’t know what we’re doing at all” I frown.

“Lucy, who are you kidding? You’re at that age now, I get it. But I don’t want anything bad happening” she glares at me, shifting her gaze to Conor.

“Nothing bad’s going to happen” Conor speaks up and I nod in agreement.

“I’ve heard that before” she laughs dryly.

“Mum, you can’t just come in here and start interrogating us about what you think we do. It’s none of your business” I snap and her eyes widen in shock.

“I think you’ll find it is, Lucy! If you get pregnant, you’ve practically ruined your life” she raises her voice.

“Why are you shouting?” I say in the same tone of voice she has, being slightly hypocritical. I’m fuming. Why does she feel the need to sit me and my boyfriend down and start making assumptions about our sex life? I kind of guessed she knew what we do anyway but she didn’t seem to have a problem with it when Lauren brought it up. What’s made her completely change her views on it now?

“Don’t start, Lucy” she rolls her eyes.

“No, you’re being so rude. You’ve just sat in front of us and started interfering with our sex life that has absolutely nothing to do with you” I practically shout in anger.

“Lucy, calm down” Conor worms him arm back around my waist. I shuffle closer to him for support.

“It does have something to do with me, Lucy, because you’re my daughter! I’ve come to realisation that what you’re doing is wrong. You’re underage and it’s just not right” she shakes her head in disappointment.

“You sound so patronising, Mum. This isn’t fair. I turn sixteen in like, seven months”

“Well you can wait seven months then!” she snides.

“Stop treating me like a baby! I bet you did all this earlier than me!” I shout and her jaw practically drops. I hear Conor gasp under his breath.

“All I’m doing is looking after you, Lucy” she says much calmer than how she was talking to me a couple of seconds ago.

“No, I can look after myself. You’re just sticking your nose where it’s not wanted. Don’t you think me and conor know the consequences?” I scoff.

“Yes but it doesn’t stop you from doing what you’re doing. Lucy, I don’t want to argue with you about this but if you’re keep shouting at me like this, I can sure stop Conor from staying over” she raises her hands in defeat. I shake my head at her and my eyes start to fill up in anger. She’s being so unfair.

“You’re being so overprotective. I had to sneak Conor in my room for a few months because I was too scared to tell you that I socialised with boys. You need to realise that in fifteen years old now and I’m obviously going to be doing this. Not that it has anything to do with you” I snap. “You have no right to just corner us like this and start talking about something so private”

“Corner you!? I’m your mother! I’ve let Conor practically live at this house whenever he likes and he knows that he’s always welcome. Don’t you dare start shouting at me the minute I say that I want all this ‘funny business’ to stop!” she rants, using air quotes. “Conor, I’m sorry about this but you need to know where I’m coming from. I don’t think you realise how risky, what you’re doing is”

“No, I understand where you’re coming from and everything but Lucy and I know how to be safe and stuff. I won’t let anything happen to her” Conor frowns, shaking his head. I almost smile at how sweet he’s being but I’m so angry right now that I literally can’t.

“I know you won’t but that still doesn’t want me to risk my daughter getting pregnant. I’m doing this for your own safety and Lucy’s just blown this way out of proportion” she sighs.

“It’s hardly blowing it out of proportion if you’re interfering with what Conor and I do” I mutter, turning away from her.

“I’ve said enough” she raises her hands in defeat and stands up. Thank God. She walks out of the room and into the kitchen.

“Are you alright?” Conor breaks the silence.

“I’m fuming” I moan. “She has no right to interrogate us like that”

“Yeah” he sighs.

“Do you think she’ll stop you from staying over?” I ask in panic.

“No” he shakes his head. “But you can always sneak out” he smirks and I smirk slightly before moaning and falling on his chest.

“I guess” I agree.

“I thought the talk I had with your Dad was enough” Conor mutters and my head shoots up.

“What talk with my Dad?”

“Oh, nothing” he shakes his head. I frown.

“No, tell me”

“He was just telling me to be safe and shit” he shrugs.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me?” I frown. My Dad’s been having secret chats with Conor about our ‘sex life’ and Conor’s not even told me about it? It just keeps getting better...

“Well you didn’t really need to know about it”

“Yes I do! It’s about me”

“Us” he corrects me and I just stare at him in disbelief. “I knew you’d blow it way out of proportion anyway. You’ve probably banned me from staying over here for a while now because you can’t control your fucking temper”

“What the fuck? Don’t talk to me about controlling my temper!” I snap. Why is he being like this? I understand that I might have overreacted a little bit but why is he snapping at me about it?

“Don’t even start” he shakes his head, huffing.

“Well if you told me about yours and my Dad’s secret chat, this wouldn’t be happening” I turn my back to him and shuffle further away.

“It’s a secret fucking chat for a reason”

“You’re my boyfriend, Conor. We shouldn’t even have ‘secrets’” I use air quotes. Although, I guess I’m keeping it secret that Ben came over last week. But that’s a totally different situation.

“You’re lying to yourself if you’re implying that you don’t have any secrets from me” he scoffs and I just roll my eyes. “Fuck this, I’m going” he stands up from his seat on the sofa, storming out of the room. I hear him mutter a few things to Jack and my Mum, so I decide to follow him into the kitchen to see what he’s saying.

“You’re taking this way too far” I frown when the room goes silent as soon as I walk in.

“As usual, your anger problems are my fault” he rolls his eyes.

“You’re such a hypocrite. Rather than slagging me off to my best friend and my own Mum, get the hell out of my house” I point towards the front door.

“Slagging you off? Fucking hell, don’t you think I have better things to be doing with my time than talking about you?” he raises his voice, taking a step towards me. “Don’t worry, I’m fucking going” he storms out of the kitchen and I follow behind so I can storm off upstairs, until Dad walks through the front door and I stop in my tracks.

“What’s going on?” he asks when he sees the look on all our faces, mainly mine and Conor’s.

“I think you know what’s going on. Next time you want to talk about mine and my boyfriend’s private life, at least include me in your little secret fucking conversation” I snap, running upstairs and slamming my bedroom door shut.

“Lucy, get down here now!” I hear him shout from the bottom of the stairs but I ignore his order and continue changing into my pyjamas. I jump straight into bed, blocking out the discussion going on downstairs. I eventually hear the front door close, and knowing that my boyfriend’s finally left the house actually relaxes me slightly.

I’m so angry right now that I can’t even think straight. I feel embarrassed that Conor and my Dad have even spoke about this, and that my Mum knows what we do. I mean, I guessed that she knew what was going on but the fact she’s pointed it out ‘weird’s me out’.

-

I wake up the next morning with my Mum forcefully pulling open my curtains, blinding me with light.

“Mum, what the hell?” I moan, lifting my head up slightly before falling back down onto the pillow. Instead of replying, she just storms out of my room and slams my door shut.

For gods sake. Everything from yesterday comes flooding back to me. The ‘heated’ conversation with Mum, the argument with Conor and swearing at my Dad. No wonder Mum’s in such a bad mood. I don’t blame myself though, she had no right to do what she did yesterday. I felt so embarrassed.

I grab my phone from the nightstand and check my messages.

From - Jack: sorry I had to leave without saying bye, I hope you’re okay. I’ll see you tonight or if you want, I can come see you during the day. Love you xx

Oh shit. I forgot about tonight. Mum and Dad will probably ban me from leaving the house after the way I reacted last night but I just hope they understand where I’m coming from.

To - Jack: it’s fine, don’t worry about it. I’m okay I guess but I’ll see you tonight if I can still come. Time to do some sucking up to my parents;) love you too xx

From - Jack: eyyy, that’s the Lucy I know;) You’ll be able to come, don’t you worry. I’ll definitely see you today either way xx

To - Jack: Aw okay, looking forward to it:) xxx

Thinking about the whole ‘sucking up to my parents’ thing, I tie my hair up in a ponytail and make my way downstairs. I refuse to say the first thing so I completely blank my Mum and just walk past her, straight through to the kitchen for breakfast. Dad’s sat in the kitchen reading something off his phone whilst drinking his morning coffee.

“Lucy” he sighs, noticing I’m in the room. I ignore him without even thinking and pop some break into the toaster. I just stare at the toaster, waiting for my bread to pop back up. “Lucy, you can’t ignore me forever” he says and I can tell he’s shaking his head. I roll my eyes and turn around to face him.

“Okay” I simply say.

“If you want to be treated like an adult, can you at least act like one?” he frowns at my attitude. I almost storm back out of the kitchen but this gathering at Mike’s house tonight is on my mind. I storm out of the kitchen = shit night for Lucy.

"I am" I mutter. I look to the floor and play with my shirt.

"I know you're not okay with what I spoke to Conor about and I completely understand that. I'm not angry at you for feeling the way you do, I just can't believe how you spoke to me last night. I'm so disappointed in you, Lucy" he says much calmer than I expected. I'm so glad he's calm about the situation. It's first thing in the morning and I can't be doing with having yet another argument with my family.

"Yeah I get that. And I'm sorry. I was just so angry about the whole situation" I sigh, glancing at my Mum stood angrily at the door. I quickly look back to my Dad.

"I just never want to be spoken to like that again" he frowns and I nod.

"Well can you never have private conversations with Conor again?" I smirk slightly and he chuckles, holding out his hand. I shake it to close the deal and laugh slightly afterwards.

"If you think a small apology's going to let you go to that party, you're absolutely wrong" Mum snaps, walking out of the room.

I let out a loud frustrated moan, walking over to the toaster to wait for it to pop up. This is taking forever. Conor always complained about me having a 'slow' toaster and I actually finally agree with him. I'll have to sort things out with him tonight if I actually get to go.

"She's just angry because she didn't know I spoke to Conor" Dad mutters. "You'll be able to go out tonight" he smiles slightly.

"But we had an argument last night" I frown in confusion.

"You know what your Mum's like. Just talk to her" he says when my toast finally pops up. I mentally cheer and start to butter it.

"She won't listen" I sigh.

"Course she will" he assures me. I turn around and smile.

"Thanks" I nod. I decide to just get this over and done with and talk to my Mum. After eating my toast, I slowly open the living room door to see her polishing the coffee table. The room’s spotless. She realises I’m here and stops what she’s doing. “Can we talk?”

“There’s not really much to talk about. I’ve said everything I need to say” she shrugs, continuing to clean the table.

“Mum” I frown and she sighs.

“Sorry, come on then” she nods, sitting down on the sofa, leaving the cloth on the table. I join her on the sofa and smile slightly.

“I’m sorry for overreacting yesterday. I just thought it was a bit unfair how you said everything how you did” I mutter.

“I don’t understand what I did wrong though, Lucy. I do have a problem with you and Conor staying overnight with each other a lot. All I did was tell you both” she frowns in confusion.

“But I don’t get why you’ve just said this now. Lauren brought it up the other week and you just laughed it off!”

“I hadn’t thought about it until then. Before you went away, your Dad was talking to me about you and Conor sharing a room and I said you’ll be fine. But I’ve just been thinking about what you’re obviously doing at this age and I just don’t really feel comfortable with it. You need to understand where I’m coming from, Lucy. You’re my daughter and I care” she says calmly.

“Yeah I understand but it’s not like we’re not safe” I frown. I completely understand where she’s coming from but if me and Conor are safe then she shouldn’t have a problem with it I guess.

“You can never be too sure” she shrugs. “I absolutely love Conor to pieces and I’d never ever want you two to break up or stop staying over at each other’s houses as often, yeah?”

“Yeah” I smile slightly.

“I know you love him and he loves you, and your stupid mother isn’t going to stop you from doing what you’re doing, no matter how much she wants you to” she rolls her eyes and I laugh slightly. “Just please be careful. I was thinking about it last night and I know what you’re both like. My words won’t stop you from going off and doing your own thing. Hell, I wouldn’t have listened to my Mum either if I was in your situation, and I think it was stupid of me to think that you would. So if I can’t get my own way, can we at least meet half way and agree that you need to be safe and not ‘do it’ as often?” she uses air quotes and I start to laugh before nodding my head.

“Not that we ‘do it’ that often anyway” I mimic her by using air quotes.

“You’re not fooling anybody, Lucy” she rolls her eyes and I start to laugh further.

I literally have the best Mum in the fucking world. We have our fair share of arguments but I’ll never say that she’s a bad Mum. She’s amazing.

“I was also talking to your Dad last night and he just told me everything he said to Conor. He didn’t tell him to stop what you’re doing because he knew that you’d do the complete opposite to that, but he just said be safe. And I guess he’s right” she shrugs and I just nod. “Do your friends know you do it?”

“We don’t tell them but I’m sure they’ve guessed. Jack sure knows”

“How does he know?” she chuckles.

“He winds us up about it all the time and leaves the room whenever we kiss, thinking we’re going to-“

“Okay, I get it” she interrupts me and I start laughing. “But on a serious note, I’m not happy with what you’re doing at all. I’m just trying to be reasonable about the situation”

“Yeah, thank you” I smile.

“But don’t think I’m letting you off this easily” she frowns and my face drops, thinking of all the possible punishments she could come up with.

“Please don’t stop me from going to Mike’s tonight” I gasp, begging her with my eyes.

“I’m not that tight” she tuts, relaxing me slightly. “I’ll let you go tonight and your friends can still stay over seeing as I’ve already said they can. But you’re not allowed any alcohol and if you talk to me or your Dad like you did last night ever again, you’re grounded for a week. Am I clear?”

“Yep! Thank you, Mum!” I smile, wrapping my arms around her.

I’m not the slightest bit bothered about having no alcohol tonight. I’d rather remember this night to be honest.

She rolls her eyes when I pull away and smiles.

“What’s up with you and Dad anyway?” I ask.

“Nothing” she shakes her head, clearly avoiding the conversation.

“Mhm” I raise an eyebrow.

“He just didn’t tell me that he spoke to Conor. I’m annoyed” she shrugs and I roll my eyes.

“You’re married for god’s sake. Go sort it out” I tease and she gives me that ‘warning’ look that all Mum’s do.

“You’re pushing it, Lucy!” she shakes her head, standing up from her place on the sofa.

“I know how far I can go” I shrug, smirking slightly. She continues to shake her head as she walks out of the room, probably to speak to Dad. I quickly jog out of the room and run upstairs, texting Jack telling him I’m aloud to go out, and telling the girls to come round at 5pm.

-

After cleaning my room, taking a bath, having tea and going on my laptop, it finally gets to 5pm. I hear a knock at my door making me squeal in excitement. I rush downstairs and swing open the door to see Lois and Charlotte stood there with wide smiles across their faces and a huge bag in their hand.

“Hey!” I smile widely. I give them both a hug before stepping aside so they can come in. Liv and Leila should be here anytime now too. I lead the girls up to my room and let them dump all their stuff wherever before I hear another knock at the door. I go down to see Liv and Leila stood at the front door.

“Lucy!” Leila squeals, pulling me in for a hug. Liv does the same before I lead them both up to my room where everyone says ‘hi’ to each other and stuff.

“Just a quick heads up, if you mess up my room, you’re not going until it’s clean” I warn everybody.

“Of course you’d say that” Lois rolls her eyes. They all get out their make-up bags and sit in front of my wardrobe mirror, leaving Charlotte and I out.

“Wow, can’t even use my own mirror” I tut, being completely ignored by everyone.

“Fucking discrimination” Charlotte rolls her eyes and I burst out laughing. The rest of the girls slowly turn their heads to look at her, staring at her like a freak.

“Come on, Char. We’ll go get ready somewhere else” I flick my hair and walk out of the room, searching the bathroom for a mirror we can take into my room.

We eventually put all our makeup on after an hour and a half of serious procrastinating. We kept dancing to the music playing in the background, and were just constantly laughing and stuff.

“What are you all wearing?” I ask. I still have no idea what to wear.

“I’ve just brought a skirt and a top. I’m not wearing heels though” Liv frowns.

“No, me neither” Leila shakes her head. I decide to go with my black, long sleeved, short dress and just pair it with my white converse that Jack got me for Christmas. I add a small necklace and remember to put on my Pandora bracelet that Conor got me. I love it so so much.

Lois curls my hair for me to give me ‘beachy’ waves, and after we all shimmy through Leila’s new perfume, we’re all ready to go... Almost.

“Guys, we’re not going anywhere until you’ve sorted out this room” I say casually, holding everybody up at the door.

“You’re joking” Lois’s face drops and I shake my head.

“You’re such a freak” Leila groans, sorting out her pile of clothes. I start laughing as they all rush around my room, gathering all their things together and packing it neatly in their bags at one side of the room.

“Can we go now?” Liv frowns. I examine the room and nod.

“Finally” Char cheers. We all head out of my bedroom door and jog downstairs.

“Mum, can we have a lift please?” I call through the house.

“Yeah, are you ready?” she responds from the living room.

“Yep” I nod, popping my head into the door.

“Right, let me get my keys. Be getting in the car” she says. We all rush into the car and wait for my Mum to get in.