Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Seventy-Six

Chloe

What did the pirate say on his birthday?

Aye matey.

Get it?

It was a bad joke, but it was one she'd told over and over all day. And she was allowed to. Because it was her birthday. She'd told it to her dad, to Jessica when she came to watch Chloe for the day. She wasn't actually going to school at the moment, a decision her dad had made when they'd gotten back four days ago, even though school had started back up after the Easter holidays had finished. Sam was the nice guy who had to accompany her and her dad most places, and he happened to be friends with Jessica too. Sam had laughed at her joke and thought it was funny; Jessica not so much.

Toby had laughed, though, when she'd told it to him at swimming. He'd joined her group after his step dad had insisted he had to do a sport, but it at least meant she till got to see him. Toby had actually told it to her, but that had been before she and her dad went on holiday to see Papa, so that didn't matter. The point was, it was a funny joke, and it was her birthday. It was her birthday and she was eight years old. That was a lot. Daddy had said so, when he'd finally woken up enough to say so. She might've woken him up way too early before it was even bright outside, but, in her defence, her room at Papa's didn't have an alarm clock so she couldn't possibly have known that it was only half past five.

Celebrating her birthday at Papa's was weird, though. All of the birthdays she could remember had been her and her dad in their flat and she'd get to open her presents in bed, grudgingly sharing her duvet with her dad and inevitably losing wrapping paper in between her blankets that she'd find months later, matted not the fur of her stuffed toys, ending up eating breakfast in bed and defending her toast from her dad, or once, when Daddy had been delayed at work, from Jessica. At Papa's though, once it was finally an 'acceptable time' to be out of bed, she'd followed her dad out to the living room where he'd left her presents, having to wait until after breakfast to open any.

She understood why her dad had made her wait to open her presents, she'd heard his late night phone calls to Papa and had heard them talking, or more like arguing, though that in itself was nothing new, and, from the gist of the calls, her dad had really wanted Papa to fly home for her birthday, even though they'd just seen him, and whilst it sounded like Papa had wanted to, she'd heard them arguing over the fact that he wouldn't be able to get home. By making her wait to open her presents, her dad had left as long as possible for her papa to get there, and when he'd sat there, obviously having given up on her papa, pushing scrambled eggs around his plate, he'd looked like Chloe wanted to feel, making an effort to smile at her when she jumped down from the table.

His smile had looked so wrong that Chloe swallowed down her own tears, deciding to pretend that it was just like every other birthday she'd had, just her and her dad and no way there could be anyone else, taking his hand and dragging him out to Papa's living room and grinning up at him as she repeated the joke she'd already told him twice before, letting him take photos of her before she began to work through the pile of presents on the coffee table.

She didn't quite know why they were at Liam's instead of their flat, given that they hadn't been there since Liam had first left, but when Sam had walked them to car he'd organised for them at the airport, he'd asked Daddy where he was taking them to and he'd said, "Home...take us- Take us to Liam's."

Sam had raised an eyebrow but had driven them there anyway, asking when they got there if they even had a key only to fall silent when her dad produced his key, unlocked the door, took their bags from the doorman who'd helped them with the lift and shut the door in Sam's face. They'd been there since, and it was alright, staying at Papa's. It was bigger than their house and the hallway outside didn't smell like pee, but she wasn't quite sure why her dad wanted to be there when he and Papa were obviously not on good terms. She didn't get why he'd told Sam to bring them here when he'd said home, but Chloe figured it wasn't too important. She also didn't think that Daddy liked Sam very much, but he'd been nice enough when Sam took them to her swimming lesson so maybe he did.