Chapter 148

“Right gang, we leave in twelve hours. I refuse to sit on my ass and watch football all day” Eleanor snaps, standing up from her place on the sofa.

We went to sleep at god-knows what time yesterday. We literally stayed up all night playing hide and seek, twister, and going on Kinect, then once half the house decided to call it a night, the rest of us stayed up and continued to play drunken two truths one lie, never have I ever, would you rather, and bloody beer pong.

To be fair, we didn’t drink too much so I’m not hungover or anything because we knew we’d be pissed off if we were all grumpy the next day. But I can’t seem to get my ass up off this damn sofa. I’ve gone to the extent of bringing my duvet downstairs because I’m that tired. Well, I guess I could get up and do something but I just can’t be bothered.

“Last time you said something like this, we ended up staying up till four in the morning playing fucking hide and seek” Jack frowns.

“Jack” his Mum scolds him for his colourful language. He raises his hands in defence before turning back to his girlfriend.

“Okay, maybe not hide and seek but can we do something productive. I’m fine with not leaving the house” she shrugs.  Everyone stays silent as she flickers her eyes from person to person to see no one’s taking any interest in her. “You’re all so boring” she groans, falling back onto the sofa we’re sharing.

“Why don’t we go in the pool or something? Play some music, have a barbeque... You know, family type stuff” Anna shrugs.

“See, this is why Anna’s my favourite” Eleanor nods at her. I chuckle slightly and sigh.

“I’m up for it”

Conor turns to me with a look of disappointment as if I’ve let the team down, making me smirk.

“Conor, I don’t know if you’ve realised but this is the last time you’re going to be seeing us for a while too” Anna points out, gesturing to her family.

“I know, I know” he sighs, shutting his eyes for a bit before looking around the room.

“I’ll pull something together for the barbeque. Adam and I are quite the team” Matt smiles proudly, nodding at my Dad. I mentally groan at how connected the two of them are. They’re literally like the older version of Conor and Alex.

“You could say we’re barbeque buddies. Am I right?” Matt bursts out laughing, high fiving my Dad. I immediately turn away from the two of them as they continue to laugh at Matt’s stupid ‘joke’.

“Conor, aren’t you coming down to see everyone else?” Jack frowns in confusion. That’s a point, he hasn’t seen them in ages.

“I don’t know yet, I might be able to take another week off near the end of August. I’m just busy at the moment” Conor shrugs and Jack just nods understandingly.

“Anyway... the barbeque?” Matt pesters further.

“Yeah, why not” Angela shrugs, and mine and Eleanor’s Mum’s agree.

Everyone looks around with huge smiles on their faces, waiting for Conor’s confirmation. He practically has to say yes now.

He looks around the group in slight amusement before his eyes stop at me. I raise an eyebrow and give him a slight nod before he groans and turns to Matt.

“Shall we see what we have for the barbeque then?” he smirks, making everyone cheer.

How does something so simple bring so much joy to the house?

-

“This is the life” El sighs, sitting back on her sun lounger and pulling her sunglasses down from her head. I turn to her and smile. “You know, you’ve surprised me”

“How?”

“I was kind of expecting you and Conor to be all over each other this holiday, making up for lost time but you’ve actually been decent” she shrugs. “I mean, yeah, I catch you flirting every now and then but that’s pretty much it. You flirt with everything that has male parts”

“Eleanor!” I gasp. “It’s called being polite”

“There’s a fine line between flirting and being polite, Lucy” she smirks, raising an eyebrow at me.

I roll my eyes, “Why did you think we’d be all over each other anyway?”

“I don’t know. You two had so much chemistry back in the day”

“Yeah” I smile slightly, thinking back to two years ago. “Well you’ve also surprised me, Eleanor. Who knew that you and Conor could actually get along?”

“Hey, he brought me to America and has been spoiling me since I got here. I decided to leave the past behind” she teases, making me laugh.

“I suppose he has treated us like queens” I laugh.

“You’re not kidding” she shakes her head. “You know, I think I’d be happy if you both decided to give it another go. I mean, you can tell he’s changed but is still the same asshole he always used to be. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah” I chuckle.

“I think your Mum was also kinda hoping the Lunor ship had set sail yet again” she smirks and I turn to her in shock.

“You’ve come up with a freaking ship name?” I raise my eyebrows, making her laugh.

“Lunor’s a fucking classic, give me some credit” she raises her hands in defence. I just roll my eyes.

“Long distance relationship, El” I shake my head.

I think I’d jump at the opportunity to get back into a relationship with Conor but there are so many things that would just complicate it. It would be really difficult.

“Quit making excuses” she rolls her eyes.

“No, I’m serious” I sigh, glancing around to make sure nobody in particular is eavesdropping.

Matt and Dad are messing about with the barbeque, Jack and Conor are doing a full on workout routine around the garden, and our Mum’s are in the pool with Anna. Eleanor and I are pretty safe to talk about you-know-who.

“For starters, it’s a long distance relationship. It would be so hard to see each other regularly and stuff”

“Are you kidding? The asshole’s minted. He could fly over to see you every time you said ‘I miss you’” she scoffs.

I chuckle, “Also, he’s famous now. He’s going to be busy with tours and albums and stuff. You heard him before. He barely has time to see the rest of the group”

“Yeah but it’s not like he’ll be busy every second of the day. Surely he’ll take even five minutes out of the day to talk to you. Even if it’s at midnight just before he’s about to go to bed, he could Skype you or something and it would only be like, eight in the morning in the UK” she shrugs. “You’d be up at that time”

I smile slightly and shake my head, “I don’t know. It’s different seeing someone on a screen and actually seeing them in person”

“Yeah, true. But if you both care then it shouldn’t be a problem”

“Would you do this with Jack?” I frown.

“Would I balls! I have as much patience as a freaking earthquake. I couldn’t deal with that” she shakes her head in panic. “But you, you’re like, as patient as a turtle. I think you’d be able to deal with it”

I chuckle, “It would be hard at times”

“If he’s worth it, you gotta accept the challenge”

She’s right, and he is worth it. I guess every relationship has some sort of challenge or problem they have to overcome. Surely Conor and I can overcome this.

“I know” I nod. “But also, I’m in University. I need to concentrate on my education”

“Fuck that! You can move over here after Uni” she scoffs. “And you won’t need an education if you’re living with him!”

“Eleanor! I’m not being a freaking house wife for the rest of my life”

“Ooo, we’re talking about ‘wife’ now?” she wriggles her eyebrows.

“You know what I mean” I roll my eyes.

I look over at Conor who’s doing press-ups on the garden with Jack. Man, he looks smoking.

“I know” she chuckles. “I knew you still liked him”

“Yeah, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. We go home tonight and I’ve just been through a few disadvantages of this” I sigh.

I want to be with Conor so badly but there are so many cons to this. Who knew that he could make me fall for him so hard in a freaking week? This is ridiculous.

“Besides, I don’t even know if he feels the same way” I shrug.

“That’s true” she nods. I turn to her, waiting for her to say more as she has that look in her eyes as if she’s coming up with some master plan to make this work. They usually do work so I won’t knock her.

“What do you think I should do?” I ask.

“Honestly, I think you should just talk to him” she sighs, turning to face me.

“And say what?”

“Tell him how you feel. I’m almost one hundred percent sure he won’t push you away” she smiles slightly. “He’ll know the bloody cons to that” she mutters, cracking her fists.

I roll my eyes, “I think I might”

“Really?” she gasps.

“Even if he does push me away, I’d rather him do that than live with the regret of not talking to him” I shrug.

“Aw, this is great” she squeals.

“Two years ago, you’d be saying anything to get me out of this situation” I chuckle.

“I kind of like him now, he’s alright” she smirks.

“At least we know something good’s come out of this trip then” I joke, making her laugh.

“Hey, if he does anything to upset you when you talk to him, he’ll regret inviting me here” she raises her hands in defence.

“Whatever” I chuckle.

Now when should I speak to him?

I look over at him standing up from the grass he’s just been doing press-ups on, and looking at Jack as he waits for him to give the next fitness instruction.

Jack should so be a personal trainer. Yeah, I joke about him not using his gym membership but I know when he does have the energy to get out of bed and train, he doesn’t mess about. He can work out for a long time and always pushes himself past the limit. Eleanor doesn’t shut up about his damn muscles. Either does Jack, to be honest.

Anyway, back to Conor. I see him and Jack arguing slightly and I’m guessing it’s because Conor’s complaining about Jack working him too hard.

“I need a break, Jack” I hear Conor groan.

It’s hard to work out what they’re saying over the music playing throughout the garden. It’s not loud, but with Conor around 10 meters away from me and the speakers practically right above me on the patio shelter, it’s hard to work out what he’s saying.

“Come on, ten more minutes. Girls go crazy for ripped guys, and the more girls fancying you, the more money you’re going to be getting on album number two” Jack rants, making my smile grow wide. Conor continues to frown at his brother. “Ten minute break then we’re doing another half hour, deal?”

“You’re so in love” Eleanor breaks me out of my trance, shaking her head in amusement at me.

I don’t even argue with her. I just smile and continue to stare at Conor who’s now walking towards the pool to cool down.

“Want a drink? You’re gonna need some Dutch courage if you’re admitting your love you-know-who” she smirks, standing up from her place.

“Go on then” I roll my eyes, following her out of the garden and into the kitchen.