Handprints ( #2 BOOK IN SERIES )

November (Part Two)

Can I come over????? A text from Laura reads, one Sunday morning.

Of course! I reply back, smiling down at my phone. Ever since we made up in the cafeteria at school, my phone seems to constantly be buzzing with messages from her, something that I have dearly missed.

Putting my phone down, I look out of the living room to see it's a typical November day. The clouds are a miserable shade of grey and the wind is hurling outside. The autumn leaves have already fallen to floor, sticking to your shoes whenever you venture outside. Everything looks damp and a dismal but inside everything is cosy and warm.

The clock hanging above the fireplace reds that it has just turned ten. This time last year I probably would have just been getting up at this time with my only priority being going out and having fun. Maybe schoolwork as well. Maybe.

Today though, I have been up since five, looking after Erin. Today has been a good day though. Once I fed her, she went back to sleep and didn't make a noise until I began to change her nappy. It's not normally that easy with her and I feel like I have actually accomplished something with her. When she behaves like this, it makes me want to socialise more and see my friends rather than spend the day inside screaming at a baby who is screaming at me.

Be there in 30mins xxx Laura replies back after a couple of minutes. That gives me enough time to get changed into something that isn't covered in baby sick, although I doubt that we will be going anywhere.

See you then xxx Walking into the kitchen, I text her back. Searching through the cupboards, I look for something to eat but nothing interests me. Pick up some chocolate on your way over? Xxx I cheekily ask message Laura, fully intending on paying her back.

I continue fumbling around the cupboards anyway, just for something to do while Erin sleeps and Cory is at work. They seem to mainly be filled with baby supplies with the odd packet of rice and pasta here and there. I finally reach the cupboard where we keep all the medicine and take the packet of anti-depressants into my hands.

I'm supposed to take them every day for my post-partum depression but it has been a few weeks since I last took one. No one knows that I have stopped and that's how I want to keep it. I was feeling better so I thought 'what is the point of taking them anymore'. Just like anyone, I have good days and I have bad days but it mainly depends on how Erin is acting as she highly affects my mood.

Flipping the packet over in my hands, I give it one last look before shoving it back into the cupboard, right in the back in the hopes that if no one else sees them then they will forget.

I tidy a few things before Laura comes over, just to give me something else to do. When I hear three knocks at the door, I know straight away that it is her.

"Hey, I've got you your chocolate just like you asked. Obviously I then had to get myself a bar at the same time," she squeals at me, holding a bar of Dairy Milk in her hands.

"Thank you so much. Do you want anything to drink?" I offer, nodding my head in the direction of the kitchen.

"I'm gasping for a tea, thanks love," she replies. The two of us walk into the kitchen and I set the kettle to boil while Laura gets the mugs out. We both know each other's houses as if they are our own so it's not uncommon for us to act as if we do own the place.

"Is Adam working today?" I ask, throwing a couple of tea bags over at Laura so she can put them in the mugs.

"He is. This is the fourth full weekend in a row that he has had to work. Other than at school, I feel like I never get to see him. Often after school, he'll help his parents out in their bar or have to look after his sister. I'd complain more but he needs the money... they all do," Laura murmured the last part, making me unsure of what I actually heard.