Will and Hope [Formerly Ro and Georgie, slowly editting]

Chapter 15

Roland Byrnes 2012

I got up out of bed at four thirty and had a quick shower and got dressed into a random tee and my best pair of jeans. I found my grey high tops and slipped them on as I jumped along the hall trying to tuck the laces into the shoes.

I walked down the stairs and went into the living room where I had left my comfiest hoodie two nights before. I slipped it on and found my keys and four pounds on the counter in the kitchen. I pocketed them and left the house yelling goodbye to my dad.

I pulled up my hood even though it was warm and the sky was clear and walked quickly up to the main road and along until I came across the flower shop I’d been going to. I walked in making the familiar bell tinkle. I went on my little route to the black roses that I could walk with my eyes closed I had gotten so familiar of getting them and went to the counter and tipped three of the four coins on the counter.

The old lady with snow white hair came from the back and smiled happily. “How are you lovely? How is your friend?” she asked.

“Fine, she’s the same... thank you.” I said quietly thanking her for just being interested in Georgie’s life. I pushed the three pound towards her but she shook her head and pushed the money back. She took the flower off the counter and wrapped it in see through squeaky plastic and pulled out the draw full of thin ribbons. Without asking she tied lime green ribbon to secure it.

“No charge.” She said smiling and waved as I walked out of the shop giving her a thankful nod. That was nice of her.

***

“Hi Georgie.” I said as the door closed behind her mum as she left the room with a sad smile. I pulled in a heavy breath and looked down at her. “Do you know what? You are even gorgeous when you’re all greasy and haven’t had a really shower in a few weeks.” I laughed humourlessly and leaned down and kissed her lips. I pulled away and wiped a tear away that I hadn’t notice fall. “I need you Georgie, I don’t know what the matter with me is, but well I do. You’re gone and everything’s gone out of the window.” I grabbed her limp hand and cradled it in my own. “Please come back to me Georgie.” I whispered pleadingly. I looked down at our hands and chuckled again. “I hit some jerk today, you don’t need to know about him but I wouldn’t have done it if you were here. I split his lip and I know you would disapprove but I liked it and that scares me Georgie. I don’t know why I liked it, I guess I felt something.”

I leaned back and stretched my hands gearing myself up for the back breaking sitting I would endure to stay with Georgie. I leaned back and put my hands on my knees. “Do you remember that time we went to see Coldplay?” I asked laughing, “Do you want that on?” I got up and pulled her iPod out of my hoodie and put it in the speakers that the nurse had finally allowed in the room. I found Yellow on her playlist and turned it on pretty loud. I had gotten it in my head that if I had it loud she would wake up or hear it slightly. “Oh this is for you by the way.” I said putting the black rose next to her speakers making the cellophane shudder under the vibrations of the speakers. I leaned closer to her and whispered right in her ear. “I love you.” And I kissed the skin just under her ear.

I jumped when I heard a soft hum. I looked around the room scared and confused like when you wake up from a dream. Something caught my eye. The black and green monitor that monitored her heart was making the noise. I got up and looked closer. I gasped as I spotted that the line had risen slightly.

I looked around the headrest of her bed for the buzzer. I pressed it three times and waited four seconds before deciding that they were being slow on purpose and left the room hurriedly leaving her alone on her own for the first time. For the first time her mother or father wouldn’t be there. I ran down the corridor and found the fat bitch that I had grown to hate.

“She’s waking up!” I yelled at her when I started to slow down. She snorted and looked back down at her work. “She actually is!” she ignored me. “Fuck you.” I muttered and spotted Georgie’s doctor up ahead. “Sir, sir!” I called and smiled when he looked down the corridor at me. “Georgie’s waking up!” I said smiling.

The doctor excused himself from the nurse he was chatting to and hurried towards me. He walked passed me and I stood there momentarily confused. “Show me.” He said and I quickly ran to catch up with him in his hurried walk to Georgie’s room. I grinned knowing that Georgie would soon be back in my arms where she belonged. This time she will be staying there I promised myself and walked in after the doctor as I did I caught the sight of Georgie’s mum and dad. I grinned at their worried faces and they both ran up the corridor with Georgie’s dad dropping his coffee as he did so.

Meanwhile back in Britain 1725

Georgie was on her new horse’s – Cathy’s – back and was riding slowly back from the town. The closest town from where they lived was the small town of Ettington, a place Georgie had never heard of in her life time but wanted to know more of. When she got out of this crazy place she would Google map it she decided as she swayed on Cathy’s back. She had swapped some eggs today for flour that she needed for the melting moments that her real mother had shown her to do when she was around four years old.

“Look at the stars, look how they shine for you

And everything you do

Yeah they were all yellow” she sang and frowned confused. She hadn’t heard to Coldplay’s song Yellow in about two years and it was weird that this was what she was singing to. Georgie shook her head and laughed and continued happily. It wasn’t her favourite Coldplay song – Up with the birds – but it was up there with the best.

She kicked Cathy into a gallop and rode up the hill laughing at the freedom that she had been longing to feel for a very long time, the feeling she could only ever get with Ro. A whine escaped from her throat at the thought of it and she pushed herself to think of the feeling of her hair being pulled away from her face by the wind instead of Ro.

It was the first time she’d left the cottage in about two weeks and there wasn’t a massive amount to do in those four walls and as there was no electricity she couldn’t listen to her iPod and she had forgotten her favourite songs. She had even got to the point last week when she thought she would surf the stair with a mattress only to find that her mattress was a bag of straw and would just spill everywhere making the surfing experience really crap.

She made it over the hill that had hidden the cottage, the stretch of grass between Roland and Georgie now was around two hundred yards. As she went over grinning to see her best friend her face fell.

“ROLAND!” she screamed like she had months before as she pushed the horse faster to Roland and her biggest enemy, well of this era anyway.