Rocking My Life Away

Part Two: We Meet Again

The summer holidays began and I still hadn't seen Liam since the day we met. We'd been texting none stop but that doesn't really count. One week into the holidays I was lounging on the sofa watching rubbish daytime television when my phone rang. After having a slight rave to my ringtone I slid it open, answering it.

"Hello." I said in that weird answering-the-phone voice.

"Hey Melody." Liam said in reply. "You doin' anything today?"

I considered before answering, did I want to look like a loser? I didn't care really.

"Well, I was about to watch 'Homes Under the Hammer' but I'm thinking maybe not." I said.

"Ah, sounds fun." He said. "So you wouldn't want to come round then?"

"Hm, I would have to seriously consider it." I said. "I might miss some seriously good telly."

He laughed before telling me where he lived and that he'd see me in a bit.

"See you then." I said before hanging up. I placed my phone on the table before diving up the stairs and getting dressed, doing mt hair and makeup. Most people think that I don't bother with anything like that. But it takes effort for the 'not bothered' look to work. Luckily I didn't have to lie to my parents about where I was going or be interrogated by my sister. They were both at work and she was at some kind of talented actors holiday club thing.

My sense of direction is pretty useless at the best of times, let alone when I'm going into a part of town that I never go into. It's far too posh for someone like me to venture into. I mean, my family are well off. We live in a big house but Liam, he lives in what I swear is millionaires row. I found the right one eventually. As I rang the doorbell I stared up at the house. It really was huge.

A young woman answered the door. I figured she must be Darren's sister. She looked pretty annoyed. I must have interrupted her daytime TV watching.

"Yes?" She asked impatiently.

"Is Liam in?" I asked politely.

She blinked at me a few times before turning around and screeching "Liam! Door!"

He appeared at the top of the marble staircase. He smiled as he came down the stairs and saw me.

"Mel, how are you?" He asked. "I hope it was nice." He indicated the door that his sister had just gone through.

"She was, err." I didn't want to be rude, but she had been pretty rude herself, but he gave me a look meaning I didn't have to say anything; he already knew what she was like.

"She's only nice when my Dad's around. She doesn't want him to divorce her, he made it clear when he divorced the last one, he doesn't keep women who are mean to his kids." he said, leading me through to the kitchen.

"Divorce? Oh." I suddenly realised who she was. She wasn’t his sister; she was his step-mother.

 He saw my expression and laughed. "He likes them young, though I have to say she's the youngest so far." There was a bitterness in his tone that made me think he wasn't a huge fan of his father. He told me how his Mum had died when he was nine and since, his Dad had had two other wives (And one before his mum). The first wife, before his mum had had Liam's half brother Jake and left a year later for another man. Then it was Liam's mum who died. The third had been horrible to Jake and Liam, so she'd been thrown out and they were now on wife number four.

"Mine and Jake's mothers were the only ones who were anywhere near his age." He rolls his eyes. "Three and four were twenty-nine and twenty-seven. This one is twenty-four." He counted them off on his fingers implying that he didn't really give a damn about any of them. My heart went out to Liam, it must be hard, I don't think I'd be able to have a Dad like that.