The Circle

The Circle - Chapter Fifteen

Fifteen:

Malcolm McCabe had been driving for three hours and the traffic heading north on the M1 wasn't getting any better. Some poor bugger had gone and died, today of all days and as a result, Malcolm was stuck in the biggest traffic related hoo-ha with a severe case of road rage.

As he carefully took the last cigarette out of his twenty-deck, he cursed under his breath. It'd be a while before he was anywhere near a service station and the boredom and need for a piss was becoming a little too much. Although Malcolm McCabe's patience was rapidly wearing thin, the thought of finally reaching his destination still gripped at his nerves. He had thought the scenario over in his mind a million times, but now it was actually happening he wasn't entirely sure it was such a good idea. His beautiful wife's death had completely destroyed him and it was the one thing he just couldn't get over. Malcolm leaving his children without explanation however was another story entirely.

Belinda McCabe was the love of his life and still remained that way and losing her was the hardest thing he had ever gone through. The end had been the hardest. Seeing her so weak and lifeless in Hilltop Green Hospital, watching her loose the twinkle in her eye, all the while wearing a brave smile. It was so difficult. Too difficult in fact and he admitted that he had been selfish.

Swallowing down tears that he knew were out of self-pity, he took a long drag on his cigarette and blew out the smoke slowly. Serena was going to be one hard nut to crack but at the end of it all, it was April he really needed to see. She was the only reason he was even attempting to return to his roots. Attending the funeral of his child would be even worse than attending his wife's. Malcolm blocked the image from his mind. Hopefully if he wasn't too late, it wouldn't get to that but getting April to listen to him was bound to be the biggest hurdle. Who would want anything to do with a man that left his grieving family to fend for themselves in their most crucial hour of need? He sure wouldn't and the realisation made his trip even harder to face. An hour later the traffic started to move and Malcolm McCabe made his way onto the M6 and towards Hilltop Green.

                                                                                                *****

April had watched 'The Hangover' twice and still the boredom of being grounded hadn't subsided. Sitting in on a Friday night when her friends were out having a good time at Mad-Hatter's wasn't something she did very often and now she realised why. The thought of Jinx and Alex dancing the night away without a care in the world caused a lump of jealousy to form in her throat. They were probably having a great time but April supposed they deserved it. With everything going on, they hadn't had a normal night out for ages since everywhere April went, trouble followed. At least she wouldn't be there to ruin yet another night and Caleb Anderson could take a break from following her. This girl wasn't going anywhere for at least another week.

She briefly wondered whether Caleb was watching as she sat on the end of her bed and stared out onto Green Way but forced the thought from her mind. The more she tried to get used to the fact that he followed her, the more it freaked her out and the fact she couldn't stop thinking about him didn't exactly help either. Ever since the episode at Loretta Antonio's mansion, April reluctantly accepted that she had developed a strange attraction toward Caleb and she couldn't quite get her head around it, no matter how hard she tried. Whenever she was near him she felt like a magnet was between them, slowly pulling them together but whenever they got close enough, the magnets would repel because thinking about him in that way was forbidden fruit. He was after all, three-hundred and twenty-six years old and in comparison, seventeen was definitely pushing the age barrier boundaries of any relationship. Plus he was her Guardian. It couldn't have been more complicated if it tried. Caleb would be stuck at the age of nineteen for eternity. That was not what April initially had in mind for a boyfriend and yet she couldn't stop thinking about being with him. It was an attraction that couldn't be followed through unless things wanted to get extremely complex.