The John Hughes Club

Chapter Thirty

After spending a week at dad's for the beginning of the summer holidays, mum said I could have some friends around this evening whilst she's out at the cinema, then having dinner with her friend Debbie. Mum being mum laid it on really thickly about trusting me. Laid it on about how I am allowed to have fun, but sensible fun. Of course, I said that I would. As promised, myself, Chas, Ella and Zigs have been doing just that...having sensible teenage fun.

We've had pizza whilst sitting in the back garden, listening to music as the warm summer evening came in. We have since moved from the garden, and are now watching a terrifically bad slasher movie. The film itself might not be too great, but being cuddled up on the sofa with Chas, most certainly is. With our legs stretched out, he is behind me, holding my body close to his. Ella and Zigs are much the same on the other sofa, only their knees are bent. All of us are watching the film, snuggled up with the person we most care about. I have missed this. I have missed being held by Chas. After a week apart, I have missed our content silences and our content chats. Going back to Stratford no longer feels the same. As much as I adore my dad, and as much as I love hanging out with Ash, Maisy and Senna, Minehead feels more like home to me now. Of course, I still miss my old life, but I'm beginning to miss my new life so much more. Being away, has made me realise that. It's made me appreciate what and who I have here, more than I ever could have imagined. The warm swell of that realisation, affectionately begins to expand within me. It's so warm and so overpowering, that I have this urgent need to share it with Chas. "I have missed you so much," I whisper, smiling at my lack of shyness with sharing that with him.

Kissing my hair, he cuddles me tighter. "Me too." Lifting my one hand, he then brings the back of it up to the warmth of his smiling lips. "I've missed every single part of you," he declares with a tender hush to his voice against my ear, still smiling. 

Sighing with a joy that I'm sure every teenage girl will one day experience, I am simply enjoying mine. This is my joy with my boyfriend.

"Why do the kids in these films do that?" Zigs suddenly intrudes on my enjoyment of my joy. Looking over at both Chas and I, he's becoming increasingly annoyed by the terrifically bad slasher movie we are watching. "Seriously, why would you be wandering around the house, when you know that there's some crazy dude intent on gutting you and your friends?"

Ella chuckles. "I think that's the whole point of these films, so we all shout at the screen, telling the actors what they should be doing."

Unimpressed, Zigs shakes that shaved head of his. "Do people think that us teenagers are stupid or something? Is this how they want to portray how we would react to some knife-loving psycho who is going around cutting up our friends?" With a frown, he eyes more of the tv screen with total dismay. "Like this dude, he's just seen the girl that he likes being decapitated, and now he's noisily running around the house, practically with a sign on his back that says 'come and kill me'...it's annoying!" He huffs, holding onto Ella to help him diffuse some of his annoyance.

"Okay, brave boy...what would you do if some crazy slasher was wanting to slice us up?" Ella asks him, grinning with her question.

"For starters, we would all stay together. Then we would find something to defend ourselves with, then hide somewhere and wait for the nut job to come to us, not us go to him....oh, and maybe some quiet snacks to eat whilst we're hiding," Zigs explains, all rather seriously.

"Quiet snacks?" Ella curiously asks, sniggering as she turns in the arms of him.

Smiling back at her, he replies with affection there in his blue eyes. "Yeah, quiet snacks. We can't be noisily eating, nut job would hear us. The element of surprise is the key thing to surviving. However, hiding in wait might take some time...hence the need for quiet snacks."