"I've got to go," Brooklyn said. "There's someone at the door. I will phone you later. I love you."
"I love you too," I said as I hung up the phone. I put it in my bag as I watched the door in front of me open.
"What are you doing here?" Brooklyn said as he opened the door. He grabbed me into a hug. "You're not meant to be back for two more days."
"Surprise," I said as I plastered a smile onto my face. "I decided to come back early." He closed the door behind us and grabbed my hand. We walked down into the basement where he had been watching a DVD.
"Good," he said. "I missed you too much." We sat down on the sofa together and he put the film back on. "What made you change your mind?"
"I got into a fight with my Dad," I said with a shrug. "James took me to the airport and bought us tickets to come home early."
He leant his head against mine and kissed me slowly. "I love you."
"I love you too," I whispered back. We stayed in that position for a good ten seconds before he started tickling me. "Stop." I managed to hit his hands away and run away from him but he caught up so I jumped over the sofa and ran again.
The sound of footsteps was suddenly clear so Brooklyn jumped on the sofa and pretended to be watching the film on the screen while I hid behind a bookshelf at the far end of the room.
"What's all this noise?" his gran asked as she entered the room. "You better not have someone down here."
I held my breath as she looked around the room. "Sorry, the TV went really loud for a bit and I couldn't find the controller. Sorry if I woke you."
"It's fine," she said as she sat down next to him. "I might join you down here for a bit anyway."
"I was just about to go to bed," he said as he pretended to yawn.
"Oh, alright then."
They both made their way out of the room, leaving me there in the dark. I got my phone out of my pocket and played around on it for a bit.
"Hello?" I whispered through the phone to James. "What do you want?"
"I am going out," he said back. "Do you have a key or any money on you?"
"Are you going out for the whole night?"
"Yeah," he said. "I'm going to a few clubs with my mates and I will probably sleep in on of their houses. Is that alright?"
"That's fine," I said. "I've got to go, I will see you in the morning."
I hung up the phone and text a few people to let them know I was back. There was still no sign of Brooklyn so I text him. However, he had left his phone down here. Typical.
I ended up falling asleep on the sofa I was waiting for so long for him to come back.
--
"Ella, you need to get up," Brooklyn said as he shook me awake gently. "You need to get up."
"What time is it," I asked him as I sat up on the sofa.
"Half eight," he answered after checking his watch. I noticed he was dressed in gym clothes.
"Are you going somewhere?"
"I told my gran I was going for a run so I could get you out," he said. "Come on, my father's in the shower and he won't be long."
"Give me two minutes," I said. "James is going to kill me."
I quickly put about five mints into my mouth and brushed my hair so it didn't look as bad. I sprayed some deodorant on my body and was ready to leave. I just really needed the toilet.
It took us about two minutes for us to leave the house because we had to make sure everyone was far enough away for us to make it to the front door. We did it though so it was all good.
We ran down the street to the nearest Starbucks. "I need the toilet and something to wake me up, wait here."
I quickly went to the toilet and took some more mints before I bought us both a coffee. I handed it to him as we walked down the street.
"Now, James usually arrives home after a night out at about 8:50 because I've just got up and Tyler is about to leave to go and play a rugby or football match, depending what day it is." We ran down the steps of the tube stations and got through the gates. "He usually arrives with about eight of his friends and they all have a fry-up."
"That means we've got under ten minutes to get you home," Brooklyn said. "The tube journey takes about six minutes and you will have to get through everyone."
"You don't have to come mind." We jumped on the tube and sat down in some seats. I took a cereal bar out of my bag and started eating it. "We probably won't get to my house in time so James will go mental."
"It's fine." We both sipped our drinks and I tried to wake myself up a bit while trying to think of an excuse.
By the time we were off the tube I still hadn't thought of an excuse so I guessed I would have to go with the truth, which would probably result in more trouble for me. If I had guessed correctly, James would have been home for two minutes already now.
We stopped in our tracks as we turned onto my street and saw James along with his friends entering my house. "Shit."
"Why are you still wearing your clothes from yesterday?" James asked as I entered the kitchen. "Where have you been?"
Instead of answering him I walked over to the fruit bowl and grabbed an apple for myself before putting some bread to toast.
"I think she's been with her boyfriend all night," one of his friends said as Brooklyn entered the room.
"Nothing happened," I said before James could say anything. "I just couldn't get home and had nowhere else to stay."
"I want to hear the whole story from both of you," he said.
"So obviously you dropped me off last night at Brooklyn's and his gran was looking after him, his brothers and his sister," I said.
"My parents were at an event," Brooklyn said.
"His gran was sleeping when I arrived so we put a film on and were watching it when she came to see what the noise was."
"I wasn't sure what her reaction would be if she saw Ella so I told her to hide and I told my gran I was on my way to bed. Every time I went to go down and get Ella so she could come back my gran saw me so I had to go to sleep for a while."
"When he came back downstairs to get me I was sleeping on the sofa," I said. "He woke me up and we came back here straight away."
"So you didn't have sex?" one of James' friends asked.
"No," I answered. "Anything else you want to know?"
"Have you been doing drugs or drinking alcohol?"
"No," we both said at the same time.
"You're grounded," James said. "I will be informing Brooklyn's parents of what happened last night as well."
"Do any of that and I will tell Mum about everything," I said to him. "I know more about you than you're aware of. There is a hell of a lot you could possibly get arrested for, the rest is just stupid."
I walked out of the room with Brooklyn letting the threat sink in.
