The Heartbreak Factor - Part Four

Chapter Four.

Sat on my bed, I slowly began to close my eyes. After a long sleepless night last night with a poorly Katy, George had taken Katy to the doctor’s, giving me an hour or so to myself to try and catch up on some sleep. 

“Sammy!” I heard mum call from downstairs. 

Groaning to myself, I reluctantly got up off the bed and began to walk downstairs. No sleep for me today. “Yeah.”

“I need to rush to Kayla’s. David’s away on business and Kayla’s being called into work last minute so I need to go look after Christopher. Would you mind picking Jack up from school?” mum asked me as she rushed about in the hallway, gathering her keys, coat and purse. “He hasn’t seen you in ages and I’m sure he’d love to spend some time with you.” 

I looked at mum and sighed. “You know saying stuff like that will make it hard for me to say no.”

“I know,” mum laughed. “He finishes at three but the school usually like for parents to be waiting outside at ten to three.”

“I’ll be there,” I promised, returning back upstairs to get ready to go collect my little brother. 

*

Walking down the street towards Jack’s primary school, I placed my hands into the pockets of my jacket. As the school came into focus in the distance, I found myself yawning from pure exhaustion. It seemed like I was yawning more than I was walking but I finally reached the school and leant against the wall, waiting for Jack’s school to be released. As I waited, all the mums and dads around me were looking at me before turning back around to talk to each other - evidently about me. 

“Sammy!” a little voice beamed as I looked around the playground at all the gossiping parents. 

Looking back to the classroom door, I saw Jack running out of the door, arms wide open, and straight into me. “Hello you!” I laughed, crouching down as he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me as tightly as he possibly could. 

After a few moments of being in Jack’s tight hold, I finally managed to break free and take hold of Jack’s hand as we began to walk out of the school grounds. As we made our way down the path, Jack turned to me with a huge grin across his face.

“What’s up, cheeky monkey?” I smiled.

“I missed you!”

“Well guess what,” I paused. Jack looked at me with a look of anticipation on his face as he waited for what I had to say next. “How would you feel about me, George and Katy staying with you for a while?”

“Yes!” Jack beamed. “Are you and George back in love now?”

I looked at him in surprise. Clearly Jack knew more about what had gone on than I thought he did. “Yeah,” I smiled, ignoring all the parents around me that were continuing to tittle-tattle about things that didn’t concern them. “So how’s school?”

“School’s boring!”

“Boring?” I laughed as we walked down the street and away from all the looks in the playground. “Jack, you’re in reception. When I was in reception, all I did was play with the sand and water, make finger paintings, create pasta jewellery and read about Biff and the Magic Key.”

“It’s so boring!” Jack protested.

“Okay then,” I smiled, giving up on the matter. “Have you made any friends then?”

“Yeah,” he smiled. “I have a girlfriend,” he proudly announced.

“A girlfriend?” I grinned, partly in shock. “What is she called?”

“Annabelle!”

“How old is she?”

“She’s the same age as me - four!”

“Have you kissed her yet?”

“No!” Jack exclaimed with a look of disgust across his tiny face. 

“Have you held hands with her then?”

“No?”

“Have you told her you love her?”

“No,” he sighed. Jack paused for a moment before looking up at me as we carried on walking down the road back to mum’s house. “No, but she said she loves me and I didn’t want to say it back to her because I’m not sure if I love her.”

I sniggered to myself for a moment. It was funny having this conversation with my brother - especially considering he was four years old. 

“Why aren’t you sure if you love her?” I asked.

“Well, ages ago, George told me that if you love someone, you should tell them but you should only tell them when you know you love them because otherwise if you don’t love them and you say you do love them, they will think you love them and they could begin to love you and that’s not nice,” Jack began to explain, much to my surprise. “George said we should respect girls because our mums are girls, our sisters are girls and when I’m older, I’m gonna have a daughter who will be a girl and so we should respect girls.”

I grinned as I ruffled Jack’s hair with my hand as I pulled him closer towards me as we walked in sync. “It’s funny how much you’ve grown up.”

“Sammy,” Jack paused. “If you love George and George loves you, why did you two break up?”

I looked down at him, trying to find a way of explaining love to a curious four year old, but instead of replying, I noticed a park on the opposite side of the road. “Come on,” I smiled, leading him across the quiet road. “How about a little competition on the swings before we go home?”

Jack didn’t argue; instead he let go of my hand and ran through the park’s gate and straight onto the swings. After I sat down on the swing beside the swing Jack had climbed onto, we both began to swing - Jack swinging much higher and faster than me. 

“Sammy,” Jack paused again as he looked at me as his swing began slowing down. “You didn’t answer me. If you love George and George loves you, why did you break up?”

I sighed. “Jack, love isn’t easy. You’re too young to understand but sometimes people break up because they are so in love with each other - they just don’t realise it at the time.”

“I like George,” Jack smiled. “He’s cool.”

As I went to agree, my phone in my pocket began to vibrate. 

“Hello,” I answered. 

“Our little princess has got a chest infection,” George’s voice on the other end of the telephone line said. “But don’t worry. Got some tablets and she should be fine.”

“You’ve finished at the doctors then?” I asked.

“Yeah. Where are you? I thought you were gonna sleep.”

“Change of plan,” I smiled, looking at Jack as he continued to swing back and forth next to me. “Mum had to go to Kayla’s so I said I’d pick Jack up from school.”

“Well, hurry back to your mum’s and I’ll look after Jack and Katy tonight so you can have an early night.”

“Alright,” I smiled, not even attempting to argue with the idea. “We’ll be back soon. Just gotta do something first.”

“Okay. Love you,” George said before hanging up.

“Right, Jack,” I paused as I put my phone into my pocket. “How about this swing competition then?” 

"Why did you and George break up?" Jack repeated. 

I thought I was in the clear with the situation but I clearly was mistaken. "I don't know. Sometimes things just happen and you don't know why. It's a sticky world in the adult world, you'll find out when you're an adult so enjoy being a kid while you can."

Jack nodded before taking off into the air, swinging as high as he could on the swing. "Beat that!"