Don't Let Me Fall Again

Chapter Six - Congratulations!

As soon as I switched the lights on, I stared around to find tons of cardboard boxes and things wrapped up in plastic in the middle of my living room. The floor and walls were bare, and the place just looked so empty, so lifeless. Like no one ever lived here before. What the hell was going on? Where was all the furniture? My furniture. It was my house. Who on earth had the cheek to just pack up all of my stuff in my house? How bloody dare they pack up my home! It was like storing away my childhood! It was unbelievable. I was absolutely furious!

Storming over to the nearest box, I wrenched it open and looked inside. All of my dad’s favourite books that he kept forgetting to bring over to America. I hurried over to unwrap the plastic around the larger furniture, hoping to find the ancient mahogany bookcase that his great-great-granddad made over a hundred years ago. I knew exactly where everything went and I was not going to leave until everything was perfect. Then when everything was put back where it belonged, I was going to march back over to my nanny’s house and demand an explanation.

‘Do you need help?’ Ryan asked, standing awkwardly by the wooden front door.

‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘but will you ring Sinead or something? Use my cell phone – it’ll cost less. Just ask them to sneak some dinner over for the two of us, because until this is all done, we’re staying here.’

Ryan nodded, taking my phone out of my jacket pocket. ‘What’s going on? I thought you lived here?’

‘Someone obviously has the intention of selling the land, or something,’ I growled, laying the old rug that Sinead and I tried to make together when I was nine down onto the floor. ‘They’re such arseholes! I can’t believe they haven’t even told us! What the hell were they thinking? How could they do this on us? I know I haven’t been to this house in ages, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not important to me! This is where I grew up! I was the happiest girl in the world here!’

Ryan sighed, pursing his lips. ‘Well I’ll ring and get someone to bring our dinner over, and then how about we stay the night here … or would that be weird?’

I shook my head, going in to the kitchen and checking if the cooker was still connected. ‘Yeah, and if the dinner goes cold we can just heat it up in the oven. We’ll stay the night, at least we won’t have to listen to James snoring in the next room …’

It didn’t take us too long to get everything perfect, back where it all belonged. At around quarter to eight Sam and James brought our food over, after eventually finding where the tiny cottage was. My nanny had cooked her gorgeous Irish coddle, which was a traditional dish made up of sausages, bacon and vegetables, cooked in a delicious soupy type of broth. We ate dinner at the old dining table in the kitchen, we sat by the fire in the sitting room on our gorgeously antique lilac sofas, which were still as cushiony as they used to be, and I told Ryan all the different stories behind all the different things in my house. It brought a couple of tears to my eyes when we had everything arranged properly, because I could still picture my parents, Sinead and I when we used to live here.

When I finished with my old bedroom (after putting up every single one of my old drawings and Sinead’s old posters of her favourite bands and singers), I looked at the two single beds, my one lined by the wall with the window, and Sinead’s on the other side. The cover on my duvet, or comforter as Ryan called it, had Barbie on it with tons of flowers and butterflies. Sinead’s cover had the members of the Spice Girls (an old British girl band) on it, and I took a picture of it, planning to taunt her later about it.

I was so proud of myself for putting everything back, and I was so glad to have Ryan to help me, too. I wasn’t going to let them sell this, or allow anyone to move into my home. I did live in America, but this was my real home, my only home, and they weren’t going to push me out of it. I couldn’t really stop them, but if this cottage wasn’t going to be here the next time I was over, there would be absolute war.