Forbidden Love

Chapter 2

It felt like the two weeks I had been given flew by in a frenzy of packing, saying goodbye and tears.

Before I knew it we were at the docks and I was looking out the car window at my grandparents waving us off as we drove onto the boat, our car packed with our belongings.

I didn't try to hide the tears running down my face as I pulled down the window and stuck my body out it so I could get every last view of them. And Belfast.

"Hey!" One of the workers directing the cars yelled at me, probably to get back in the car but I ignored him, I wasn't doing any harm.

"Hey! Girl!" He yelled again.

"Get in the car Olivia." My mum said gently. I sat back down in my seat. We'd driven around a corner anyway. I couldn't see where my grandparents stood.

"I think you kids are really going to like this place." Dad said, "you'll be going to the same school."

In Belfast Ethan and I went to different schools because I went to a schools just for girls and he went to a schools just for boys. Apparently it's different in Birmingham.

Dad was still talking but I wasn't listening. I was paying attention to the boat we had now driven onto.

I had never been on the ferry before and I hated to admit it but I was excited for that. I did love boats.

Whenever we visited the seaside as little kids I always talked my way onto some sort of boat. One of my grandpa's favourite stories is of when I am no older than 5 and he brought me for a walk to the harbour. He said I walked straight up to the biggest yacht there and asked the man tending to it to bring us for a ride on it, which he did!

This ferry is a different type of boat altogether. We are on for the overnight crossing to Liverpool. Which means we have the evening then we sleep in a cabin then off in the morning.

I actually quite enjoyed the crossing on the ferry. Ethan and I walked the top decks watching the sea until he started to get sea sick and went back to our cabin to lie down. I then settled on a bench on a lower deck and watched the waves as the sky got darker. I got lost in thought thinking about what our new life was going to be like.

I was worried about fitting in with the English. What if they didn't like my accent or understand it. What if I couldn't understand them? What if they judged me for the violence that happened on the streets back home. I had gotten so used to living with it like it was normal but my uncle had warned me the English might be wary of us when we went to visit dads family in the country before we left.

I was lost in thought going over every possibility when my dad tapped me on the shoulder and caused me to jump. "Jesus dad, give a girl some warning!" I said standing up and walking over to the railing to look over the sea.

He came and stood next to me and didn't look that impressed with me, I didn't care I wasn't that impressed with him either at the moment, "Olivia, this is no place for a young girl to be sitting by herself at night. You should have come back with Ethan. You have your mother worried sick. I've been searching the decks for half an hour looking for you."

I roll my eyes and follow him back to the cabin when he walked off. Ethan always was allowed out later at night because my mother worried about a young girl being out late. Not fair if you asked me.

When we departed the boat the next morning dad announced it would be a three hour drive to our new house. Despite myself and my determination to hate this place I couldn't help the excitement and anticipation that bubbled up in my stomach.

Three hours seemed to stretch in front of us forever and quickly turned into three and a half hours when we got lost but before I knew it we were pulling up in front of a house in the suburbs of Birmingham. The house was slightly bigger than our house back home and from the front looked like it had a nice garden out the back. Definitely an upgrade. I jumped out of the car thankful for the opportunity to stretch my legs. I don't think I've ever sat in the car for that long.