The Life Of Mia Parker

Chapter 24

After finding out I could finally visit Stephanie I made my way to her house. After my first knock Jane answered the door straight away.

"Hi Mia! It's so nice to see you, is it okay if I just pop out for a bit? I've been needing to get the grocery." Jane said rushing around the house looking stressed.

"Hi Jane it's okay, so how is Stephanie?"

"Oh you know she's getting there. She's upstairs in her bedroom at the moment just watching a movie."

"Okay erm where is her bedroo-" I asked before getting cut off by the front door being closed.

Wanting to see Stephanie, I made my way up the stairs. Stephanie house was quite big for just four people but I wasn't surprised I mean her dad is an amazing lawyer and he got a promotion so he must be doing good.

Making it upstairs I couldn't hear anything. The first door in front of me was open wide, the view from where I was standing it looked like an office room so I turned right into a long corridor. Walking past locked doors I finally heard some noise. A running tap to be precise. Walking closer to the sound I called out for Stephanie. No response. Moving closer to the bathroom door I called out for her again. Again no response. Feeling awkward just standing there or just being in the house at all by myself I felt like running out but before I do that I called out for Stephanie once again. No response. Having nothing else to do I decided to open the door a little hoping she would hear me. Calling out for her again I was left with silence. Hearing nothing I decided it was best to just leave and come back another time but then something caught my attention. There was huge puddle of water on the floor. Worried, I opened the door wide screaming. "Oh my gosh Stephanie!"

"What! What's going on?"

Looking up from the puddle I saw the bath tub overflowing. Barging past me Stephanie quickly closed the tap. "Man! My mum must have forgot. She's been so stressed lately because of me. I'm such a disappointment. I should leave, everything would just be so much easier for them." Steph cried pulling out the plug and grabbing a mop up towel to lay it on the floor and soak all the water. I stopped her midway and I told her to calm down.

Letting her calm down I cleaned up the bathroom floor before sitting on her bed with her while the notebook was on in the background. We sat there for a bit in silence before Steph broke it. "I'm sorry," she sighed. "I was drunk and stupid... jealous."

"I don't understand. I told you I didn't like Hayden like that, I'm sorry I couldn't tell you about him but how did you find out?"

"I saw him with that guy when I went to give him the notes, anyway I wasn't talking about Hayden. It's just life's been hard."

"Yeah it's been hard for me too."

"Not just since the accident, since I was born. It's like the universe enjoys taking the piss out of me. I'm not like you Mia, you're bubbly and sociable. You make it easy for people to be comfortable around you-"

"You're the same-"

"No I'm not. Do you not remember how we met?"

"Of course I do."

We met in year 2 on world book day, I was walking out of the class to enjoy lunch time only to see Steph running away from a group of girls bullying her because she was dressed as an oompa-loompa and man do I hate bullies, luckily for me I had a brother who taught me how to defend myself, so being an hater I decided to walk over to her as she sat down on the bench crying. I sat down with her and we started talking. I told her how cool her outfit was and she looked up to tell me how she loved my Albus Dumbledore costume. We then went on to talk about all things Harry Potter which made me instantly like her. We had a lot in common and we just clicked, we both understood each other and since then we've been best friends.

"Well than you should know, you're the reason why I was able to get through everything and then that day happened," her voice went quieter, "I couldn't deal with it and I needed to speak to you but I didn't know how so avoiding you was a better option."

"Well to be honest I was kind of avoiding you," I said, "I was avoiding everything... I was ashamed of myself."

"Ashamed? I was the one who held her hand and told her everything will be alright after she kept telling me that it was a stupid idea and that we should just go down and take you home."

"Well I was one who jumped first."

"Well-"

"Well?"

"We've both been idiots." She said making us both laugh. "I am really sorry about everything. I am happy to see that your moving on and it's made me realise that the same can happen to me which is why I'm going back to Dorton with my mum."

"You are?"

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, you made realise I don't need to move to start fresh and that my life is in Dorton."

"I'm happy for you but what about your dad? Is he staying here?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's for the best. I mean he's loving his job."

"Oh well that means you can visit, right?" I asked.

"Of course. You know Mia, despite everything we've been through you were my first best friend and I'll always care about you." She said with a smile.

"I know Steph. I'll always care about you too." We both hugged each other and we finished watching the notebook.