"Dad?" I called into the house, which was already unlocked when I opened it.
"Maggie? Is that you?" He called back, I could practically hear the smile in his voice.
"Yeah, Lacey's here too!" I told him. We took off our jackets and shoes and made our way to the kitchen.
I walked into the kitchen only to see my dad standing on a chair trying to reach something from one of the higher up cupboards. "Do you need a hand?" I asked, laughing.
"No, I'll get it later," He climbed down from the chair to give me a hug and hugged Lacey too. "How's my favourite girl and her favourite girl?" He asked, laughing at himself.
"I'm good," Lacey told him, smirking at me as she peered down at my acceptance letter that I was holding behind my back.
"What are you smiling at?" He asked her, knowing her well enough to know when she was up to something.
"Um nothing but you know Maggie-"
"I got accepted to that performing arts school in London I told you about." I grinned, sliding my acceptance letter towards him over the island in the kitchen. He read the basics of the letter quickly, skipping all the boring parts like I had done, then ran around the counter to hug me.
"Oh Maggie," he sounded like he was crying. "I'm so, so proud of you. I knew you would get in. Lacey join our hug." He opened an arm for her as she walked towards us and joined the hug.
Another couple of tears escaped from my eyes. "Guys stop it, oh god," I let go of them both. They both just laughed at me. Dad told us to take a seat at the bar stools while he got us a drink.
"Hey Dad," I cleared my throat. "Who's car is next to you in the driveway?" I asked, remembering the blue Corsa that looked familiar but couldn't remember where from. Just as he was about to answer, I heard the toilet from the bathroom next to the kitchen flush. "Who's that?"
The bathroom door unlocked and I almost fainted.
Derek.
"Derek."
My emotions were all over the place, my mind was flashing back to the day he killed my mum, to my mums funeral, to the day he was locked up, to 3 days ago when I was talking to Luke about forgiving him.
I thought about all the times I'd calmed him down, and all the times we'd walked into the woods to let him punch the trees and let all his anger out where no one could hear or see him.
"I thought you weren't getting out of jail for another 2 months?" I asked, stepping off the bar stool and walking closer towards him.
"I got let out a month ago," he coughed, "but Dad thought it was best not to tell you, since you kind of hate me and stuff."
That stung. The way he said it made me think about what my Mum would want me to do. She would want me to forgive him and she would want us to be a family again.
"Why don't the two of you go a walk and maybe talk to each other and catch up a bit? While your dad and I make dinner." Lacey suggested. She was so good at knowing when I wanted something and she knew that I wanted to be alone with Derek.
As soon as we walked out the door Derek turned left, and I immediately knew we were going to the woods.
"How have you been?" He asked. He'd changed a lot in the last 6 years, he looked bigger but in a less terrifying way.
"I've been okay." I said honesty. I couldn't think of a better word to sum up the last 6 years than 'okay'. "Did you here what I was saying to Dad while you were in the bathroom?"
"No, what was it?" He asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets, his worst old habit. Out of instinct I reached for his wrist and yanked his hand out his pocket, as I used to do when I was 13. He looked down at my hands on his wrists and smiled. "You haven't changed."
"I actually have, a lot actually, but that still annoys me." I laughed, letting go of his arm. "And I got into this performing arts school, to do an acting major. Remember the school in London I used to talk about a lot? That one."
"I remember that, you used to watch movies and say all the lines before the actor or actress did, just to prove that you could easily remember a script if you were in a movie." He smirked. "I'm proud of you Mags." He told me, hugging me with one arm as we walked.
