Completed Heart

Chapter 2: Homecoming

Chapter 2: Homecoming

I heard someone come in at 4 a.m. and loudly come upstairs and shut the door. I figured my mother came home. I awoke the next morning, earlier than the day before. I had avoided my dream that night. I sat up quickly, sniffing my nose in the air. It smelled strange, but not alarming. Someone was cooking. Maybe my mother brought home a decent man. I threw on some clothes and a little bit of makeup. I started to walk down the stairs when I heard someone softly singing while cooking. No way! It couldn’t be… I jumped down the rest of the stairs and ran full speed towards the kitchen. I flung myself onto home just as he turned around to see who was coming in. My older brother caught me in his arms. “YOU’RE HOME!” I shouted as he lifted me up in a bear hug. “Yeah, babe, for a little bit.” He laughed. “Why didn’t you tell me? You could have texted or called!” “It was last minute. Sorry, babe. Hey, I haven’t seen mum. Do you know where she is?” “I thought I heard her come in at 4? I don’t know” “That was me, babe.” He was clearly upset with my mother’s behavior. My father died of cancer when I was seven, Liam was eleven. After that, my mother started to act out: drink, stay out late, etc. Liam took over as my guardian and took care of me, all the way up until two years ago, when he made it big. Yes, my brother’s name is Liam, as in Liam Payne, from the band One Direction. Now, because of his busy schedule, I was lucky if I saw him on the holidays. He called me a lot though, so we kept in touch. “How long has it been?” I asked as he put me down, “a year?” “Eight months, babe. Although, it seems like a year.” “I missed you. Hey, what are you cooking?” “Breakfast. I was thinking that we could spend the day together.” “I have school, but I can call myself in. Sometimes I pretend to be mum over the phone, so I can stay home and nurse her hangover.” “No. That is irresponsible, you shouldn’t be missing school for her. That isn’t right.” “So? It doesn’t mean that I can leave her. Can I please skip school today?! I never get to be with you. Who knows when the next time we can spend a day together is?” He shook his head, but reluctantly agreed when I pulled out the old puppy dog eyes. I went to go call the school, while he finished breakfast. I came back to the kitchen and breakfast was already on the table. We sat down and ate together, catching each other up on our lives. I asked about Danielle, his girlfriend, and he asked about school and Leah. “What? Do you not like my bacon?” He raised his eyebrows and pointed at my plate with his fork. “I am a vegetarian, now.” I stated back simply. “What? Since when?” “For a year and a half.” I shrugged. He looked shocked; not at the fact that I was a vegetarian, we all saw that coming, but that he didn’t know something important about my life. “I..” He started with a serious expression, “I am sorry that I haven’t been around.” I looked up at him and smiled softly. “I don’t want to hold you back, Liam. I can take care of myself, and mum. You already support us financially; you’re allowed to live your dream.” He stood up to clear our plates. He towered over me. “You’re sixteen, Suze, you shouldn’t be dealing with mum’s problems. When do you think she’ll be home?” I shrugged with a sigh. “It can be days.” “I am sorry. I didn’t realize that it got this bad.” He replied, sadly, and almost guiltily. “I am fine, Liam. Can we change the subject? I want to have a nice day with you.” “Ok, I was thinking swimming and the park and maybe sightseeing?” “Sounds good. I’m ready when you are.” We spent the morning at the local pool. Splashing around. He looked at me with an odd expression as we walked back to the house. “What?” “Nothing. You’ve changed, that’s all. You’ve gotten taller, and, more, uh, womanly,” he said awkwardly. Uh-oh. He was getting all serious again. “You’re starting to get older, an adult… Do you have a boyfriend?” “STOP! I don’t need this talk from my older brother.” He was extremely protective of me and I was not about to have the sex talk with him, on his first day back in months. “If I don’t talk to you about it, then who will? You are beautiful, and fit, and a lot guys will try to take advantage of that, so be careful, Ok?” I nodded. “I have a boyfriend.” I muttered softly. He turned to me with wide eyes and then his eyes got soft. He started asking me questions about him, typical protective older brother stuff. “Can I meet him?” He asked. “We’ve only been dating for four months, and he isn’t into all that stuff.” “I need to meet him. Five moths is a long time.” “You’ve been dating Danielle for over a year, I haven’t met her.” “That’s different.” “How?” “I, I need to take care of you and make sure this guy is good enough for you. YOU don’t need to protect me, Susan.” He replied, sounding sincere, but authoritative. We got home and took quick showers. The rest of the day passed quickly, we grabbed lunch, went shopping for a little and took a walk in the park. When we got home, Liam went off to the kitchen to start dinner; I came in and sat on the stools behind the counter to keep him company. I picked up my phone and found a message from Ty waiting for me. “Hey bby. Y weren’t u in skul? Can I drop by l8r to give u work u missed? X –Ty” I quickly responded that he could come now, if he wanted. “Suze,” my brother turned to me while something was sizzling on the stove, “do you mind if the lads stop by sometime tomorrow? They are coming in by train sometime in the morning and we just need to schedule some things and touch bases with each other.” The lads, the other four boys in One Direction, were all very good looking, but I was not too fond of any of them. I have met them a couple times before, each time made me respect them a little less. All of them were rowdy, self-absorbed and loud. Niall is cute, but food-obsessed like a dog, and overly hyper. Zayn is sexy, but incredibly vain and mischievous. Louis is funny, but obnoxious and loud. Harry is fit, but egotistical and a womanizer. “Sure,” I replied. These guys were my brother’s best mates and I didn’t want to offend him. They were only coming for a little while tomorrow, right? I could deal with that. A light tap on the front door woke me from my thoughts. I quickly hopped up and went to answer the door before Liam could. “Hey, babe,” Ty smiled as I opened the door. He leaned in to kiss me passionately, but I made it a quick peck and pulled away. He knit his eyebrows together. “I wasn’t in school today because my brother is home.” Understanding flashed in his eyes. He knew I didn’t want my older brother to catch me snogging my boyfriend. This is true, especially because he tried to give me the sex talk today. “Who is it babe?” Liam called from the kitchen. “Do you want to come meet my brother?” I turned to Ty. He started shaking his head, but I quickly grabbed his hand, “Please, Ty. He is really important to me. I want you to meet him.” “No, babe. I can’t. I don’t have time, now.” He started pulling me outside, for more privacy. “Please, it will just take a second.” He shook his head some more. I pulled my hand out of his grip, angry now. Tyler knows how much he means to me. He knows how much my brother means to me. I needed the two of them to meet, Liam was right. I didn’t need Liam to approve of him, I just wanted the two of them to know each other. I just wanted him to come say hi. I started to turn for the door, but he caught my arm. “We’ve only been dating for like, four months, babe. I don’t want to do this whole meet and greet crap.” Douche, I thought. “What? What did you just call me?” Shit, did I say that out loud? “Douche,” I hissed at him, “I called you a douche. We’ve been dating for FIVE months, by the way, AND you know that I love you, and I want you to meet my family.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “That’s a big step.” “Not really.” “See you tomorrow, Susan.” He turned on his heel and stormed off. I marched inside, with the work he gave me from school in my hands. “Who was it?” Liam asked when I came into the kitchen. “Just a friend dropping off work for me.” I muttered. Suddenly he wrapped his strong arms around me. He rubbed his hands soothingly on my back. “Then why are you crying?” He asked me. Was I crying? I quickly touched my cheek and realized that it was a little wet. “I’m not.” I tried to make my voice sound sure, but it wavered. “I heard a boy at the door. Was it Tyler? Did he hurt you? I’ll hurt him.” He muttered, venomously. “No. No. Liam, no.” I responded. “It was my fault. I was being too, uh, pushy, I guess. Please just, let’s have a nice dinner.” He nodded, and went back to cooking, but I could see him watching me in the corner of his eye. After a delicious dinner, we both went upstairs and changed. We then brought our duvets and pillows into the living room, made popcorn and watched a movie. This was a tradition between Liam and me. Ever since my father became sick, when I was three, and my mother would have to stay late at the hospital, Liam would try to lighten things up for me. Movie night was to the most successful. Now, whenever he visits, we have a movie night. It must have been halfway through the movie, when I dozed off. I awoke at 2 a.m. after the reoccurring dream came back. I was still in the TV room; Liam was asleep next to me. I shook my head, to get the dream out, and snuggled back down in the duvet. It was getting too hot, so I slipped down my sweatpants, leaving on only a skimpy tank and short shorts.