Never Let Me Down

Chapter 3

22nd December 2015

Lauren stood outside her mothers house, she chewed her bottom lip out of nervousness, a habit Chris found to be terribly cute. She hadn't seen her mum for over a year and had only spoken on the phone twice in that year. They had always had a strained relationship that had only got worse after her father passed away when she was eleven.

She sighed and went up to the front door and rang the bell. She noticed her mum didn't look happy to see her. "Hey, Merry Christmas." She said to her mum giving her a weak smile. "Oh so you've finally decided to pay me a visit." Lauren sighed "Mum, please, can we not do this." Lauren stepped inside the house she had grew up in, nothing had changed.

"I can't stay long, I'm staying with Katie for a little while. There's uh, there's some things I need to work out." Lauren told her mum. "So you'd rather stay with Katie than stay here? that's nice, my own daughter too good to stay in the house she grew up in" her mum spat back at her. Lauren let out a sigh "Oh and you wonder why?! You know what? it was a mistake coming here. I'm sorry, I'm gonna go."

Lauren went to walk to the front door, "Lauren, stop." She turned to face her mum. "What's happened? you look tired" She asked. "Mum, I'm okay. I just needed a few days away that's all" She replied. "You know you were never good at lying. Is Chris treating you alright?" She said back. "Mum, just leave it okay? everything's fine. I'll speak to you later." She gave her mum a hug before stepping out into the cold night air again.

She took the short walk to her friend Katie's house. They had been friends since school and Lauren trusted her with every aspect of her life. Opening the door she immediately hugged her best friend tight. "I've missed you!" Lauren said to her, "Come in, it's freezing out there" Katie pulled her in and shut the door behind her.

Sitting in the kitchen Katie made her a hot drink and sat down opposite her. "So? you wanna tell me what's happened between you two?" Lauren played with the mug and shrugged "I think it's over..I found a picture of him getting 'cozy' with another woman." Katie let out a loud sigh "Maybe it's not what it seems..did you stop to even ask him? or did you just jump to conclusions?"

Lauren looked at her "No, I didn't ask him, I just saw them and went berserk. Seriously you should see them." Lauren crossed her arms. "Look, you know what he's like! he's friendly to everyone, you've never had an issue with it before" Katie replied. "The thing is, I do have an issue with it. Everytime he is around other women my paranoia kicks in. I begin to think 'am I good enough for him?' and 'Someone much more beautiful than me will come along and I'll be powerless to stop him' it's always there" Lauren could feel tears stinging her eyes.

"Have you ever spoken to him about this?" Katie asked her. Lauren shook her head "No, I'm too scared to. Oh Katie! I love him so much, I think about my life without him and it fucking scares me" She started to cry. Katie jumped up and gave Lauren a tight hug. "Come on, it's late and your tired. Go to bed and in the morning your going to call him." Lauren nodded and went upstairs.

She undressed and slipped into pyjamas before getting into bed. She turned on her phone, forgetting that it had been off all this time. As it flashed into life it started going crazy with notifications, missed calls and messages.

She sighed as she recognised the numbers, both Chris and Anton had tried calling her and she had more voice messages. She dialled through to her voicemail and heard Chris on the other end, she wished she hadn't. He sounded so heartbroken and now she felt so guilty, she gulped down her tears as the message ended.

She held the phone in her hands just looking at the home screen. It was a photo she adored of them both, they were both pulling silly faces but they looked so happy. She put the phone to one side and laid down, she was still so conflicted. Part of her wanted to forgive him of everything and go home but the other half of her was stubborn and was still angry at him. She didn't know how long she had lain awake for but eventually she fell asleep.