Wherever You Go [Katy Perry Fan fiction]

Chapter Three

I can't quite describe the feeling of sleeping in my own bed. For the first time in three months I'm able to sleep with the familiar scent of my mom's washing powder entering my nose from the duvet as I inhale.

My eyes open as I hear the sound of light footsteps from outside my door. My mom had just been putting a very exhausted Lucas to bed so I'm guessing she'd got him go sleep. Usually, she would sing to him softly as he drifted to sleep.

I climbed out of my bed and quietly peered through my door, seeing my mom stood on the other side of the hallway looking into Luke's room, probably watching him sleep like she used to do with me. I feel my smile drop a little when I realise that I'm getting older, and I'm not going to be her little girl for very much longer.

"He's flat out, bless him," my mom says quietly. She must have heard me get out of bed moments ago. "He was so excited to see you today."

I crept along to hallway until I was beside my mom, looking into Luke's bedroom. He slept on his stomach in his cot, a thick blue blanket covering his body and a lamp on the side table creating shadows on the ceiling. His light snores interrupted the silencem .

"I was excited to see him too. Its hard being away from you all for so long," I admit shyly, feeling for some reason that because I'm eighteen now and I'm growing up, I should be able to handle being away from my family for months at a time, since any other young adult would love the responsability and freedom.

My mom smiles over at me, her blue eyes reflecting the light from the lamp in Luke's room so that they glisten a little bit. I think she senses my upset of being away.

"Remember when I used to come  and sing to you like I do with Luke?" She asks, putting her arm around my back as we both admire the little boy in his cot.

I nod, "Yeah, you'd come back from LA and always let me sleep with you. 'Don't tell mom and dad though' you'd say when you snook me into your room." A lump formed in my throat as I reminised the times when I was just a little older than Lucas; the times when I never got to know my mom for my mom. "Back in the sister days," I add.

"You were always my daughter, whether you knew it or not," My mom replies almost instantly, her hand stroking my back slightly. "My little girl."

I turn around, feeling her hand drop from my back at the same time as I walk away, back to my bedroom.

"Not for much longer though," I mumble as I walk, not intending for her to hear me.

"And why's that?" Her reply almost makes me jump as I wasn't expecting her to actually hear what I just said, but it seems she had actually taken it really seriously, as when I turn back around she's staring at me with wide eyes and her arms folded.

I shrug back at her, "I'm not a six year old girl anymore, mom. I'm don't even live here anymore because I've moved away to college. I guess it makes me sad that I'm actually growing up. I used to wish my life away all the time, saying how much I couldn't wait to get older so that I wasn't a kid anymore. Truth is, I actually miss being that little girl that you would come and sing to," I sigh heavily, "I'd give anything to be her again."

My mom's eyebrows are creased as she listens carefully to what I'm saying, the look of sympathy evident on her face. She pulls me into a warm hug, cuddling me tightly in her arms, us swaying from left to right slowly and comfortingly.

"Just because you're growing up doesn't mean you're not my little girl anymore," my mom speaks into my hair, her hand rubbing gently up and down my back. It's soothing. I feel relaxed and safe. "I know that for the most important years of your life you didn't know me as your mom, but that doesn't mean to say I didn't know you as my daughter. That's what you always were to me Sam's, not a little sister, but my little girl. I read to you, I sung to you, I loved you and I promised you many of times I'd keep you safe." I closed my eyes as her fingers ran through my hair, her nails tickling my scalp. "I don't care how old you get, or wherever you're loving, you're my baby and your home is wherever I am."

She pulls me back a little with her hands on my shoulders, looking at me with raised eyebrows,"you got that little Miss?"

I laugh softly at her choice of words, "I got it."

"Tell you what," she says with a hopeful smile, "Since your dad is away and it's your first day back home, why don't you come and sleep in my bed with me?"

"Okay," I think back to the days when I would crawl under my mom's sheets and cuddle up to her as she slept.

She kisses my forehead sweetly before I follow her into her bedroom. Nothing much had changed really. Her bed was still placed under the arch wall to the left, and the beautiful cream silk curtains that matched her bedding still hung perfectly on the massive windows.

My mom pulled back the covers, climbing into her king size bed. I stood, looking up at the professionally taken pictures of me and Lucas that hung on the wall opposite her bed. It was cute. The middle one, which was slightly bigger than the other two, was of me holding Luke. We were both looking at one another smiling, the most beautiful grin on his face was enough to make any person's heart melt like butter. The one to the left was of just me, then the one to the right was of just Luke.

"You gonna stand there all night?"

I turn my head to face my mom. She pats the space next to her, to which I quickly fill. The darkness fills the room. My hand searches underneath the quilts, searching for the deal of flesh, until finally it finds my mom's hand and I clasp it tightly. She shuffles closer to me, her breath tickling my cheek as she slowly inhales and exhales.

"Oh no, did I get too close, oh did I almost see, what's really on the inside..."

As my eyes slowly close shut, the corners of my lips form into a genuine smile. I feel peaceful. I eventually fall happily to sleep to the beautiful sounds of my mother singing softly beside me.  In that moment, I suddenly feel like I'm back to the days of being a little girl. I'm eight years old once again.