The Day I Died

The Day It All Went Wrong

Chapter 29

The Day It All Went Wrong

Liam disappears shortly after that to go and meet some of his friends.

He asks me if I want to go with him but I decline; hanging out with a group of boys whilst invisible is not my idea of fun.

Me and Maisie decide to have a movie night instead, since she's got her heart set on having a sleepover in Liam's room anyway.

We grab popcorn, a few blankets and Maisie's favourite film; despicable me.

"I've never seen this film," I confess as I put it into the DVD player. "What happens in it?" I ask her and she stops wrestling with the blankets and sighs.

"How have you not seen it!" She exclaims, throwing the blanket down. I think she's given up on it.

I guess I've had other things to do.

Shopping, exams, dying.

You know, the usual.

"I don't know... is it any good?" I ask her, grabbing the remote and smoothing out the blankets.

"Well, there are these small yellow people and this man with a big nose and this girl always wears a pink hat and they sell cookies to a shark man and then they steal the moon." She says in a rush and I blink.

"Sounds... Uh.. Great!" I tell her and she grins, stuffing a handful of popcorn into her mouth.

I press play and pull the blanket up to my chin. The film starts and Maisie bounces in excitement.

Between the two of us, we manage to eat through the entire bowl of popcorn and 3 packets of strawberry laces.

Maisie's face is sticky and there are more crumbs in Liam's bed than in the bowl but oh well, I'm sure he won't mind too much.

Maisie laughs at least 100 times during the duration of the film and I find myself laughing with her. It's funny, I should suggest it to Alice for our next sleepover.

If I manage to save Liam, and Maisie.

When the film finishes, it's only 7 O'Clock. Maisie sees this and utters 5 words that make me shudder.

"Can I do your hair?"

You see, when me and Alice used to babysit for her mums friend, her two twin girls would always want to do our hair.

They were polite, well behaved and always wanted a Disney bedtime story. Maybe they would do a plait, maybe a lopsided bun or a pair of pigtails; we thought it would be fine, fun even.

We literally couldn't have been more wrong.

Between the two of them, they managed to give me the tallest back-combed bird nest hair you could ever imagine and twisted so many grips and bobbles into Alice's hair that her Mum had to cut them out. With a very large pair of scissors.

I just had to brush all the knots out if mine which wasn't as extreme, but hurt like hell. I swear I lost 50% of my hair after all that brushing.

Lets just say although we got paid extra, we were never going to babysit those nightmares again. Or let small children loose on our hair.

"Uh..." I chew my lip, thinking about it.

"Please?" She begs, sticking her bottom lip out and I smile.

"Uh, okay just...be careful?"

She nods and runs off.

"Let me get my brushes!"

I turn the TV to a music channel and tidy up the best that I can.

When Maisie cones back, she spends the next twenty minutes brushing, combing and twisting my hair.

"Ta daaaaa!" She shouts, putting the brushes down.

I hesitantly look in the mirror and roll my eyes.

Oh right, no reflection.

I lift my hands up and pat my hair, making Maisie giggle. It's in a bun. A perfectly normal, neat bun.

"It's fabulous!" I tell her, surprised and she grins,

"Thankyou. I like your halo by the way. It's very pretty." She says, reaching out and touching it.

"Come on little miss, it's time for bed." She pouts and puts up a small fight but eventually heads off to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

When she comes back, I tuck her in and she points at the cursive 3 on my wrist.

"Is that how long Liam has to live?" She whispers and my eyes widen.

I completely forgot she knew about that. How did she remember!?

"Yeah, but don't worry. I'll save him okay. 3 days is a long time and I promise that I will save your brother no matter what." I try to reassure her, and myself.

It almost works. It almost makes me think that everything will be fine.

But then there is a creak, a squeak of hinges and my eyes snap to the doorway.

To the person in the doorway.

Liam.

"What?" He whispers, confusion and hurt clouding his features.

He knows. He heard us.