I'd Like to be Somebody Else

Chapter 3

     "Stace, you're still here? Have you decided what you're going to do yet?" Noel asked as he stood in the doorway, unlike his brother he'd put a light blue t-shirt on already.

    I decided I needed to be here, with them. They saved me and I couldn't just walk away from them now.

 "Oi, I'm going to find my bike, If I can't, I'm fucking nicking someone else's." Liam said with a real agitation about him as he headed out.

 "Why did I have to have that idiot as a brother?" Noel asked as the door slammed.

 "He's not that bad." I defended.

 "You haven't lived with him for the last nineteen years." he pointed out. "Do you want to stay here still or not?"

 "I want to stay in Manchester, yeah."

 "Alright. D'you want me to come home with you, to get some of your stuff? I've got fuck all on today." he offered.

 "Yeah, thank you, you've been so good to me."

    I didn't consider that my family would find it strange that I'd ran off and brought back a man that I didn't know.

    We got ready and drove south to my house, the journey was a lot shorter than it had been to get to Manchester.

    Noel was quiet for most of the way until I saw him go to light a cigarette. He tried to try to persuade me to allow him to smoke in the car, including attempting to demonstrate that he'd be able to keep all the smoke out of the window.

 "No way, you are not smoking in my dad's car, he'll fucking kill me." I snapped in the end.

    He just laughed at that. The lack of nicotine put him into a mardy silence until I parked on my drive. He got out, leaned against the car and lit up while I went inside.

    My parents' Vauxhall Cavalier wasn't on the drive. No one was home, it was deathly quiet and unnaturally dark. I didn't consider where they might be.

    I headed straight to my room and packed a suitcase quickly. I just packed clothes, money and some photos, there wasn't anything else worth taking that I couldn't buy in Manchester. I wasn't thinking logically, I just wanted to get away.

    When I dragged my suitcase out the front door Noel commented. "Could have asked me to carry that.

 "It's not as heavy as it looks. Thanks." I locked the door and took the case to the boot. "Can you help me here though?"

    We got the case in the boot as my family pulled up in the car.

 "Stacy!" Mum jumped out the car. "Where the hell have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you. None of your friends had a clue where you were. What have you got a phone for?" She sounded more angry than concerned.  

 "I'm so sorry Mum. I just couldn't..."

    She threw her arms around me and comforted me. "It doesn't matter now, you're safe, just please don't do that to us again."

 "Mum, I'm sorry, I didn't think..."

 "Who's that?" she asked sounding alarmed as she noticed Noel, leant against the car.

 "His name's Noel, he let me stay in his spare room last night and insisted on making sure I got home safe."

 "Who is he? Are you going back with him? Is that why you're packing?" she questioned so quickly I barely caught what she was saying..

    I didn't know who he was. He was the person who'd saved my life. He was a Mancunian with dreams of becoming a rock star. I didn't know him or Liam but still I wanted to be with them much more than I wanted to be with my own family.

 "He's my friend, I'm going to stay with him and his brother for a bit. I need time to think, on my own."

    Dad got out the car and locked it. "What's going on?"

 "Where's Billy?" I asked realising my "brother" wasn't there.

 "At your Gran's while we were trying to find you. We didn't want him to worry." he explained. "Why didn't you just let us know where you were going?"

...

    Dad wasn't happy to see me go, in fact he cried as I said my goodbyes. He didn't even care who saw him, it wasn't like him at all.

 "Shall I get in the car?" Noel asked, not too sure of how to react to my dad.

 "Yeah." I nodded. "Dad, I have to go. I'll ring and stuff. It's not like I'm going for good." I pushed him away.

 "Just take care." he said before taking Mum inside the house.

    We set off on an uneventful drive back to Manchester, surprisingly there was no hold ups on the motorway at all.

...

    A while into the journey he smiled and said "I can't believe your kid is a William. What's the odds on that?"

 "What? How did you know?" I said a bit too aggressively.

 "Your brother Billy, his name's a version of William like our kid Liam. His proper name is William." he looked confused. "Wait Billy is your son?" he was shocked.

 "Yeah," I admitted quietly.

 "And you're just leaving him, in fact you were going to force him to grieve for you." he clearly didn't approve of my decisions.

 "I didn't mean to hurt anyone, I thought I was making things better." It was hard to try to rationalise a suicide attempt. "Thank you for being there to stop me."

 "Couldn't just stand by and watch, could I?"

 "Billy doesn't know he's mine, that's why I can't take him with me. He has to stay with my parents."

 "You are going to regret doing this one day." He warned. "I'm not saying go home, I'm saying come party with us, watch us top the record charts, do whatever you want but no matter what that lad is your little boy and one day you're both going to realise you need each other." he was too serious for my liking.

 "He's never going to know." I tried not to get upset. "Thanks for the invite."

 "So... is he the boyfriend's son?" he asked carefully.

 "No, no he's not Luke's. Can we please stop talking about Billy now?" I forced us into an awkward silence.

Author Note- Woo Liverpool FC are still in the FA cup 2-1 !!!