Right In Front Of You

Chapter 8 - Growing Connections.

The Core Lounge;
Shannon's POV;

Sitting here for God knew how long talking with Heather, it felt like five minutes but I knew that it had to be longer than that. But for the life of me, I couldn't bare looking at my watch because I really didn't want this night to end. The more I listened to her talking the more I wanted to know, I wanted to know about her life, about the things that she did and the places that she goes too.

"...so she was in the bathroom screaming for help!"

"What happened?" I asked.

We had stumbled upon the subject of drugs, and how Suzie had dabbled a few years ago, having smoked something she had stumbled to the toilet and how she had been gone for what had seemed like forever before the screaming started.

"Well Barry was the first one out of the chair and at the bathroom door..."

"She and Barry are close huh?" I asked watching the way her emerald green eyes flashed with passion as we talked about her friends and Family.

"Yeah they're best friends through and through, it doesn't matter what the other does, they are always there supporting one another, I have never had the kind of bond that they have with one another,"

"They've never been together?"

"No...God no! That isn't what...they have never and would never be attracted to one another; that just isn't what they are about. Suzie had approached him in school when her best friend at the time had a crush on him but was too scared to actually talk to him, so Suzie started a conversation and they just kind of clicked from there, and because he accepted her; his friends did too,"

"She wasn't...?"

"No she wasn't popular in school, she kept herself to herself, she had a few close friends who she spent all her time with, but other than that she didn't really fit in because she refused to follow trends, she didn't squeal and shriek over the slightest thing, she was always a bit of a tomboy you know?"

"Sounds like she has always just been comfortable with who she is,"

"Yeah she always was, when we lost our Parent's it was hard for her 'cos over night she became the Parental figure that Britt and I needed, she always put us before her needs you know?" Heather stated softly, looking down at her legs.

"You lost your Parent's?" I asked softly reaching my hand to hers and curling my fingers through her own and she nodded before bringing her eyes up to look at me. "Can I ask how?"

"There was a car accident...they had been out one night, my Dad had some Lawyers ball thing, and they had left us with a babysitter. On the drive home, their car was hit by a lorry face on; they both died on impact,"

"I am so sorry, how old were you?" I asked feeling my heart break for her. I had lost my Father when I was young, and I knew how much that had tore me apart, but I hadn't had to deal with the loss of both my Parent's.

"I was 14, Suzie was 15 and Britt was just turning 11,"

"Damn honey, what happened?" I asked gripping my fingers around her hand a little more firmly than before and watched her eyes as they shone with a light tracing of tears.

"I don't understand what you mean?"

"I mean were you put in to care...?"

"No; our Aunt and Uncle took us in, but they were only interested in putting a roof over our heads, other than that we were left to our own devices, so Suzie kind of just took charge, she made sure we ate, she made sure we brushed our teeth, she made sure our cloths were clean and she made sure we did our homework,"