Past? What Past?! [ F I N I S H E D ]

Past? What Past! Part13

"Come live with me."

"What?" I whispered.

"Come and live with me in my Dad's house."

"I - what?"

"Is it such a repulsive idea to come and live with me?"

There was silence in the car as I travelled the remaining half-mile to Aurora's nursery. As I parked, I turned to Harry.

"Are you serious?" I asked, looking at him straight in the eyes.

"Deadly," he whispered. "I can't have you leave me, Abi. You OR Aurora."

"I - I - wow," was all I could manage. I tried again, but all that I could say was: "wow."

"So, what do you think?"

"Will Rob be okay with it?" Rob was Harry's dad, and he was a right laugh. He owned this amazing chain of restaurants - and I worked in the one in Plymouth. He was kind of loaded and quite young too. He'd had Bradley at the age of 16 with Harry's mum so, twenty-five years on, he was forty-one, and looking good for his age! Rob and I got on pretty well, always teasing each other and such. But Rob knew that I made Harry happy and so didn't mind that I was a teenage mum. He could hardly judge - he was a dad at my age!

"He should be... You get Aurora, I'll phone him to check," Harry told me.

I nodded and gave him a massive hug and a light peck on the lips before going into 'Tiny Toddlers Nursery' to collect my baby. Once I had done so, I walked back to Bernie and put Aurora in the child seat in the back, making sure she was in place securely. Then I got in the driver's seat and looked at Harry.

"Babe," he started, "I'm so sorry. I tried! Really I did. But..."

"Yeah, it's fine, I get it," I said, placing a smile on my face. Great, I had no choice but to go home and back to the life I had left in September. Strangely enough, I didn't want to go home. Sure, there were some problems here, but I was well liked, no one judged me, and there was no Cal.

"I'm so sorry you're going to be moving in. I couldn't make him say no!"

There was silence in the car.

"What?" Then I shrieked with delight. "AH! NO WAY! Rob said yes?"

"Yup. He said you can stay in the spare room."

"Let's rock and roll then!" I said, starting the car and driving in the direction of Harry's house.

Five minutes later, we were shifting my suitcases up to my new room, dragging them up the marble floors. When Harry reached the last door to the guest bedroom, I was shocked at the beauty of it. Of course, it had white walls and a thick, fluffy, black carpet. As I walked further into the room, I saw a wall of windows, like in the living room down the stairs. Leaning against the west wall was a huge white double bed with black covers on it. Opposite the bed, in the other wall, were two doors. I slowly approached them. Opening one door, I gasped. It was my ensuite - there was a beautiful bathtub and toilet and sink. Retreating out of the bathroom, I checked what lay behind the other door. I opened the door, gasped and closed it again. Then I tentatively opened it again.

"No WAY!" I squealed. "I HAVE A FRICKIN' WALK IN WARDROBE!" I looked back at Harry, who just nodded, smiling at me. I put Aurora on the bed and continued to inspect my wardrobe. It was so BIG! "ECHO!" I called into the room. Alas, I did not hear my voice echoing back to me. "Damn it!"

"Damn it, damn it, damn it," said a male voice from behind me, getting quieter and quieter. I spun round and found Harry, being my echo, but not slyly.

"Try to be more sly!"

"Sly, sly, sly."

"Dude!"

"Dude, dude, dude."

I was looking at him DIRECTLY as he tried to be my echo. That was really annoying. So I shoved his chest and walked out of the wardrobe and walked back down to my car. I grabbed my last suitcase and dragged it up to my new room. When I got there, I found Harry playing peekabo with Aurora.

"I'm going to unpack, okay?" I said, glaring at him meaningfully, daring him to do the whole echo thing again.

"Okay," he said. Then, in an undertone he added, "okay, okay."

"POTTER! STOP IT! You're such a loser," I huffed.

"Aww, chill, babe! I was just messing. You want some help with unpacking?"

"Nah, it's fine. You amuse Aurora for me. Anyway, I need to go back to my Aunt's and get her cot and play pen. I'll be back in fifteen, tops."

Harry stood up and walked over to me, kissing me lightly, but it was loving and lingering. I lost myself in his kiss, and it was just like the first time our lips touched. The feeling of an electric current running throughout my body never dimmed or lessened. It was such an amazing feeling. I didn't ever want to leave him, but I had no choice. I had to think of Aurora. She needed somewhere to sleep, and she needed somewhere to play when I didn't want her crawling all over the floor. She was now just under nine months old, and still gorgeously cute.

On my journey back to my Aunt's house, I didn't think of Scotland, I didn't think of Cal. I thought of the new life facing me now. One with Harry and Aurora and Hayley and Bradley and Rob. I couldn't wait for it to begin!

I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer. Three minutes later, Gareth, my evil cousin, answered the door.

"Loser," I greeted, nodding in his direction as I forced my way into the house. I made my way up to my old room to get Aurora's things.

"Why are you not on the A1, heading home?" asked Gareth harshly.

"What's it to you?"

"I've actually got someone here, and I'd rather not be disturbed, thanks," he told me.

"A girl?" I asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Gareth said, grinning like a maniac who is expecting to get laid. I looked expectantly at him. "What?" he said, the annoyance clear in his tone.

"I'm afraid it's November, Gareth. But that's a good one - keep that in your mind for April Fools day, yeah?"

"Oh, fuck off," he muttered as he made his way back down the stairs. I laughed and proceeded back into my old room and disassembled Aurora's cot and playpen. When I was done, I took one last look at the room I had been living in for the past three months. The walls were painted white, but they had many scratches in them from my anguish when I first arrived here. The left wall had my HUGE doodle of the Cal love-hate-heart on it, and had many little love-hate-hearts around it too. I had added the sentence 'you are dead to me' when I had finally gone home after my first day at school. My bed had been removed, as had my desk and wardrobe and various chests of drawers that contained my clothes. The room was now empty. Except there were two tubs of paint and paint brushes underneath the doodle wall. One colour was white; the other was a pale greeny-blue colour.

An evil idea formed in my head. Could I? Would I? The answer to both those questions was definitely!

© Zoe A Proudfoot

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i've decided never to write again, so enjoy this evil last part. ever.