Haunted

December 11th

I was going to James' grandmother's for lunch. He had informed me that his whole family would be there. I was slightly nervous as I knew none of them and knew that I had to make a good impression.

12:00pm
I knocked on the door of the address that James had given me. I prayed that this was the right address otherwise I was going to look like a right prat.

I heard footsteps, and then the creaking of the door opening.
"Lola?" A male voice said.
I looked up at the man.
"Mr Hunt!?" I exclaimed.
What the actual fuck!

12:05pm
I was so confused, hopefully Mr Hunt would only be an uncle or something.

"Lola, I know you're an ex-student but really you shouldn't be at my mother's house."
"I'm here to meet James' family."
There were more footsteps and then James appeared with his cheeky grin.

"Ah Dad, I see you've met my girlfriend."
"DAD!" I exclaimed.
"GIRLFRIEND!" Mr Hunt exclaimed.

"What?" James questioned.
"Sorry James, but I might have to rethink this." I said turning on my heel.
"Lola wait." Mr Hunt said. "We can put our differences aside for the sake of this. Come on in."

Mr Hunt walked back into the house. I was left standing in the cold with James.
"How do you know my dad?"
"He was the bane of my life at school."
"Oh right." James said laughing.
"He blamed everything on me. Tried to give me thousands of detentions and claimed that I was shagging my ex-boyfriend's Maths teacher, which I wasn't."
"Understandable then why you don't get along."
"Yep." I replied awkwardly.
"Come on in and meet everyone else."
I took James' hand and followed him into the house.

12:30pm
I had met his grandmother, mother and younger sister. There were various cousins and aunts and uncles there as well.

"So how did you two meet?" His grandmother asked.
"In the police station." I said with a laugh.
"I hope you weren't being arrested Lola." Mr Hunt said.
"What do you take me for Hunt?" I said smirking.
"No Lola was reporting a crime." James said.

The door banged open.
"Sorry I'm late Grandma. I had something to take care of."
There stood a young man who caught my eye as soon as he walked in. He seemed so familiar but I couldn't place him anywhere.
"Ah who's this?" He said walking over to me.
I saw possessiveness run through James' eyes.
"This is Lola, my girlfriend."
He backed away with his hands.
"Sorry bro. I'm Joey, I have to keep the younger one in check."
I smiled.

Joey went over and sat the other side of the table.
"What's your surname? I feel like I know an Lola." Joey said.
"Higgins." I said awkwardly.
"Ah I know that name much better."
"Joey." Mrs Hunt hissed.
"How do you know it then?" I said.
"Aidan Higgins?" Joey said questioningly.
"He's my cousin." I replied.
"Cool. Aidan was one of my best mates back at school."

Then I remembered that I knew Joey long ago when I was living with Jimmy.

JOEY
After I had Dan, I felt so unattached from my family. I felt like they had all known I was being to set up to fail. So I moved in with Jimmy and Aidan.
Aidan would frequently have his friends over. That was how I knew of TJ and Scott long before they were my teachers and relatives. Joey had also been one of Aidan's best friends.
Even though I was only at Jimmy's for a few months I saw Joey quite a lot. The four of them were so good to me especially as I was going through everything to do with Dan and it was the aftermath of Cathy's death and the lack of investigation devastated me the most.
Once I left Jimmy's, Aidan and all his friends left for Uni. They were then long forgotten by me as they were replaced by my friends now.

2:30pm
Dinner had been served and it was delicious.
We were now sat in the living room.
"Anyone for tea?" James' grandmother asked.
There came various shouts of me.
"I'll go make it." Joey said.
He wandered off into the kitchen.
It was weird that I had known Joey and Mr Hunt but never known of James.