I Will Never Let You Go.

Part Fourteen- Laura.

I suppose there is one benefit of Nathan being this poorly, tired and lethargic. It means we can spoil him absolutely rotten.

  We get back from Alton Towers and we get a call from Jayne. She says that they won’t be back for quite some time yet. “YESS!” I say, a bit louder than I anticipated. “Not like that!” I blush. “Just y’know, we’ll have more time.”

 "How is he?” Tom asks down his BlackBerry, which is on speaker.

 "He keeps chopping and changing his mood.” She says. “One minute he’s up, next he’s down. He’s nervous about showing you his hair, though.”

 "Have you seen it?” Isabelle asks.

 “No, not yet. He’s crying a little, can you hear him?” And we do hear him sniffling. Bless him!

  “Anyway, right guys!” Me, Ella, Reena and Rachael declare our silence. “Seen as Nath and Jayne aren’t going to be back for ages, we’re gonna really treat baby Nath for when he comes home.”

 Everyone seems to agree and like the idea, so I begin handing out roles. Ella and Reena I send out shopping to buy some decorations, while Max, Tom and Isabelle get baking various indulgent biscuits, cakes and cookies. Siva and Jay have the hard job of walking all six of our high maintenance pooches: Diamond, Reena’s fussy white Chihuahua, Daffy, Ella’s ditzy black spaniel cross, Rufus, mine and Max’s beloved collie, Ed, Tom’s gentle rescue greyhound who he takes out jogging, Millie, Jayne’s old crossbreed, and finally Bella, the pedigree shared by Gracie and Nathan (although technically she’s Gracie’s, as she does most of the work.” Gracie’s dog is stunning, just like her. She’s a giant blue Great Dane, and she’s so big Polly can ride on her back.

  Anyway, while everyone is doing what they should, I go upstairs to talk to Nathan’s girlfriend in person. She’s sat on her bed, strumming away at her guitar. “Hiya.” I sit down next to her. “What’s wrong?”

 “Nothing.” She keeps strumming.

 “C’mon, you’ve been quiet all day, and we know that’s not like you.”

 “Hmm…” She throws her guitar down in rage. She’s lucky it doesn’t break. “Everything’s going wrong in my life, to be quite honest!”

 “What… Nathan having cancer? That’s everything in your life?”

 “Yes! I’m scared my boyfriend’s turned into some wretched, nemesis hairless monster!”

“Now now. He’s still Nathan. He’s still your boyfriend, right?”

 “I don’t even know.”

 “What do you mean you don’t know!” I become agitated at her very suddenly. “So you’re just going to call it quits with him, simply because he has no hair!”

 "What? Laura, it hurts me for you to think I’d even consider doing that. I adore Nathan with my heart and soul!” She sobs. Maybe I’d overreacted a bit. “He’s my world, I could never end it with him!”

“Then why are you so scared about seeing him?”

 “It’s hard Grace, when you’ve known somebody this long. I’ve actually never lived without Nathan in my life. I can picture his face every year he’s lived, I can map it out line by line, that’s how well I know him. So seeing him without his hair is going to break my heart.” She is crying hysterically by now. I hug her, praying for time.

 “I know. I get what you mean. I’m so sorry.” I tell her. “But at the same time,” I begin, “He’s probably even more terrified of showing you. Jayne says he’s lost all his confidence and self-esteem ALREADY. If you refuse to look at him, you’ll more than likely offend him. If his own girlfriend can’t look at him, how is the general public? He can’t live under beanie hats forever.”

 “I guess this is how it’ll have to be.” She says. She has such a way with words, she really thinks about what she’s saying and how she says it.

   I go back downstairs to find all the dogs are asleep on the garden patio, thanks to Siva and Jay. “Cheers boys.” I hug them both. “WOW!” I look at the cooking skills of Tom, Iz and my Maxy. There are chocolate cakes, shortbread, cookies, cupcakes, everything is all laid out on the table to resemble a British tea party. “You guys should go on Masterchef!” I high five them.

  We couldn’t find any decent decorations, so we made some instead.” Reena and Ella show me their huge banner and buntings, which all read ‘WELCOME HOME BABY NATH.’

 “Now that’s gonna embarrass him!” I laugh. “Brilliant, that’s what we want girls!” I see the familiar BMW pull up. “He’s here, let’s make him go bright red, guys! Cheese fest central!”

 We all go outside and Jayne gets out. She opens the door and Nathan cautiously gets out. He’s wearing a beanie for obvious reasons. He sees all the banners and he does actually blush bright red. Redder than on his prom photo, and that’s saying something.

 "Guys, I’m overwhelmed by all this.” I see a few tears coming out. “You actually care about me so much, don’t you? Thank you, I love you all.” We all have a big group hug with him and Jayne takes a photo. Well, everyone is in it apart from Gracie, who is still upstairs.

  We take him inside and we all pig out on Max, Tom and Isabelle’s culinary creations. Nath sits next to me and we get chatting more than we would normally, in fact, we have a right laugh. He apprieciates my company, but we can all tell he’s desperate to see Gracie.

  He goes upstairs and me and Isabelle sneakily follow him. Ella is upstairs too, so she joins in the sneaky stuff. “C’mon Nath! Show us ya head!” Isabelle does it in more of a cheeky manner than serious, so Nathan cheers up a bit.

 “Really?” He sighs. You can tell he doesn’t want to remove his beanie but me and Ella chant “TAKE IT OFF, TAKE IT OFF, TAKE IT OFF!” So loudly that in the end he gives in. He removes the hat and it’s really not as bad as everyone makes out.

 “WOOOOOOOH!” We all go in a party like fashion. He smiles at this, it really does cheer him up.

 “That actually really suits you, Nath!” I tell him.

 "It does!” Ella grins.

 “You look better than Max!” Isabelle reminds us of the Alton Towers trip, where Max did the Alan Carr impression. Us three fall about laughing at that point.

 “I still want my hair back, I’m not gonna lie.” He smiles, checking his face in the mirror. “Thanks girls, I know you’re joking and that, but yeah. You’ve put a smile back on my face again.” “We’re not joking, Nath!” Me and Ella reply. “You look sexy with that haircut!”

 “Aww, you guys are actually so sweet.” He takes a photo of us all (He puts his beanie back on though) and Twitpics it, with the caption:

 Me with my three best friends in the entire world, @laws0nizzeh, @_lauratheexpl0rer, and @ellbells96. Love you girls XX

 And he tweets it. He’s actually so sweet.

  He showed the other lads and Reena and they were all okay with it, although he didn’t get quite the same reaction he got with us three. Polly couldn’t care less, she just played with the dogs outside and didn’t really give a damn to be honest.

 He knew Gracie would be a different story, though. We all come upstairs at this point, just in case it all goes wrong. If you know Gracie, then you’ll know she’s as unpredictable as the British weather. He goes in, and shuts the door behind him. I hear a scream; I know instantly that it’s hers.