L is for .....

L is for..... Love

“Callie?” I heard a distant voice call, “Callie!” It called again. I thought I was dreaming it. “CALLIE!” I heard the voice louder now. Suddenly there was running and scuffling, “Guys, I found her!” The voice called.

Two hands put themselves on my shoulders and shook. “Callie? Can you hear me, wake up.” The voice said frantically.

“Quit shaking me” I groaned opening my eyes to see Riley’s concerned face looking down at me. “Caden! Over here, she’s fine!” He called to a blurry person.

As Caden came into focus I saw his worried face. He was never worried, why start now?

“Oh thank god, what the hell are you doing out here!” He exclaimed as I felt Riley pick me up.

“I can walk,” I said indignantly to him. He shrugged,

“It’s not everyday I get to play hero.” He grinned.

I shook my head. I must have fallen asleep on the cliffs. I felt a blanket around me. How odd. “Whose is the blanket?” I asked. They all looked blankly.

I saw Austin walking up, “There you are, we got a unanimous call saying you were on the cliffs and that we should get you. We thought you’d been…” He trailed off looking at Caden.

I did need the answer, the looks on their faces was enough. “Guys I’m fine I promise. Weird call, but I’m fine” I assured them.

We got back to the house. A movie was playing with takeaway boxes lying around. They must have just left and run out of the house. Caden went to Mrs Next-door, the nice side of the fence. Ari came running out and burst into tears when she saw me. Riley put me down, “Hey champ, why you crying?” I asked.

“Cus…cus…you didn’t come home” She snivelled. I picked her up, even though she was quite big now. I looked Caden, “Mum…?” I asked. He shook his head. 

Throughout our childhood, Mum had, had odd turns where she went a-wol. She tried to be 20 again, reliving the high life. She’d had enough botox and facelifts to almost make her pass. She went out every night, coming home in the early hours. She forgot she had children at home, all cares thrown away.

We went back inside and I, after saying goodnight to the guys, took Ari to bed. No doubt I would find them all crashed at our house the next morning.

After making her have a bath and a lot of fuss about washing her hair she was finally getting into bed.

“Callie” Her little voice called as I made to walk out.

“Yes baby?” I asked.

“Please stay till I sleep. Can you sing to me?” She whispered.

I decided that I had nothing else to do, and she deserved some happiness. I sat on the side of her bed and she pulled back her duvet to let me in. I’d had to get in my own Pj’s to make her put hers on. She curled up against me, and I cradled her small frail body. Though only 10 mum had her on a strict diet. It wasn’t fair for such a little girl, mum was over obsessed with perfection. Caden and I would sneak cake and chocolate into the house for her.

I softly started singing her favorite song from Disney. If you can dream, by all the Disney princess singers.

I looked down, Ari was clinging to my t-shirt sound asleep. I put my head down and soon found myself drifting off too.

I awoke next morning to a very excitable Ari jumping up and down on her bed. I laughed.

“No School!!” She exclaimed laughing. I looked at her oddly. "There was a break-in last night and school rang to say that they've had to close for today so they can sort it out!" She grinned as i saw the time was 7.30, ten minutes until Cadens alarm went off.

I took her hand and we crept downstairs hearing snores from the front room, the guys obviously decided to stay over. We looked at each other before Ari pulled from behind her, her felt tip pens. I grinned at her, she really was a sister after my own heart, never missed an opportunity. We set to work, all of them heavy sleepers so apart from a few swats here and there we got away with it. We observed out handy work before grabbing the camera. He guys must have just fallen asleep where they were, because some of them were in…interesting positions.

Once we’d had our fun and disabled all alarms, Ari pulled me into the kitchen to make pancakes, a tradition on lazy, no school mornings, mostly due to the fact mum wasn’t around.

Soon the kitchen was filled with delicious smells. Once I’d made enough, we went back into the sitting room, turned the TV to mute while putting the sound up to high and Ari stood by the door. On que Ari slammed the door hard, causing many startled groans followed by anger when I switched the tv off mute. We ran out laughing, and though the guys ran after us they were distracted by the prospect of food.

It was moments like these I really loved, trouble was, how long could it stay like this?