Chapter 54

It’s finally the weekend. This week has definitely dragged.

I get back from school and literally just go upstairs and have a good 3 hours sleep. That definitely did the trick.

As soon as I wake up, I go downstairs and start making myself some tomato soup with some bread. I make a hot chocolate and take my meal upstairs.

While eating, I sign into Twitter and stuff to see what I’m missing, and check my texts.

From - Jack: call me when you can x

I start to dial his number and he picks up on the first ring.

“Helloooo” he answers.

“Why did you answer the phone so quick?” I gasp.

“I was texting on it” he laughs. “Anyway, come over”

“No”

“Why?” he moans.

“Why do you want me to come over?”

“Because I don’t want to spend my Friday night doing nothing” he says as if I’m stupid.

“I’ve just woke up though” I sigh, pulling a spoonful of soup in my mouth.

“I have Skittles” he bribes me. Oh my god.

“Um, maybe”

“And Ben and Jerry’s” he continues. “And jelly”

“Oh fine” I sigh in defeat.

“Yay, are you alright getting here?”

“Yep” I nod to myself, putting more spoonfuls of soup in my mouth.

“Okay, tell me when you’re on your way”

“Will do, bye” I end the call quickly. It’s 6 o’clock already so I need to start getting ready.

I change out of my pyjamas I put on before my nap and put on my black leggings and my light pink cropped sweater. I put my hair in a messy bun and sort out my smudged make-up. Before I leave the house, I quickly put on my parka coat and my converse and head out of the door.

It’s really dark so I try to get to their house as soon as possible.

To - Jack: on my way x

I walk down their huge drive and get greeted at the door by Conor, instantly putting a smile on my face.

“Hey!” he smiles, pulling me in for a hug.

“You alright?” I ask him.

“Yeah, you?”

“I’m good” I nod, walking upstairs to see Jack. I open his bedroom door and see him in deep concentration on some shooting game on the Xbox. “Yeah Jack, looks like you really needed me to come over” I say sarcastically.

“One sec” he mutters.

“Forget it” I sigh and walk out into Conor’s room.

“Is he still on that game?” he asks me, looking up from his laptop.

“Yeah” I laugh.

“He’s glued to it” he laughs “Dad just brought it home”

As soon as he says that, his whole mood changes and I can tell he’s angry about something. I decide to change the subject to make him feel better.

“What you doing?” I ask, sitting next to him on the bed and looking at his laptop.

“YouTube” he simply says, closing his laptop.

“Oh”

“Come here” he opens his arms. I lean into his body and we fall back onto the pillows, just hugging each other. “Sorry”

“You’ve done nothing wrong” I shrug.

“What’s up?” he asks, tucking a piece of loose hair behind my ear.

“Nothing” I shrug.

“Yes there is, tell me”

“I’m just tired” I say but he doesn’t respond. We just lay there in silence while he plays with my hair. A few minutes later, Jack walks in the room.

“Sorry about that, you coming?” Jack asks me.

“I’m comfy” I moan into Conor’s chest.

“Please” he pouts. “We’ll have ice cream”

“Don’t want it”

“I’ll just eat it all to myself then” he shrugs and begins to walk out of the room.

“Wait” I sigh. “I guess I could stay with you for an hour or so”

“Thought you might” he laughs.

We end up running to the shop quickly for some ice cream because Jack didn’t actually have any, but because he said he did, I was really in the mood for it. We also got some chocolate and other junk food.

After eating it all while watching a movie with Anna and Conor, I start to feel a bit sick and am really tired. I’m glad I texted my Mum earlier, telling her I’m sleeping at Conor’s because I’m in no mood to finding my phone now.

“I really tired” I sigh.

“Same, shall we go to bed?” Conor asks and I nod. After saying goodnight to Jack and Anna, we walk upstairs and get straight into bed. “Are you alright?”

“I feel sick” I moan.

“What, like you’re going to be sick?”

“I don’t know, maybe”

“I’ll bring you up some water just in case” he gets out of bed and runs downstairs. The more I think about how ill I am, the more ill I feel, so I try to push it to the back of my mind for now.

Conor comes running upstairs a few minutes later with a large glass of ice cold water.

“Thanks” I force a smile and take a sip of the water before placing it on his nightstand.

“If you’re gonna be sick, run to the loo”

“I will” I half laugh. As soon as he gets into bed next to me, I move up closer to him, wrap my arm around his waist and lay my head on his chest. I could literally stay like this forever.

“Wake me up if you’re sick” he mumbles and I nod. I shut my eyes for a while trying to get to sleep but no matter how tired I am right now, I can’t even bring myself to sleep. I keep my eyes closed and keep trying until I hear Conor singing lightly to himself.

“Your hand fits in mine Like it's made just for me But bear this in mind It was meant to be And I'm joining up the dots with the freckles on your cheeks And it all makes sense to me I know you've never loved The crinkles by your eyes When you smile You've never loved Your stomach or your thighs, The dimples in your back at the bottom of your spine But I'll love them endlessly I won't let these little things slip out of my mouth But if I do It's you Oh, it's you they add up to I'm in love with you And all these little things” he sings quietly. I’ve never fallen to sleep in a more perfect way in my life.

-

I wake up panting, with sweat all over my body. I sit up when I feel something come up my whole body and into the back of my mouth. I put my hand over my mouth for extra support and run to the bathroom, following Conor’s orders, and throwing up in the toilet.

I stay hovering over the toilets for a few minutes as more sick falls from my mouth, until I hear footsteps drag onto the bathroom tiles. I don’t bother to see who it is because I’m still thinking I’m going to be sick any second, but they hold all my hair up for me and rub my back.

I must throw up at least 3 more times after that until I decide I’m done. I flush the toilet and turn around to see my guest.

“Are you alright?” Conor asks me and I nod, wiping my mouth with tap water. “Come and have some water baby”

He just called me ‘baby’.

I like 'tired Conor'.

I follow him into the bedroom and take a few mouthfuls of water before getting back into bed. I feel so ill it’s unreal and I feel tears rolling down my cheeks. I turn away from Conor and sniffle to myself so he can get to sleep.

“Luce?” he mumbles, turning my body around to face him. “Babe, what’s wrong?”

“I feel so ill” I whisper and he immediately pulls me in for a hug. I cry on his chest while he plays with my hair and shushes me every now and then. “Do you want some tablets or anything?”

“Yes please” I nod.

“Right, I’ll be as quick as I can” he slowly gets out of bed and runs downstairs after kissing my forehead. I roll around the whole bed for about 2 minutes to try and get into a comfortable position where I don’t feel sick but nothing works so I just give up and curl into a ball at one side of the bed.

Conor comes up shortly after with a fresh glass of water and a box of tablets. After taking what he gave me, I cuddle up to him to try and sleep. It takes me a while to get to sleep but as soon as Conor starts drawing circles on the palm of my hand, I instantly crash out.

The next time I wake up, it’s 9am and I’m the only person in the bed. I feel as sick as I did last night. I’ve not been this ill in ages, I fucking hate it. What a way to spend my weekend.

I still remember Conor singing to himself last night. It was so perfect. He really needs to do something with his amazing voice. I can imagine him being signed by the biggest artists there is. His voice is insane. Although, he did take the piss out of me for liking the song he was singing. The last time he heard it, he started calling it ‘depressing’ and ‘shit’.

My stomach starts to rumble and my mouth becomes more watery. I run to the bathroom and throw up some more, tears streaming down my face although I’m not crying.

“Shit” I hear Conor mumble from the top of the stairs. He jogs into the bathroom and rubs my back. “You done?”

“I think” I nod and walk over to the sink.

“Sorry I wasn’t in bed, I went downstairs quickly to get you more water and stuff and came back up to see you here” he half laughs and I just smile.

“It’s fine”

“Luce, you’re so pale” he rub his thumb over my cheek. I don’t respond, I just look at him. This is the part where we kiss and lead each other to the bed but I don’t think that would be a good idea considering how ill I am. I'm not even in the mood for that anyway. I don’t understand how I feel so bad. I only ate a ton load of ice cream and a few bags of sweets... “I’ll call your Mum”

“No, don’t”

“She needs to know”

“I’ll call her later. She’ll make me come home and will treat me like I’m two. I want to stay with you” I nod and he chuckles lightly.

“Alright” he smiles and leads me to the bedroom.

“Lucy!” Jack gasps, walking into the room and sitting at my side of the bed with me. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fab” I say in a monotone voice, sarcastically.

“I only asked” he puts his hands up to his chest and I laugh.

“I blame this on you though”

“What? Why!?” he gasps.

“You made me eat all that shit”

“I did no such thing! You put it in your mouth”

“I put what in my mouth?” I smirk and he looks at me, confused before laughing.

“You’re disgusting” he laughs with me and Conor starts smirking. “Well I’m going out for a bit. I’ll see you later” he gives me a hug and pushes some hair out of my face before walking out of the room.

It gets to 2pm and I decide to call my Mum back. I’ve been avoiding her calls all morning because I don’t want to leave. She gets too protective when I’m ill and I hate it. I suppose every Mum is like that...

“Hello?” she answers.

“Hey, it’s me”

“Oh, hi love”

“Um, I’ve been sick this morning so can you pick me up or something?” I sigh and Conor nods at me.

“Aw, are you okay!?” she gasps.

“Yeah, Mum, I’m doing cartwheels” I say sarcastically.

“Oh, sorry. I’ll come and get you now. Are you at Conor’s?”

“Yeah”

“Ok. You’ll have to text me the address” she tells me.

“Will do, bye”

“Bye!” she ends the call.

I text her the address and get out of bed to get changed.

“What are you doing?” Conor asks.

“Getting changed?”

“No you’re not. Ill people don’t get dressed” he frowns and puts me back in bed.

“She’ll be here in like, two minutes. Let me get ready” I moan.

“I’ll open the gates for her now and she can come in” he tells me and I sigh. “Stay here, I’ll be two minutes”

He runs out of the room and out of the front door, only wearing his sweatpants loosely around his waist. I sit in bed playing with the duvet cover until I hear Conor come through the front door talking. I guess my Mum’s here.

I get my phone out to make it look like I’m not just sat here, and start scrolling through Twitter, keeping myself occupied.

“Aw, my baby!” Mum gasps, walking into Conor’s room and giving me a hug.

“Mum, get off”

“Sorry!” she gasps. I get out of bed and pick up my leggings I was wearing yesterday. I put them on under Conor’s top that I slept in. I keep the top on and follow Conor downstairs.

“Right, call me if you need anything and make sure you just stay in bed. And have lots of water” Conor tells me seriously.

“Yes, Dad” I roll my eyes and he scrunches up his nose.

“Well don’t blame me if you feel any worse than you already do” he shrugs.

“Aw, I’m only joking” I smile and give him a hug. “Thank you”

“It’s fine” he smiles when we pull away from the hug. He kisses my forehead and brushes some loose hair out of my face. “See you later” he waves as I walk out of the house with my Mum.

“Bye” I smile after my Mum says thanks to Conor.

As soon as I get home, I have some water and just sleep again. I’m having such a good Saturday...

When I wake up, I turn on my TV and watch a bit of Jeremy Kyle while going on my laptop. My door slowly opens and my Dad’s head pops through.

I smile, “Hey”

“Are you alright?” he asks, putting his hand on my head.

“I still feel like I’m gonna be sick” I sigh and he just gives me a pitiful look.

“Well tea’s ready, do you want anything?”

“No, I’m good thanks”

“Shall I bring you some water?” he asks and I’m about to say no until I remember what Conor told me before I left his house.

“And have lots of water”

“Yes please” I tell my Dad and he nods before walking out of the room. He comes back in with a big glass of ice cold water and I instantly take a sip to cool myself down. I’m so hot...

“Was you at Conor’s earlier?” he asks.

“Yeah” I sigh, not wanting to talk about him to my Dad.

“Was he looking after you?”

“Yep” I nod, not making eye contact with him.

“Good. I still need to meet him”

“Has Mum made you say this? I get it if she has”

“No! But when you was asleep she was telling me that he’s always looking after you and stuff so I guess if he makes you happy then I’m alright with it” he shrugs and my eyes go wide. “I don’t know why you kept all this from me Lucy. The only reason why I was mad at you is because you didn’t tell me about any of this when it started”

“Well it’s not like we’re always with each other” I shrug. I never spend time with my Dad, he’s always working.

“I know, I’m always busy and I’m sorry. But I was actually going to take you somewhere today to make up for it” he laughs.

“Oh my god, where?”

“Anywhere” he shrugs. “Probably not in Brighton though. By the sounds of the stories your Mum’s told me, you’ve already seen the whole of Brighton”

“What did she tell you?”

“Just saying that um, Jack?” he asks and I nod. “Him and Conor have taken you to the Pier and the beach and stuff”

“Oh right”

“You didn’t tell me” he sighs dramatically.

“I will in future” I laugh.

“Good. I was also thinking about going on holiday before Christmas”

“Really!? Where?” I gasp.

“I don’t know. Up to you” he shrugs.

“Skiing” I nod and he laughs.

“I’d pay to see you ski”

“Alright then” I nod and he rolls his eyes.

“You'll come home with at least one broken bone. I don’t think that’ll be nice for Christmas” he laughs and I laugh along.

“Well aren’t we going to Cheshire to see El?”

“I don't know but I thought you might like something else”

“No, I’m not too fussed. Unless you want to” I shrug.

“Well have a think about it and I’ll research some stuff” he says and I nod. “I’m gonna go have my tea now, make sure you drink your water”

“I will” I nod and he walks out of the room. Well that was a nice conversation...

I check my phone and see a few missed calls and texts from Conor.

From - Conor: feeling any better?x

From - Conor: you best be drinking water...

From - Conor: and are you in bed?

To - Conor: I’m not feeling any better:( I am drinking water and yes, I am in bed. Also, I just had a full on conversation with my Dad and I enjoyed it...

A couple of minutes later, my phone starts to ring and Conor’s name pops up on the screen.

“Hey!” I answer cheerily.

“Hey! Are you ok?”

“I’ll live” I half laugh.

“So tell me about this conversation with your Dad” he laughs.

“Well he came in and was asking if you was looking after me and then he started saying that he was just mad at me because I didn’t tell him about me and you when it first started and he was like ‘if he makes you happy, I’m fine with that’ and then he said he was going to take me out of Brighton for the day but because I’m ill, I can’t. Then he started going on about taking me on holiday before Christmas and yeah... And he also said that he wants to meet you” I breathe.

“Fuck, he’s in a good mood ain’t he?”

I laugh, “That’s what I thought. He also brought me some water up”

“Oh that’s so kind of him” he says sarcastically and I just laugh.

“Anyway, I heard you singing last night”

“What? I wasn’t singing” he gasps.

“Don’t lie! I heard you. You sounded perfect Conor, you need to do something with your voice”

“Like what?” he sighs.

“I don’t know, but you could get signed easily. You should do YouTube videos”

“No way” he objects.

“Why not?”

“I don’t do that shit”

“Well you should ‘do that shit’. I bet you’ll be famous by next year”

“Definitely” he says sarcastically.

“But seriously, you should do at least one video and see how it goes”

“Maybe” he laughs.

“Good”

The conversation continues for at least an hour and a half until we decide to Skype each other instead because my hand was sore from holding the phone to my ear. We stay on Skype all night and we only end the call at 1am. I was sick a few times during the call but I always ran to the bathroom and just drank some water afterwards. Conor made me feel better after it too so my Saturday night was actually pretty good.