Forbidden Love

Chapter 30

We met James and George outside the youth centre about to walk in.

"I thought you had to stay home for a few days? Because of your grandparents?" James asked Ethan as we walked in.

"Yeah," Ethan nodded as we paused briefly to sign in, "they're all busy though so we got out." He grinned.

I smiled when I saw all our friends seemed to be there.

I crept up behind Joe and wrapped my arms around his waist from behind.

He jumped and turn around. He smiled when he saw me and bent down to kiss me, "what are you doing here?"

"Came to see you."

His smile grew and he kissed me again.

"Dorris Black died." I told him.

"Who's that?"

"My neighbour."

"I didn't know you knew your neighbour."

"I didn't. But we're helping her son plan the funeral now."

"What? Why?"

I shrugged, "he needed help."

"And how much help are you going to be?" Joe teased.

"Well so far, I've gotten out of the house so that they can plan better. So a lot of help actually."

Joe laughed, "very helpful."

When we got back to the house Dave was still there.

I went into the kitchen where everyone was sitting. Curious about what was going on.

"What's happening then?" I asked, deciding that was the best way to get information.

"We've got a lot sorted, actually." Mum said, sounding quite proud of herself, "the funeral director was lovely. He offers a service where he will sort most of it out. We haven't phoned the church yet, we'll have to do that tomorrow, it might be a bit tricky with it being Easter but I'm sure it'll be ok. We were just discussing the house when you came in. Luckily it's a sellers market at the moment so when he puts it up it's likely to be sold pretty quickly."

"You're selling the house?" I asked suddenly very interested.

"Yes, well I don't think I'll have much use for it. I'm in London now you see." Dave said sadly.

"Right, yeah, yeah." I nodded.

I needed to tell Joanne. The house next door to mine looked pretty similar on the outside to mine. I had never been inside but it wouldn't be that different. The house that Joanne was moving to on on the side of town sounded exactly like mine. If I could present her with one right here that she could show her mother, she might not have to move!

"So when do you think you'd put it up for sale?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

"Oh Olivia, there's no rush." Mum said giving me a funny look that told me to stop asking questions.

"I was just wondering!" I said defensively.

"Pretty soon," Dave said, "I'll need to get back to work soon enough and it would be good to at least have the house up for sale by the time I go back to London. I'll have to find an estate agent of course."

"All in good time." Mum said, "now you'll have to stay for dinner."

After dinner Dave left.

"I'm sorry," Mum said to granny and grandpa, "you come all the way over here just to deal with all this!"