Girl in a Hoodie: Where the Future Lies

Chapter 24

Riley's POV:

I log into my laptop which I held on my thighs as I continued to rest my head on James's shoulder. He had his headphones on, considering he was in a meeting using the airplane's Wi-Fi, but didn't have his camera on for anyone to see me. He took several glances downwards to look at me just to check if I was okay whilst I continued to have numerous short chats with the girl beside me, each conversation having a vastly different topic to the previous one.

After she had fixated on watching a movie on the small screen in front of her, my mind peels back to what I was doing. I had several tabs opened from things I had been browsing over late last night when James was asleep but I couldn't seem to turn my brain off for rest. I sigh, relishing on the fact that each tab was to do with business school and one being a list of teacher courses I could take, so instead, I open up the blog page I had typed on a couple of weeks ago, remembering I hadn't actually checked my account for new updates since the time I wrote my first post, so it's been quite a while.

I click onto a set of three dots where it displays different choices for me but I see that I had a total of 99+ notifications which is a lot more than a bit of a shocker. Eyes widened, I click on it before scrolling through and finding a bunch of comments on my blog where people had commented that they've been in similar situations and how they like my idea. Some have been told that they worry too much and also turned to writing and reading blog posts and there were many comments telling me that I should write more about my life. I never would have thought people would be so interested but it seems that they are.

I soon also find one comment that my eyes are drawn to.

Hi, I just wanted to say that I know exactly how you feel. You're right about how we don't know each other at all but it feels like I've known you forever. You sound like a truly nice person and you're extremely lucky to have a guy who cares about you that much🥺 I've been through something similar to what you have and I think it's really good that you're talking about it. My parents never really spoke to me after I told them but after I gave birth to my lovely three-year-old daughter (I'm twenty now) things slowly got better and now they love seeing her every weekend! I think you really deserve how big you've gotten just through one post and I wish you all the best in the future💕 Equestrian x

I smile reading through it, before replying with a brief message about how surprised I am right now and that I really appreciate what she had said. I add a snippet about James and how he's been there for me before ending it with a purple heart and clicking send.

When I go back onto my account, it tells me I now have 213 followers and I have 324 likes on my blog from the other day. I'm about to click on 'write new blog' but then James's hand relaxes on my knee, causing me to look up at him. His headphones were now rested around his neck and when I look at his laptop screen, I notice his meeting had in fact ended and he was reading over my screen.

"You started a blog?" he asks me. I nod sheepishly. It sounds so dumb when he says it out loud. "Cool, when?"

"About two weeks ago," I say. He smiles, wrapping an arm around me.

"You know that's a good thing, right?" I look up at him, chewing my bottom lip. "I know that you can't always tell me absolutely everything and so it's good for you to find a different way to let your feelings out," he tells me. "Plus, I'm clearly not the only one who agrees," he smirks as he gestures towards the few comments displayed on the screen in front of me before kissing my forehead.

...

Emily's POV:

"Mum, calm down! They'll be here soon, Riley texted me saying they landed half an hour ago. I'm sure they're just a few minutes away," I try to assure her, rolling my eyes at the same time as I held my phone in my hand, receiving continuous updates from my sister about traffic and other road happenings.

"I know, Em, but I'm just so darn excited to meet my baby girl!" she exclaims, all bubbly-like and enthusiastic. Sometimes Mum can be a bit... much. And she tends to get that way whenever she's had way too much coffee to drink, one of those times would be right now.

Just as I'm about to send yet another text to her, the sound of the doorbell rings and then Mum's eyes light up. "Wait here Mum, I'll get it," I tell her, just before she does something ridiculous. I straighten up as I approach the door before unlocking it and then smile widely at the sight of my sister and her boyfriend before pulling her in for a hug.

"I've missed you so much," she says, rubbing my back as I did the same and we rocked one another side to side. James chuckles at the two of us before we step aside and he carried their three suitcases inside. I guess it's adequate for a one-month stay.

"Wow, this is one sweet house," he gasps, looking around but hadn't yet met the eyes of our mother since she was stood in the second living room whereas we were by the first one near the front entrance.

Riley pulls away from me, giggling as she tucked her hair out of the way of her face before I close the door behind her once she walks in. 

"Don't break anything, babe," she says to him as he looked around a little. He turns to face her and then grins to which she rolls her eyes before continuing to talk to me. "So how are you?" she asks.

"I'm really good, what about you?" I ask her back. She doesn't say anything and instead holds her hand up to show me a very nicely studded silver ring. "Oh my! That's beautiful! I can't believe you're engaged!" I gasp before watching as she places her hand back on her belly, hovering her hand over the top of it and then that's when I realize the quite large bump. I didn't know she was still pregnant? I thought she miscarried?

"I know! The wedding's next month," she says. She bites her lip, noticing my eyes had drawn to her bump. "You think Mum's going to disagree with... this...?" she asks slowly. I bite my lip as well, not really sure.

"I'm sure she won't. She'll love you," I tell her. She still seems unsure but looks away from me to James, who I guess is her fiancé now and my soon-to-be brother-in-law. Wow. He was sat on one of the sofas, already making himself at home as the suitcases were stood upright in front of him. 

"So are we meeting this mother of yours, or not?" he questions, mainly aiming his words at Riley. She inhales, soothingly running her hand over her belly before nodding and then saying, 

"Okay."