Loving You Again

Ch. 3: You

On the way back Katie had fallen asleep on Luke but I was too excited to sleep. I glanced at Ashton as his head lulled against the window. His small curls fell on his forehead and I instinctively pushed them off gently.

"It was nice of your friends to come." I turned to my mother as I met her eyes through the rear view mirror. I leaned towards her and smiled.

"They really wanted to meet you guys and visit." I shrugged as I reached for her hand, and touched Nathan's left forearm as he drove.

"I want to take them to our summer house." I grinned and nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we should go next week, because Luke will only be in town for two weeks." Nathan gave me a quick glance as my mother asked for the reason. "He has work to get back to." My mother nodded as she patted my hand.

"So what's up mum, tell me how things have been!" My mum shot a look at Nathan. The worried look prompted me to squeeze his arm lightly.

"There's time to catch up darling, try and get some rest." I leaned back into my seat as I made short eye contact with Nathan through the mirror. Something felt off, they were both a lot more tense than usual.

❀

As we turned to our street my eyes went to the house that was once my second home. Two kids played outside of it's lawn and the house was a different color. The nostalgia found its way to my heart yet again as I remembered the way Harry and I would play outside of his home and how at times Gemma or Nathan would be forced to play with us but we ended up having the best of times.

"Nathan, remember when you got that new scooter and we all would fight over who got a turn on it?" Nathan laughed as he nodded, turning his right signal on to turn into our driveway. My mother smiled at the memory.

"You guys used to be such an amusement to watch." A quiet settled as Nathan turned the ignition off. The unspoken rule to not mention Harry seemed prevalent and the same issue I had to deal with everytime I came home.

I turned to wake Katie and the boys up which was easy considering they were sleeping in a car rather than in a bed. We all got off and groggily the boys carried their luggage. Nathan helped carry the rest as we walked into my childhood home. Katie had grabbed my arm and sleepily leaned on me as I helped her walk inside.

"Take their bags to their rooms, Cassie will help you guys get settled while I fix some lunch up for when you wake up." I nodded as I made my way up the stairs and guided the group to the rooms.

Katie and I would be staying in my room, while the boys stayed in Nathan's room, and unfortunately one of the boys would stay on the floor if they didn't want to share a bed.

"Luke and Ashton, you will stay in Nate's room. You may have to share a bed, or one of you will have to sleep on the floor." Luke leaned on Ashton as he smiled at his best friend.

"It wouldn't be the first time we shared a bed." Luke joked as he made his way into Nate's old bedroom. Ashton grinned as he shot me a wink before disappearing behind the walls.

I guided Katie into my old bedroom that was now clean of the decoration I once had. I had taken most things with me to California but I left some I found no use in. The color of the walls remained a soft sky blue that I had loved growing up. My bed sheets had been switched from a soft purple to a white cotton one. My furniture remained the same except for the addition of a chair in the corner that my mum had tossed inside of my room, discarded from the living room where it once lived.

Katie sat at the edge of my bed and fell backwards with a huff. "The time change will be hard to get used to." She pouted as Nathan dropped our bags below the window.