flower. h.s ✔️

forty eight.

Nervous was an understatement.

I didn't even really know why I was nervous, apart from the fact it was just part of my personality and overall life at this point I guess.

I had already met Giovanni and his Father Marco, and Donatello; why was I so nervous?

Maybe it was because I was sat rigid in the back seat of a car with Annabel Jones to my right and no way to escape with my Father in the front passenger seat.

Yeah, maybe that was it.

"You look nice Poppy." Annabel spoke softly but it still made me jump and blink at her.

"Thank you." I said, genuinely touched that she thought so.

I was just wearing a pair of jeans, a striped blouse and Harry's jacket; nothing special.

Also, I realised I'd never heard her speak before.

A phone ringing drew my attention away from her and I glanced at my Father in the front seat, his phone immediately being pressed to his ear and I assumed for now at least, he wouldn't be interested in the two of us talking.

"I feel bad that we've never really met." Annabel said and I attempted a reassuring smile.

"Not sure that's entirely your fault." I said making her laugh a little bit and now up close I could see she wasn't as old as I assumed.

"I told him I wanted to make an effort." Annabel spoke lowly, her head tilted in towards mine and I swallowed. I had to remember that she probably told my Father everything. "I know it might be weird, because of your Mum. I don't want to make it weird."

"Why would it be weird?" I asked, genuinely curious.

It had been five years. I wasn't expecting him to stay single forever, he wasn't that caring or kind.

"Sometimes it can be weird when your parent gets a new partner. Mine divorced when I was a teenager." Annabel shrugged, "I took it pretty hard when my Dad left and I had these new men telling me they weren't taking his place. I just didn't want to do that to you or Max."

"How old are you Annabel?" Something about the way she spoke made me think she was actually a lot younger than I assumed.

"Twenty one. My birthday is in January." Annabel smiled.

She was six months older than me.

"Holy shit." I laughed without thinking, watching her eyebrows furrow as I tried to control my reaction. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, she seemed nice enough.

"Language Poppy."

I rolled my lips into my mouth, he was off the phone then. Annabel lent away from me as my Father looked over his shoulder at us, the car going silent and frosty and to busy myself I pulled out my phone to text Harry.

Wanna hear something gross?

I didn't have to wait long for a reply to buzz in and I briefly wondered what he was up to. I felt bad that I had to leave him at the hotel, even though Harry assured me he'd be fine, I still wanted to spend the time with him instead.

He had mentioned something about packing his stuff for us to leave tomorrow and the idea had made me laugh much to his displeasure, but he'd barely unpacked, instead he just lived out of his suitcase.

H :~) 11:47am: Depends

I rolled my eyes at his stupid reply but still tapped out my response.