The List

11. "Yeah, we should meet up again sometime."

11. "Yeah, we should meet up again sometime."

So we continued talking for another hour, about everything.

"This is gonna sound so cliché, but let's play twenty questions," I say to Connor.

He laughs, "Okay, sure. Favourite colour?"

"Hmm, blue," I say, "Birthday?"

"14th February, 1997," my eyes widen.

"Really," I ask.

"Yep, it's slightly awkward when on Valentine's Day you have to go out with your family, when there are couples surrounding you," he says.

I don't say anything, thinking about how I would give anything to be with my parents, and how I used to take them for granted. I feel tears start to pool up in my eyes; I squeeze them shut, and hoping they wouldn't fall and that Connor hadn't seen. I look down, taking a deep breath.

"Emily, are you okay?" Connor says, sounding concerned.

I nod slightly. I feel him touch my arm lightly, the touch sending a wave of something around my body. I look up. Why was I crying, I'm being an idiot. He didn't even say anything.

"Was it something I said," he asks.

I don't respond. "Emily, you can talk to me," he says.

I take a deep breath, "Sorry," my voice comes out shaky at first, "I'm just being stupid, it's nothing."

"You're clearly not being stupid if I said something that made you nearly cry. If anyone's stupid, it's me," he responds.

I shake my head trying to smile, deciding that I could trust him.

He looks intently at me, as if waiting for me to say something. I hadn't told anyone this before, only Harry and I know what happened to our parents, no one else. I hadn't needed or wanted to explain to anyone else.

"Erm, well, my parents, they died in a house fire last year, that we were all in," I start, Connor looks surprised but signals for me to continue.

"The memory is so still so raw," my voice cracks, I didn't realise how difficult it would be to tell someone about my parents.

"Wait Emily. I didn't think it'd be something so serious. You don't have to tell me, honestly," Connor says.

"I feel like I can trust you. I honestly do," I reply, looking up at him to see him smiling at me. I continue.

"There was a power cut, so we had candles around the house, so we could see. Dad rang up the electric company to ask when we'd get it back; they said the very latest would be in the morning, so we were stuck for the night. We left the candles overnight, not bothering to blow them out, as it was quite cold, and we obviously had no heating either," Connor nods, agreeing to what I was saying.

"In the middle of the night I woke up smelling smoke. It was the fire. No one else had realised, so I carefully got out of bed and opened my door to see the damage, thinking and hoping it'd be something small. But no, everywhere was flames. I didn't know what to do. I shouted. But no one heard. I searched for my phone, quickly dialled 999, and called the fire service," I started crying at this point. Connor moved over to me and put his arms around me, hugging me. At first I was shocked to his sudden movement and tensed. I soon relaxed and continued.

"They said a fire engine was on its way and to not move, as I could get burnt. I felt helpless. Minutes later, I heard the fire engine noise. They stopped outside my house, as I could see from my window; I opened it wide and shouted to them. The rest was a blur as I fainted. They told me that, once I was lying in hospital."