“It’s crazy Amy you’ll never believe what we found down near the wharf! It was like this great old B&B maybe? There were tons of rooms, like eleven stories but it looked just like a normal house! Super creepy and on the inside there was all bedrooms, but some messed up shit definitely happened there.”
I interrupted, because when Mike gets excited he can just talk and talk.
“What kind of messed up stuff?” I asked, “And who did you go there with? Doesn’t Rob get scared when it gets at all spooky and isn’t Liam away with his dad this month?”
I know, who was I to be protective and all in the right when here I was after getting pregnant, but still, he was my little brother.
“Chill Amy, I was there with someone else, anyways it was cool okay.”
I nodded.
“Sorry Mike, I didn’t mean to snap at you like that, it’s, it’s been a hectic day.”
Mike rolled his eyes and stood up, “what had a fight with your boyfriend or something stupid like that, honestly Amy open your eyes, the worlds a bit bigger,” and with that he walked out of my room.
“Arghh,” I groaned out loud and flopped back on my bed.
“Amy, is that you hunny?” Mum yelled out, the shower off.
“Yep, I’m home,” I yelled back.
She knocked gently on my door before opening it.
“Hey you, tough day at school?” I sat up; my mum was so pretty, even standing there in her towel with her wet hair drying on her shoulders. Her eyelashes were longer when they were wet and her red lips stood out even more against her sallow skin. My heart sank.
“Something like that.”
“Aw, well don’t worry. I’ve got your favourite in the oven! If Luke’s coming over later that’s fine,” and with that name’s ink left dripping in my mind, she shut the door.
Luke, Luke, oh god Luke, every single inch of me wanted him to be beside me in that moment.
When We Met
“I think you dropped this,” said the boy with the glasses and the blonde, floppy hair. He sat behind me in geography. We’d never spoke before. But then again it was only the third week of school. I turned around to see him picking up my bumblebee eraser. I blushed violently. He was cute. I hadn’t noticed that before.
“Thanks,” I said trying to hide my embarrassment. Of course my first encounter with a boy in my new school would have to involve my beloved bee eraser from 6th grade. I turned back around with a smile. A few moments later there was a tap on my shoulder. Then a folded sheet of paper landed on my desk. I nervously picked it up and unfolded it quietly while the teacher talked about the formation of a volcano.
‘Random fact – Did you know bee’s communicate by dancing, not too sure how I’d fair if I had to be a bee…’
I smiled and scribbled down something on the back of the folded note and subtly put my hand behind my back. He plucked it out.
This went on for weeks. We rarely spoke or even saw each other much outside of this class. It was the only one we had together that year. One day though I stayed back late in class to talk to the teacher about my last essay. It was last period and when I walked out of the class the boy with the floppy hair was there, I knew now his name was Luke.
“You busy?” He asked stepping into stride beside me as we walked down the hallway.
“Not particularly,” I said shyly. I had between 0 and 1 experience with boys to date.
“Great,” he shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’ve somewhere I want to show you, but we better move quick. I’m not sure what time it closes.”
I don’t know if I knew from the start that there was going to be something different about Luke and me. That over the next two years we were going to defy the odds of arguing over cheating with each other’s friends, getting drunk and fighting outside nightclubs, breaking up over text only to get back together a week later. But on that first day, when he lead me on a mystery tour around London, eventually arriving at a miniature indoor bee sanctuary hidden in the centre of Mayfair, on that day I knew I felt something. I knew from books and movies that young loves were supposedly epic, but I had never experienced anything of the sort in my fifteen years on this earth. Yet I knew we were more than the rest. We were going to be different, I just didn’t know how yet. That night we bought doughnuts in Soho and got a tube back to my part of the city. He walked me to my house.
“Well I’ll see you,” I said awkwardly.
“I’ll see you too Amy,” he replied looking straight at me. He looked nervous.
I nodded feebly and all of a sudden he grabbed my hand and kissed me. I’d kissed a few other boys before. I wasn’t that inexperienced. But kissing Luke, even that first time, was kissing the future and the past and the present all at the same time and all of it delving together. My tummy turned and my heart sped up and I knew, I just knew, I was screwed.
Chapter 2
Mum had cooked my favourite. Vegetarian lasagne, but I could hardly manage three mouthfuls. Dad was home from work, him and Mike sitting opposite Mum and I talking about the rugby. Mum nudged my shoulder, “Are you alright? You’ve barely touched your dinner.”
I nodded and scooped a spoonful in my mouth smiling.
The boys chatter stopped. “So Amy,” said Dad, “we got your results from your mock exams this morning.”
I looked up, shit, I had completely forgotten about them.
“Don’t look so worried,” Dad laughed, “you did incredibly, especially for someone who went on and on about how unprepared she was!”
“You got all A’s and B’s Amy! We’re so proud,” said Mum.
“Even in geography,” nodded Dad. “A B.”
Mike made a vomiting motion with his fingers and I laughed at him despite myself. Our parents were extremely loving and proud and sometime we couldn’t help but laugh.
“Seriously though did I?” I asked.
“Yeah! Trust me sweetie I was as shocked as you,” joked Dad, “but we decided that seeing as you’ve done so well, and we know you will do wonderful in you’re A-levels.” He looked to Mum who smiled and nodded back at him, “well we’ve decided, that if you really want to go to Italy with Tara and Lily and the boys this summer then you can.”
“What? Are you serious?” I asked.
Italy was a dream trip that I, the girls and Luke and his friends had been planning for months but I was the only one not allowed. Not that any of it mattered now. I don’t even know why I was still asking.
“Seriously,” said Mum smiling.
I looked around the table, from my smiling mum to my proud dad to my kind, kind little brother. And I broke into tears.
“Oh Jesus Amy, chill out, it’s just a freaking holiday,” laughed Mike.
“It’s not that,” I started.
“Amy, what’s wrong?”
"I don’t know how to say…I said composing myself, Mike looked sick, looking back now I think he knew what I was about to say. I think it was the first thing that popped into his head and he knew. The whole room was silent and I felt like silence had never been so loud before in my life.
“I’m pregnant,” I stuttered out. Weirdly enough, once I said those words out loud, a sort of calmness came over me and I was able to look up at my whole family’s faces.