Mr Barlow

Chapter Fifty-Three

"Now you two aren't going to fall out again as soon as we start to put up these decorations again are you?" Lauren asked laughing.

"Well, you haven't got anymore ex fiances that are gonna turn up have you?" He asked me jokingly.

"I don't think so... I hope." I laughed playing along with them. "Have you?"

"Nope, none for me." He laughed.

"Then I think we should all be good." I laughed while starting to sort through the endless decorations that Lauren had.

"You know, if there's any of these that you don't use, I'd be happy to take them." Gary said.

"Oh believe me, she'll find a way to use them all." I laughed causing Lauren to throw the middle in my direction.

"I don't doubt it, but just putting it out there."

"G, can you remember what my house used to be like at Christmas?" I said cringing.

"It was worse than walking into Santa's grotto." He laughed at the memory.

"It was so over the top, I swear I used to complain every year but I always got the same rubbish that my mum went so over the top because my Grandma used to hardly put anything up, like she literally got to that point that every year she was be screaming and complaining when she was putting them up and it was like, decorating the house is something that should be fun but she used to get too serious and stressed about it all." I rolled my eyes at the thought.

"It was cute, it always made it feel more like Christmas." He smiled.

"Yeah well you didn't have to live with it all, it was even better when it got to taking them down and my dad would end up breaking one of the trimmings, like every year." Even I smiled at the thought.

"And there was always something that was still up until like the middle of April because you mum 'forgot' to put it away."

"Oh god yeah." I said laughing, I looked up and saw Lauren smirking at me. "What?" I asked confused.

"Nothing," She said and walked over to the wall to put up the first decoration. "It's just I hardly ever hear you talk about you parents, let alone in a nice way." She smiled sympathetically at me.

"Yeah well, I did have some good times with them, but it was very rare. They were alright when I was younger, it was as I got older everything went bad." I said honestly not wanting to really talk about it.

"Well, I'm glad you at least have a few good memories of them." She said as she continued to put up the decorations.

"And I'm glad you like Christmas again." Gary laughed at kissed me on the top of my head.

"It's not that I ever disliked Christmas it just got shitter each year to the point where I literally hated being in the house at that time of year." I rolled my eyes at him.

"So, what did you two do for it last year?" He asked, causing me and Lauren to look each other and laugh.

"Not a lot." She laughed.

"I feel like I should be worried." He looked at us.

"It's not that bad." I smirked at him trying not to laugh. "We went up to Lauren's cousins and her mum and dad came back just for Christmas and her Auntie and Uncles were there and basically it ended up with us and her cousins locked inside a park with a sheep, I mean of course alcohol was involved." I laughed deciding to miss out the details.

"Actually I don't want to know how you got to that." He said looking confused.

"So what did you do?" I asked as I got the tree out of its box.