In Love With A Sugg

Chapter 34 - The quarrel

We choose to stop, well away from the nearest road. Mel hands me the package and I take up the urn. It is lighter than expected, but there is, of course, only 'sand' in there. There is silent for a moment and I think of a good experience I've had with my mother. I remember when I was about five and she took me to the Tivoli Gardens. That was before we moved away from Copenhagen and Mel was born. It was one of the best days in my life, and now we never get to do that anymore. Tears roll down my cheek and I sniffle quietly.

I detach the lid of the urn, walk toward the water's edge and throw the ashes over the water. It doesn't take long before the urn is empty and the water gets all turbid. I put the urn on the ground and look out at the water.

"Goodbye, Mom," I whisper and close my eyes. I feel Joe's arm around my shoulders. I gently open my eyes and lift my gaze over at him. He smiles down upon me, and I can see his compassion. He kisses my cheek gently and rests his head on my shoulder. Mel takes my hand and gives it a squeeze.

For a while, we stand in silence. Just looking at the water and the view. I turn my head up, looking at Joe and he removes his arms. I turn around and together, we all three walks back towards Tower Bridge.

* * *

"How are you feeling?" Joe asks when we get back to where we met up earlier. I shrug my eyes pointed at the ground.

"I'm fine," I say shortly. "I'm glad, that she can find peace now." I look up and see him nodding.

"We should probably get back to the hotel. There's still a lot that we need to pack," I say moving my gaze to Mel. She isn't saying anything. She just looks impassively straight ahead.

"Pack?" he says uncomprehending. I frown and sending him a confused look.

"Yes, pack. We're leaving tomorrow." I say. He seems slightly offended, on the verge of getting angry.

"What are you talking about?" he asks frustratedly. I raise a brow. What is there not to understand?

"I'm going home tomorrow. Is that hard to understand?" I ask slightly irritated, looking tiredly at him.

"You can't go home. You don't have a home! You're all alone! The only home you have is here!" he says in an angry tone and I snort.

"What the hell are you talking about? I need to go home! I have a home! I don't belong here, I belong in Denmark, and so does my sister!" I say in the same tone as he just used.

"You can't take care of her, you're only seventeen!" he notes frustrated, pointing down at Mel. I look at him in amazement. He did not just say that!

"When did this become an argue about her? She's my responsibility! I can take care of her! You're not her dad! And you're not my boyfriend!" I say a bit more calm voice, so we can go back to talking, instead of yelling.

"Can't you see it? I want you to stay. Here. With me. Amanda, I'm in love with you, and I don't want you to leave me," he says, taking my hand. I look down at our intertwined fingers and then up at him.

"Joe, I... I can't stay here. Even if I wanted to. Mel needs to go home, and so do I. I need to talk to my grandparents, about everything that has happened here. And I need you to let me go. Set me free. I don't know what this 'thing', that we have, is, but maybe one day we could make it work. But right now..." I say, sniffling and taking a deep breath, but before I even get to finish my sentence, Joe has done it for me.

"Right now you need to go home..." he says, letting go of my hand, looking down at the ground. I nod, taking a step closer to him.

"Yes. I need to go home," I say, as a tear roll down my cheek. He looks up, without looking at me. He takes a deep breath and none of say anything for a while. I try to make eye contact with him, but he keeps looking away.

"Sorry for freaking out, I just... " he says finally looking at me. I smile, shushing him.

"I know. But right now we're going back to the hotel... I'll talk to you later, okay?" I say. He nods again, biting his lip. I hug him, and walks towards the metro, we used a few days ago, so that we can get back to the hotel.

* * *

It's getting late when we finally get home, so I decide to find a pizza place. There must surely be some in the area. Mel is almost herself again but is still very quiet. We find a pizza place close by and we wait for about twenty minutes before getting our pizzas. We take it home to the room and eat it there. Have only a few notes and very few coins left, but we, of course, don't need to buy anything when we're leaving tomorrow. In fact, we only need to pay for lunch tomorrow and nothing else.

"Is it tasty?" I ask, taking a bite of a pizza slice. She nods, setting down a piece with pepperoni. We don't eat all the pizza, so after clearing the table, I start packing down the leftovers.

"Now we don't need to spend money on lunch tomorrow," I say, folding some foil around the remains and put it in the fridge. Just to remember that it is in there, I write a note to myself that I hang next to my list of things I need to remember. I look at it and see that I can cross three things:

1. Get my permission for Mom's ashes to be spread.
2. Spread Mom's ashes.
3. Pack our stuff.

"Wanna play a game?" Mel asks, pulling me out of my thought. I nod and step away from the list before I get to cross off anything.

"I think, the cards are over on the table," I say, pointing to the coffee table. She walks over to it, finds the cards and starts to mix them.

"What would you like to play?" I ask. She shrugs.

"You decide," she says and sits down on the floor. I take a cloth, rinse it, wring it out and wipe the table off.

"What about Fish?" I ask as I wash the cloth again. She nods and starts dealing the cards, giving us seven cards each. I wring the cloth, throw it down the sink and set back down at the table. We play two games and I let her win both times.

"You're so good!" I lie and gathers all our cards together in one pile. "Should we play one last game before we go to bed, or should we go to bed now?" She thinks about it, but does a short time: "A game more." She smiles and I mix the cards.

* * *

I turn off the light in the apartment and make myself ready for bed. Mel is in the bathroom, brushing her teeth. I go out to her and change my clothes, brush my teeth, take off my makeup and finally I take out my contact lenses out. We wait for each other and walk together to the bedroom. We take our own bed as we both tend to move much while we sleep. Mel grabs her teddy bear, Benjamin, and hug it. I look over at her and smile. Her breathing is already becoming heavier, which means that she is about to fall asleep. I turn off the bedside lamp, mutters a 'goodnight' and fall asleep...

*Hey, everyone!

I'm so sorry for the inactivity. It has been so hard to find the time to translate, and to be honest; it gets kinda boring translating a text you've already read 4 times... But hopefully, after this break, I can get some more done for you guys. 

And thank you so much for getting this story up on 2K reads! That's so amazing! 

Hope you're having a great day!

- Josefine May*