My Heart and Other Black Holes (My Heart #1)

Chapter 4

About ten days later, Jack, Dan and Ciaran were having a house warming party with all of their friends. At the moment, only Hazel and Ollie were over and they were helping them get everything ready.

"Don't you have any balloons?" Hazel asked Jack. She had been looking all over their house for balloons for a good half an hour and still couldn't find them.

"No, I forgot to buy some," Jack answered. Hazel sighed.

"Well you can't have a party without balloons Jack," she said.

"I don't know where you expect me to get balloons from," he replied.

"A shop?" Hazel suggested sarcastically.

"I'm not going all the way to a shop to buy some fucking balloons Hazel. We don't need balloons," Jack said.

"No! You're having a party! You have to have balloons," Hazel whined.

"Fine. I'll ask my neighbour," Jack said. Any excuse to talk to Amelia.

"Your neighbour?" Hazel asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yes. My neighbour," Jack said, pretending not to notice Hazel's suggestion that maybe he wanted her to be more than just his neighbour.

"I'm coming with you. I need to see this," Hazel laughed. Jack rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.

Jack hadn't seen Amelia for a while. The day after they had moved in, Jack saw her leave the house, probably for work, and then come back later in the day. But since then, nothing.

He knocked on Amelia's door; palms sweating from nerves. The door opened and Jack and Hazel were greeted by Amelia. She was wearing a baggy Star Wars jumper and black leggings, her hair was loosely tied into a bun on top of her head and her blue eyes were bloodshot and had lost their previous sparkle. She had obviously been crying.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked quickly. Those were not the words he had been wanting to say. What he had wanted to say was: hi, do you have any balloons?

"Yes. What do you want?" Amelia snapped.

"Balloons. We need balloons. Are you sure you're okay?" Jack repeated.

"I'm fine. Why do you need balloons?" Amelia asked.

"We're having a party," Jack said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He pushed passed Amelia and walked into her house, Hazel closely following.

"Hey, get out of my house," Amelia moaned.

"You shouldn't leave guests standing outside" Jack pointed out.

"You aren't guests. I don't even know you," she replied angrily.

"I'm Hazel. Jack's friend" Hazel said with a smile.

"You have a friend? Weird... does he pay you to say that?" Amelia snapped.

"I came here for balloons, not for insults," Jack replied angrily.

"Fine, take your stupid balloons and leave," Amelia said sharply. She opened a drawer and took out four packets of balloons, throwing them at Jack. He sighed when they landed at his feet and started to pick them up.

"Your house is a mess" Hazel said to Amelia.

"That's a matter of opinion. And I didn't ask for yours" Amelia said rudely. She was fed up with Jack and his friends coming over and being annoying. Instead of being insulted, Hazel felt worried for Amelia.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Hazel asked her.

"I'm fine. Just go. I gave you the balloons," Amelia replied shortly.

"Yeah, why do you have so many?" Jack asked. Hazel looked at him to tell him to shut up.

"Because I have idiot neighbours who always need to take them," Amelia replied.

"We asked once. And we aren't idiots," Jack argued.

"Can you go?" Amelia asked impatiently.

"Fine," Jack said finally.

"Thank you," Amelia sighed. Hazel didn't want to leave, she wanted to see if Amelia was okay but could see that she wasn't really in the mood for company.