Lilia seems like your average teenage girl. She likes pizza, she obsesses over bands and other celebrities, and she acts awkward around boys. Although there's one small detail that makes her life a little less 'average': she's the younger sister of...
It was now December 31st 2016. New Years Eve. The day before 2017. The day before my sixteenth birthday. Wow, that feels weird to say. I'm going to be sixteen... I know it's not that big of a deal, but to me it is. I'm only four years away from being twenty, I'm only two years away from being eighteen! An adult! I can get a job at sixteen, I get to leave school this year and if I lived in America, I'd be able to get a drivers licence.
We were still in Wiltshire. We were supposed to go back on Boxing Day, but I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to leave my hometown or Mum, Dad and Joe. Don't get me wrong, I feel perfectly comfortable with Zoe and Alfie, of course I do, but I felt better with everyone about me. Plus... Callum lives in Brighton and I just couldn't go back yet. I am starting to feel like a burden, though. Zoe, Alfie and Joe probably just want to get back to Brighton/London and get back into work, but they can't because I'm so emotionally unstable that I can't even go home. How pathetic is that?
"Lils?" I looked up from my bowl of cereal to see Zoe frowning at me in concern, "Are you okay?"
"Um, yeah, I'm fine." I smiled halfheartedly, shoving a spoonful of Frosties into my mouth.
"Zoe, if I ask you something, can you promise to answer it 100% honestly?" I blurted less than five minutes later.
"Yeah, of course," She looked at me with a mixture of concern and curiosity as she sat down at the dining table next to me, "What's up?"
"Do you mind staying here or would you rather go back to Brighton?" I asked her.
Zoe thought for a moment before telling me, "I mean, obviously I love Brighton and I can't wait to get back, but I love it here, too. I'm never going to mind spending time here."
"I just..." I took a deep breath, needing to get this off my chest, "I'm just starting feel like...like a burden, I guess. Like, you, Alfie and Joe, you all need to get back home and get back to work but you can't because of me." I started to tear up which made me hate myself even more because I was such an emotional wreck.
"Hey, no, that's not it, at all," Zoe put her hand on top of mine and looked me right in the eye, "Listen to me, Lilia, you're all that matters at the moment, but that does not make you a burden. It just means we all love you way too much to make you do something you're not ready for yet. Do you understand?"
I just nodded as Zoe gently wiped my tears away, "I'm going to get dressed." I announced, standing up from the table.
"Alright." She smiled at me and I smiled back before leaving the kitchen. I went upstairs and into my room, where I chose to wear a white knit jumper with pink embroidered flowers on and a pair of light denim jeans. We were going to a New Years Eve firework display at Whitehall Garden Centre later on but we didn't have much planned for the daytime so I just ran a brush through my hair, slipped my glasses on and last but not least, snapped my gold snowflake phone case on before I decided I was ready.
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