Dear Lottie

Chapter 15

Every following school day, Jemmy waddled into school whilst me and Louise stood there, mesmerized by her bravery and optimism. "She's standing strong." Muttered Louise as Jemmy waddled towards us. "Yeah, considering she fell down a manhole yesterday." I replied quietly. Although she was slower than usual, she was still getting gradually closer. "When you put it like that it sounds like a near death experience." Louise returned, our quiet conversation was successful as we went undetected. "It was a near death experience." Louise turned to me, confused and prepared to fight back. "If it was a near death experience, then surely, the school would be sued." Her voice was raising and Jemmy was only 100 yards away. "Well, it was only yesterday, we don't know what her dad or mum has said about it." Jemmy had gotten close to us and our voices were becoming detectable. I nudged Louise and she turned to Jemmy. "Hi guys." She greeted, she sounded tired and worn down. Which, I imagine, was understandable. "What did your parents say?" Louise fired straight into interrogation to prove that it wasn't a near death experience. "Well, my dad was shockingly cavalier and my mum told me to put arnica on it." Louise interrupted harshly by flailing her arms around and turning to me. "See! Not a near death experience." I couldn't be bothered to argue, so I just sighed and smiled at Jemmy as if to reassure her that we weren't at all arguing about this before hand (sarcasm noted). "Well, I guess, It was almost a near death experience. It was one leg away." I guess you could say it was a near near death experience.

Later in the day, Declan every now and again caught up with me. Everytime, he looked either worried or hurt, like I was his child getting bullied or just his child. I didn't understand why he was acting like I was his responsibility, I am my own responsibility and clearly, I'm not very responsible at all! "Hey, Lottie. What are you up to next Friday?" The fact that he suggested he was free on a friday was shocking. He normally had classes and competitions for his dancing on friday. It was painful for me to tell him where I was going to be on that friday, which is why I told him to come round that night. "Declan, could you come round to mine tonight?" He dropped his face but lifted quickly as he realised he didn't have class. "Yeah. What time? Should I have tea? What should I wear? Should I bring a DVD? Any music you want me to bring round? Nail varnish? We could totally have a girls night!" He replied mockingly, with a high pitched voice and flapping his eyelids wildly whilst hanging his wrists in mid air. We both laughed hysterically and walked to lunch.

That night, Declan came round in a blue top and dark jeans he had on when he slept over. "Mum, Declan is here! We're going upstairs to watch something!" My voice was obviously masked by the sound of her cooking, so I went to tell her face to face and returned to Declan, dragging him to my room. "So, what are you doing next friday?" I let him take a seat on my bed before telling him slowly. Cautiously. "Declan, next Friday, I'll be packing for London and staying with Skye for the night. We leave for London at seven in the morning on Saturday." Declan looked upset at first, but the morbid look was flipped over and he quickly looked happy for me. "Cool. Um, what are you going to be doing there?" I was so relieved that he didn't take it badly so I relaxed my shoulders and sat down. "We've got tickets to see In This Moment on Sunday afternoon, we have a lush ass hotel room right next to where the concert is going to be. Apart from that, we're just sightseeing."

Declan smiled and proceeded to look at my collection of DVDs. I had millions, literally. I had been studying film and media in Tyne-mouth so about half of those million DVDs were homemade. I had a little room in which I would work on trailers and editing fractions at a time of endless videos. I had also worked on a few odd mixes every now and again so I had about five of my own tapes within my lesser collection of music. Film was my thing. Since I was fourteen years old, I had imagined being the head of the BBFC. It would be luxury!

Declan carefully traced his left index finger over the spine of my DVDs. Until he landed on one he wanted to watch and he pulled it out. When he handed it to me, it was revealed to be a tear jerking favourite; My Sister's Keeper. "You've seen this right?" I asked him, expecting him to have seen it. When he shook his head I jumped back and slammed my hand onto my chest.