Please Forgive Me

Corinna: June 1st, 2013

The Diary of Corinna Lynn Parker  June 1, 2013

“What were you thinking? I woke up and thought someone had kidnapped you!”

This is what I came home to when Niall and I came back to the flat. Niall had insisted a full stomach solved all woes and had taken me for ice cream. After a double scoop waffle cone for me and three double scoop waffle cones for him we had decided it was time to head home. Spending time with Niall was nice. He didn’t ask me any questions. He just ate his ice cream and smiled into the silence. But back to my crazy, paranoid cousin.

“If we hadn’t run into Alex we might have had no clue where you were,” Harry kept shouting. “You didn’t even leave a note!”

“I don’t have to tell you anything that I choose to do!” I shouted back angrily. “I am an adult. Not a child.”

Harry just continued to spout off crazy conspiracy theories of where I had gone in that time. I had tuned his rambling out until I heard his final sentence. 

“I was so worried that I even called your mum.”

“You called my mother?!?”

“Aunt Katie needed to know!”

“Good job Harry! You just called a woman who lost one child and told her I was missing! Did you even call her back after you found me?”

“Um…no.”

“Dumb ass.” I marched past him racing to my room to call my mother. My mother was all I had left in this world after I lost my sister. My father had no contact with us after Celeste died. We didn’t need the ungrateful bastard anyway. Mum did her best to be calm about things, but I knew she still worried about me. How could she not after losing one daughter so tragically? I phoned her immediately to calm any nerves Harry’s earlier call might have raised.

“Hello Chipmunk,” my mother cheerily called into the phone. I smiled and decided to hold back my irritation at my childhood nickname.  I used to have chubby red cheeks when I was little. Celeste had actually been the first one to ever call me Chipmunk. She liked to use it as a way to annoy me.

“Hey mum,” I replied. “I just wanted to apologize for Harry’s call earlier. He probably got you all worked up. I’m just fine.”

“I wasn’t worried.” She was such a crappy liar. “Just hanging out at home and relaxing.”

“So there are no alerts at any London area hospitals?”

“Of course not.”

“And the London police weren’t given my physical description and last known whereabouts?” She cleared her throat nervously. “Mum you have to relax.”

“I’m sorry baby. I know you’re a grown up now. I just can’t but help worrying after—“ She never finished the sentence. She didn’t even have to. I knew the last word of that sentence. She hadn’t been able to even speak Celeste’s name since her death.

“Please don’t worry mom. I’m always safe with one of the boys. Niall and I just went out for ice cream. Harry freaked out for no good reason.”

“Did you leave a note?” Was Harry feeding her lines or something?

“No, Mum. I did not leave a note.” I refrained from pointing out that there was no need for me to do so.

“Well next time leave a note. Poor Harry was so worried for you.” Poor Harry my ass.

“Okay mum. Next time I leave a note.”

“Thanks baby. I have to go switch out the laundry. Love you!”

“Love you too!” I sighed as I hung up making my way into Harry’s room. I lay back on his bed forcing him to look up from his laptop. “You are not ever allowed to call my mother again.”

“But I’m Aunt Katie’s favorite nephew,” Harry teased. “She would be hurt if I didn’t call.”

“Harry,” I warned.

“I didn’t know what to do, okay? I couldn’t find you. I thought someone had taken you!”

“Harry no one is going to take me anywhere.”

“Yeah, well I never thought Celeste would die either, but she did. So forgive me for my paranoia.”

“Harry?” I had never thought about how her death might have affected my cousin. He and I had been close as kids, but when Celeste died we hadn’t seen one another for about a year. After my family fell apart my mum and I stayed with Harry’s family until we found a place of our own. A place that was away from the tragedy of our past.

“Mum sat Gemma and I down explaining that Celeste had died. Then she just went on and on about how we didn’t need to hide things from her. That no matter what she would accept us. Gemma was finally brave enough to ask her just how Celeste had died.”

“And what did she say?”

“She said Celeste had a secret that she carried on her shoulders all alone. Something she was too afraid to share with anyone. The fear consumed her and someone took advantage of her fear which lead to her death.”

“Wow. She sure got that right.”

“Ever since that day I’ve told my mother everything. I was terrified that keeping any secret, even what I had gotten her for her birthday, would somehow get me killed. I was kind of a stupid kid.”

“You’re not any stupider than the girl who keeps tailing after some stranger that looks like her dead sister so she can be forgiven for a past sin.”

“Celeste would have forgiven you no matter what it is you did.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes I do. You are her sister, and she loved you.”

“Not after what I did.” I stood up and walked over to the framed picture of Harry with his mum and sister. They all looked so happy.

“You never told me. What exactly did you do that warrants this need for forgiveness?”

“Easy. I started the road that led to Celeste’s death.”

“What do you mean?”

“I introduced Celeste to the bastard who got her pregnant.”

[AN: Another chapter done! Laurie’s turn now! <3 Bekah]