We Are Not Forgotten

chapter four.

Laughter roared through the living room of my tiny flat as Oliver flung his head back in amusement.

“Do you remember the time we smashed the window of that old woman’s house?” He cried, struggling to breath as his whole body shook with deep chuckles. My face ached terribly from grinning so widely and my throat hurt from allowing loud, laughs to erupt from it. I didn’t mind though.

Oliver and I had decided to have a night in, in front of the television, something we did quite regularly and it always seemed to end with us reminiscing about our old teenage years. It wasn’t as if we were delinquents or anything but the two of us certainly weren’t the nicest of people back then. We used to get into a lot of mischief for accidently smashing windows and drawing graffiti on public walls. Back then, it was fun because we didn’t have any worries and we were naïve enough to believe that what we were doing was okay. Of course, looking back on it I knew that it wasn’t. But that didn’t stop us from laughing our heads off about it.

“What about the time I dared you to steal a chocolate bar from the corner shop and you got caught?” Oliver remarked, before bursting into fits of laughter once again. I shook my head at his crazy attitude, I knew that we had had a few drinks but he seemed to be absolutely off his head.

“Hey! I wouldn’t have gotten caught if you hadn’t of tripped me!” I retorted jokingly. I vividly remembered my fourteen year old self shoving several Mars bars down my t-shirt before making a swift break for the door. However I had managed to collide with Oliver’s foot and thrown them across the floor. Let’s just say I wasn’t allowed back in that shop again.

“Mummy…” I heard my daughter whine as she may an appearance in the door way. She was dressed in her very adorable ‘My Little Pony’ pyjamas and carrying her most favourite teddy bear, Mr Snuffles. It wasn’t a very original name but she had simply insisted.

Oliver and I quickly ceased laughing and turned to face my weary eyed looking daughter who didn’t look particularly happy that she had been woken up.

“Sorry Gabs, did we wake you?” I asked softly, lifting myself from the sofa and going over to tend to her. She nodded slowly and I suddenly felt a rush of guilt overcome me. I had been so inconsiderate about the fact that she was trying to sleep in the next room because I was so consumed with having a good time with Oliver.

“I’m sorry kiddo…” I apologised before hauling her tiny, feather-light body into my arms carefully. She immediately rested her head onto my shoulder and I felt her comforting warmth against me. I also had the strong scent of biscuits and milk hit me, causing me to smile.

As I felt her body getting heavier and heavier, I knew she was already falling back to sleep in my arms. I rocked her gently in order not to wake her again and whispered to Oliver,

“I’m just going to put her back to bed…”

He nodded his head in agreement before leaning back into the armchair and switching the television back on to a low volume. I smiled at the fact that he felt so at home here because I thoroughly enjoyed having him around. He allowed me to forget about all of the depressing and traumatic problems I was going through and simply think about a time when life was much easier. Sometimes I wished I could go back to those moments, like when I was fourteen years old but then I wouldn’t have Gabi and that was something I didn’t want to think about.