Chapter 7

I wake up to a text from Conor.

From - Conor: don’t be awkward today

To - Conor: same to you...

From - Conor: whatever

I decide not to reply and start getting ready for school. An hour later, I start walking to the shop to meet Conor, Jack and Lois. I get there and see them all waiting for me, as usual. The first thing I do is walk over to Conor which obviously surprised him, and by the looks of things it surprised Jack and Lois too.

“Hey” I smile. He looks at me and immediately pulls me into a hug, wrapping his hands around my waist. I wrap my arms around his neck and smile. “What’s this for?” I say into his hair.

“I don’t know” he laughs, letting go of me and smiling. I say a quick ‘hello’ to Lois and Jack and we set off to school.

Conor’s completely normal the whole school day. He’s talking to me and is constantly making me laugh, but I can tell there’s something on his mind.

As soon as I get home, I get a text from Jack.

From - Jack: we’re all going out in 30 minutes, do you want to come?

To - Jack: yeah sure, where?

From - Jack: me and Conor will pick you up. I think we’re just walking around

To - Jack: ok:) see you then

‘Walking around’? Sounds really fun... I think about saying I can’t go out simply because it’ll be boring, but I want to spend as much time as I can with Conor. I hate not being around with him. I hate these feeling. I hate how I know he’ll never feel the same...

I get ready to go out and in half an hour, Jack and Conor show up at my door, just like he said. I get butterflies as soon as the door bell rings. I rush downstairs and answer the door, giving them both a hug and walking to the shop, meeting Ben, Alex and Mike.

“Where’s Lois and everyone?” I ask.

“I think they’re coming later. They’ve gone shopping or something” Jack shrugs.

“Oh” I sigh.

“I’m hungry” Ben moans.

“Let’s get chips!” Alex shouts.

Everyone agrees and starts walking to the chip shop. When we get there, everyone pays for their order so I sit at the side and wait for them all to get served because I didn’t bring any money to buy anything. Everyone’s ordered except Conor who’s next in line. I hear him take his order.

“-and Lucy, what do you want?” he asks, making my head snap up.

“Oh I don’t have any money”

“I know. What do you want?” he snaps.

“Um, just some chips?” I say, but it comes out more like a question. He hands me the chips and smiles slightly. “Thank you” I smile and he just nods.

They boys walk out of the shop and I just kind of tag along. They walk to the beach and sit down eating the chips. I sit in the middle of Conor and Jack, and Conor reaches over and grabs one of my chips.

“Hey!” I snap, slapping his hand, making him laugh.

A few minutes later, Lois, Olivia, Leila and Charlotte turn up. I acknowledge them all with a hug before they all steal my chips.

“Are you coming in then?” Leila says with her mouth full of chips.

“No it’ll be freezing” I frown.

“Come on!” Olivia pouts. I look at Conor as if I’m asking for permission.

“I’ll go in if you are” he shrugs.

“Yeah!” I smile. He sighs and stands up, rolling his eyes playfully. All the girls run in the water and start screaming at the coldness. Conor looks at me while I debate whether I should actually go in or not.

“You’re going in”

“I-I don’t know” I stutter.

“You just made me stand up though” he smirks.

“Conor don’t be so-“

He cuts me off by picking me up bridal style and running into the water.

“CONOR PUT ME DOWN” I scream. The water’s up to his waist and I’m holding onto him as tight as possible. “Please don’t let go me”

“Shit” he gasps. I feel myself dropping in the water, and my body goes numb. I panic under the water and feel two strong arms come and grab me back up. I try catching my breath back, taking deep breaths in and out. “Shit, Lucy. I'm sorry”

“Fuck you, Conor” I snap and storm off. I sit next to Jack shaking because the water has made me numb.

“Lucy, are you ok?” Jack frowns in concern.

“Y-yeah” I stutter from the coldness. He takes off his hoody and gives it to me. “Thanks” I smile, putting it on.

“Sorry, Lucy” Conor sighs, sitting next to me. I just cross my arms and turn my head away from him. “I don’t see what your fucking problem is. It was an accident” he snaps.

“You don’t understand. You don’t know what happened when I was younger and you just threw me into the water with no care in the world. That’s what my ‘fucking problem is’” I frown, mimicking him.

“What happened?” he frowns.

“It doesn’t matter” I mumble.

“Lucy just tell me” he begs and I let out a long sigh.

“When I was five, my one year old sister drowned and I’ve been terrified of water ever since” I say as quickly as possible. I shut my eyes and bite my lip to hold back the tears, seeing flashbacks in my head of that day. I remember it like it was yesterday and it'll haunt me for the rest of my life.

“Lucy, I-I didn’t know. I’m so sorry” he stutters, wrapping his arm around my waist. I rest my head on his chest and shuffle towards him to keep warm. I can feel his chest move up and down as he breathes. I shut my eyes as he plays with my hair, relaxing me in the most perfect way possible.

-

“Lucy? Lucy, come on, we have to go” I hear a familiar voice. I must’ve fallen asleep. “Luuuucyyyyy”

“What?” I snap. He lets out a small chuckle.

“Come on, we’re leaving” he says.

“Conor?” I ask.

“Yeah it’s me”

I smile and sit up.

“Everybody left about half an hour ago to go to the park. I knew you wouldn’t have gone so I stayed here with you” he smiles. I get those butterflies again. He’s so cute.

“Thank you” I smirk. I stand up with Conor and walk off the beach. We walk past the shop and start walking to my house.

“Why did you help me?” he randomly asks.

“What?”

“The other night, why did you help me?” he repeats. He must be talking about the fight.

“I don’t know. You we’re getting hurt, I’m not just going to walk past like I didn’t see anything” I shrug.

“I wasn’t getting hurt”

“Yes you were, Conor” I frown.

“I could’ve dealt with him myself. I don’t need your fucking help” he snaps.

“Ok well next time you’re getting beaten up, remind me not to step in and help you out. I’ll just leave you in pain" I roll my eyes. "I can’t go right with you Conor. One minute you’re being nice to me and then the next you hate me. All I did was help you out and you can’t even accept that. All I do is try with you but you make everything so fucking hard. I give up” I spit and walk faster towards my house down the street.