United Together

Attacked

"would you rather have a rewind button or a pause button on life?" I ask the group as we all sit around the beds chatting.

Julie is currently resting inbetween my legs as I wrap my arms around her shoulder and lean my chin onto her head. Ali and Ash have cuddled together and so have Christen and Tobin. The youngsters are all sharing a blanket together while the older girls are just sitting next to each other.

"definitely a rewind button" Ash says rather quickly

"you said that surprising quick Ash" I question, interested in what she means

"well you all know about my past and how I made some questionable decisions growing up, I guess I'd just want to go back and change the way I handled a situation, maybe I might have had a proper family or held a stable job long enough to pay the bills." Ash explains as we all sit in silence listening to her story.

"well I would want a pause button," Ali says making Ash and the rest of us look at her in confusion.

"to be honest kriegs, I thought you'd be the last to say that considering your past." Kelley says as a few of the girls hum in agreement.

"yes I did some dumb shit like, stealing a car, but I did that, and as much as I would want to change it, I can't because if I did I wouldn't be here right this second." Ali says trying to explain her point

"I'm really not seeing where you're going with this Ali" Sonnett asks confused

"Something as small as picking up and taking your keys with you instead of leaving them under a rock when you go on a night out affects your entire future. How do you know those keys might not help protect you that night, how do you know that by leaving them under the rock you might get robbed. Everything that has happened so far had to happen exactly that way in order to get us where we are today. So if you go back in time to fix your mistakes you will just cause more problems for yourself, you won't have learnt from your bad experiences in life, you won't have met the people you know today, you wouldn't be sitting here right now listening to me talk. That's why pausing life could be so useful. By pausing, you can give yourself more choice, take a deep breath, rise above that instinctive reaction that's caused by being in the heat of the moment and making a stupid rash decision. By pausing and clearing our heads we can take that free choice in the best possible way." Ali says and we all kind of stare at her in shock not expecting that answer.

"damn Krieger, that was a really good answer," Hope says

"well I've had time to think about it you know," She says shrugging as Ash hugs her a little closer which does make her crack a small smile.

"I really want some tater tots" Mal says out of nowhere making us all laugh

"what! I'm craving tater tots so bad" She says

"I want a corn dog!" Rose shouts out

"to be fair, I could kill for some fries right now," Lindsey says

"All I want is a good cup of tea and a crumpet with Marmite on," I say smiling to myself as I think about the delicious meal.

"I'm sorry but what even is a crumpet," Tierna says making a few other people nod their heads in agreement.

"They are these things made from batter but they're nothing like pancakes and are in a circular shape that you put in the toaster, but they aren't like muffins either. They have lots of holes on the top which are great for letting the butter seep in, and then you have Marmite which I think is actually made from yeast and you spread that on top. I can guarantee that if you ask any brit about crumpets, 99 percent of the time they'll say they love them." I finish explaining