He lifts his hand, slowly tracing his fingers up her arm until they reach her face leaving goosebumps and a warm trail behind. Then he moves just his pinky finger across her cheekbone, dragging along until he pulls the stray strands of hair behind h...
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January 18th 2012
It's a sunny day.
And warm, especially for January.
The flowers are starting to bloom, dandelions and buttercups.
But that's not how the day feels. It feels dreary and sad.
But that's not how Tommie feels. No, she's angry, furious.
At herself, her mother, at everyone.
There's a hand squeezing her shoulder that brings her out of her thoughts and tears her eyes away from the grey stone.
"Ready to go?"
She lets her eyes glance at Adam for a second, then the other three Manchester boys who'd travelled down and are watching from afar.
"Yeah, yeah."
He wraps his arm around her shoulder and tugs her into his side, his other arm soothing against her head as she breaks down into a sob.
She cries into his chest and he rests his chin on her head, a soothing back running up and down her back.
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"She wanted to protect you."
"Protect me?" She shakes her head and pulls out of his grip, the back of her wrist rubbing her nose, "No, this is typical her behaviour. She did this- she did this on purpose. She always does this, keeps me out of things until it's too late then eats us both up."
"Tommie-"
"All the time, all the damn fucking time, all-"
"Okay..." Adam tries to bring her into him again but she pushes him away, "Tom, please, let's go."
She steps back, a hand shaking as it covers her mouth, only to run up her face and through her hair to pull out the bobble holding her hair up.
The other three make their way over at this point, George placing a comforting hand on Adam's back as he tries to hold back his own tears at losing his aunt.
Ross is the one who heads for Tommie, taking her into one of his bear hugs. She doesn't fight back this time, she lets her hands fist his coat and rests her forehead on his chest as she cries into him.
Matty goes for Adam, reaching for his hand and squeezing, "We'll be okay."
Adam turns to his best mate, tilting his head as tears fill his eyes, "I'm worried this will break her, Matty."
He sniffs and tugs his other arm free of George to rub his cheeks, letting George hold it again when he's satisfied there are no more tear trails.
"She still has you, us, we won't let her be alone."
