Haunted

December 12th

I woke up, to an unfamiliar surrounding. It took me a moment to remember where I was. I glanced at the clock which read 10:30am.
I rolled over to see James, still sleeping peacefully on the sofa. It hadn't been my intention to stay the night, but here I was.

I felt a tap on my shoulder.
"Morning." James said groggily.
"Morning." I replied.
James stood up staggering over to the bathroom.

I scanned the floor for my clothes.  I jumped off of the sofa and gathered them all up. I quickly located my phone. Missed calls and messages filled my lock screen. I picked it up and started to scroll.

"Where are you?" - Dad. (9:30pm)
"Hope everything went okay with James' family." - Finn (11:00pm)
Missed call from Jack (12:30am)
Missed call from Dad (12:40am)
"Lola please text or ring me back. I'm worried." -Dad (1:00am)
Missed call from Jack (2:00am)
"Just wanted to check what time you were picking Shannon up this morning." -Emma (9:00am)
"Lola you don't have the right to ignore me." - Jack. (30 minutes ago)

I replied to everyone apart from Jack. I had every right to ignore him seeing as he had done it for a whole month.

James came back out of the bathroom.
He looked at me in surprise.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"To be honest, I thought you would have bolted when I was in the bathroom."
"This wasn't exactly a one night stand James." I said with a laugh.
I could still feel the tension between us.
He laughed nervously. "Well I'm afraid to tell you that we have no food in."
"It's fine. I don't feel particularly hungry."
"Do you want a cup of tea?"
I nodded.
He walked off into the kitchen and I ran into the bathroom.

I dressed quickly, it wasn't exactly the nicest thing to be wearing yesterday's clothes. I needed to get home to change before going to pick Shannon up.

As I walked out of the bathroom, I heard the doorbell ringing. James ran to get the door. I heard it open, heard cross words exchanged.

"Lola! Lola are you here?!"
I walked into the living room and bumped into Joey.
He embraced me tightly.
"Oh God. Are you okay?"
"Joey I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"
"James. He was angry at you and when he's angry it's a different story."
I smiled at Joey "You don't need to worry about me."
Joey pulled me to his chest tightly again.

"So this is why I have to pack up and leave; it's to do with her." said a harsh female voice.

11:00am
A girl with caramel coloured skin and long curly brown hair stood there. Her eyes were a piercing blue and it felt as if they were staring right through me. This must be Ciara.

"Ciara." James said as he walked out of the kitchen. He hugged her.
"Joey, you have some explaining to do." Ciara said.
"Lola's just a friend." Joey said.
"Ouch that must hurt."
"Not really, because we are just friends." I spat back.
"Whatever." She huffed.
"Lola's my girlfriend." James said placing an arm around my shoulder.
I tried to look enthusiastic but I couldn't. Not after yesterday. I had nothing against James but he had been so easily led along by Mr Hunt. It could all happen so easily again.
"James you don't have to protect your brother." Ciara said with a laugh.
"He's not." I replied with a wide smile.
Ciara rolled her eyes in response.
"Well I'm here to get my stuff." She walked off into the flat.

"Sorry." James and Joey said in unison.
"It's no problem. I've dealt with worse situations."
Joey nodded. He understood because he knew my past.
"Why what happened?" James asked.
"I don't want to talk about it now." I said, looking at Joey for reassurance.
"Then how come HE knows?" James said angrily.
"I was there in the aftermath. If you can't deal with the fact that Lola and I know a lot about each other, then James I think you should call it a day." Joey said.
"So you can have her for yourself?" James spat.
"Like you wouldn't jump at the chance to have Ciara now that she's single."