The Heartbreak Factor - Part Four

Chapter Sixty-Two.

Crouching down outside the front door to mum’s house, I straightened out Katy’s jacket as she grabbed hold of my hair and smiled at me. “Mummy!” she beamed.

“Are you going to be a good girl for nanny?” I smiled. 

She nodded before shoving her teddy in my face. “Bunny!” 

“Is Bunny going to be a good bunny for nanny?” I asked. 

She nodded, shaking him vigorously in the air as she smiled at me. 

“That’s if Bunny lives that long,” George joked, taking the poor rabbit teddy from Katy’s clutch and shoving him into Katy’s overnight bag. 

As soon as we walked into my mum’s house, we were greeted by an exhausted looking Michael as he carried two paint tins into the lounge. “Thank God you’ve arrived,” Michael smiled as he spotted George and I stood in the hallway. Katy had already zoomed up the stairs in search of Jack. “Your mum has been trying to call you.”

“Sorry,” I smiled, giving him a quick hug. “I left my phone at home charging. I didn’t know you were decorating the lounge.”

“Neither did I until your mum told me this morning,” Michael laughed, putting the paint tins down on the floor. 

“Need any help?” George asked. 

“It’s alright, George,” Michael smiled. “I’m only doing a quick touch up. We redid the colour scheme in January so it doesn’t need redoing for another few years at least.”

“You know where I am if you need any help,” George insisted. 

“I’ll let you know.”

“Where’s mum?” I asked. 

“In the kitchen,” Michael replied before picking the paint tins up and walking into the lounge with them.

“What’s the plan then?” George asked, putting Katy’s overnight bag down on the side table.

“I’ll go see my mum in the kitchen, then if you could get Michael talking for a few minutes until I call you,” I smiled, lowering my voice so that only George could hear me. 

He nodded. “But I thought you left your phone at home?”

“I meant call for you, not actually call you,” I laughed.”

“Got it,” George chuckled.

As he headed into the lounge, I took a deep breath and made my way into the kitchen. Opening the door, I found mum sat at the breakfast table, flicking through the latest copy of Heat. Mum was never really one for gossip magazines but ever since I was in the X Factor, she had slowly become accustomed to reading them - her excuse was that it let her know what I was up to without having to bug me. The only downside to this, well, there wasn’t an upside to mum reading them, but one of the downsides to mum reading the gossip magazines was 90% of the stuff that they printed wasn’t even true and the other 10% of the time the truth was twisted so even then it wasn’t even true. 

“I’ve told you to not read them,” I laughed as I shut the door behind me. 

I just wanted to burst out mine and George’s news as soon as I saw her but I held back on temptation and decided to converse in some chitchat before we broke the news to her. 

“I know. I know, but it was on offer in the newsagents so I couldn’t resist,” mum replied, trying to defend her guilty pleasure. 

I nodded as I sat down at the table and smiled at her. If only she knew my news.