Right Place Wrong Time

By the time I reached the gate it was dark, I hadn't even noticed. I ran home from work the long way, it had been a mad day so I needed to clear my head.

As I bent down, hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath back, I heard Jonny's deep voice coming from above me.

"Tia! You're home later than usual, everything ok?" he spoke

"Yeah, fine, thanks!" I breathed, Jonny was one of my favourite guards, he never patronised me but he'd always have a chat with me before opening the gate. He was tall and built like a wall, the kids at the camp called him the BFG!

"Busy day at work?"

"Busy would be an understatement!" I replied. I work at the local gym as a personal trainer and fitness coach, so the weeks that follow Christmas and New Year is always packed with people trying to keep to their new year's resolutions and get fit.

"ah well, in a place like this you learn busy is a good thing" he chuckled back, "anyway, this is the third time this week you've run home, you broken your car again?!"

"NO!" I replied, it was hard to be offended because I had rolled my car 3 times in the last two months, "mum and Pete have gone away for a couple of weeks, she needs a distraction, you know..."

"Oh of course, it must be almost a year," Jonny replied quietly, "are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine, just miss him," I quickly changed the subject, not wanting the tear that was waiting in my eye to form "is Alex home?"

"Yeah, he got back about an hour ago," Jonny smiled

"Thanks, goodnight Jonny"

"Goodnight Tia," he replied, as I was walking away, he gently caught my wrist, "and Tia, if you need anything, and I mean anything, I'm always here"

"Thank you" I smiled "it means a lot."

Ok so now would probably be a good time to tell you my life story, in a nutshell. My name's Tia Daye. I'm 18 years old and I'm an army brat. I live with my mum, my big brother Alex, 21 and my twin brother and sister; Tilly and Theo who are nearly 1,  in the camp my Dad was deployed from. Dad. My dad was a soldier, has been since he was 16, he was deployed for a tour in Afghanistan just over a year ago. Three months later he was reported missing in action, a couple of weeks later his body was found. My dad had died trying to save a woman and her child from a gunman. My mum holds onto the thought that he died saving someone else, she needs him to be her hero because a month after he was deployed, she found out she was pregnant with twins. She didn't get a chance to tell him...