Typically Me [BxB]

Chapter Eight

 I walked home, alone, blissfully happy.

 You’re the only family I need…

 The words filled me with happiness. We may not have said it yet, but I knew that he loved me, just like I loved him.

 After we’d left the coffee shop, Ray had taken me to the library- a strange place I had never entered before. There were books everywhere, I had never seen so many! You could take them home to read so long as you promised to give them back when they told you to.

 Ray had spent ages hidden behind the shelves, jumping out every now and then to present me with a book he thought I would enjoy. I learned that he liked to read mystery books, thriller books, anything that drew you in and made you want to read on to solve the story.

 When I got home my little brother and sister were already in bed, my mum was waiting for me in the living room. She smiled as I entered the room and I sat beside her on the sofa. She looked strangely thin, I noticed. She was wearing a grey vest top and a large misshapen cardigan, her lower half covered by a blanket.

 “What’re you so smile-y about?” I asked her. Her grin got even bigger.

 “I could ask you the same thing.” she laughed, and it was only then that I felt the huge smile on my face.

 “I… had a really great afternoon with Ray.” I replied simply.

 I leaned down and kissed her forehead before going up to my room. Once there I didn’t get changed- I didn’t even take off my shoes. I just collapsed onto my bed and stared dreamily into space, the smile still on my face.

 At some point I fell asleep and when I woke up the next morning I felt so… happy. It was weird. I was awake and in the shower long before mum would normally come to wake me up. Once out of the shower I went back to my room and got dressed for school. As usual I wore my skinny jeans and Converses but I did my tie properly and did up my top button, just because I was in a good mood. Fringe straightened, earring in, tribal sign tattoos safely hidden away, I practically waltzed out of my room and down the stairs to the kitchen.

 I decided to treat my mother for a change by being the one to make tea in the morning. I left my mug of tea downstairs whilst I carefully took hers upstairs. Into her room, put it down on the dresser-

 “…Ash?” she said. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

 “Mum, I made you tea.”

 She fainted.

 No, seriously- she fainted.

 After she had revived, I left her to calm down and went downstairs to make breakfast for me and my siblings. I woke them up and told them to get dressed. They strangely obliged. Mum came downstairs in her pyjamas.

 “Ash, are you feeling okay?” she asked, putting a hand to my forehead to check my temperature. I laughed at her sincerity.

 “Yeah, mum, I’m fine.” I told her, giving her a quick hug before carrying on with the twins’ breakfast.

 “Wow… that boy must do you good.” she said, leaning against the counter. I grinned again.

 “Aren’t you going to get ready for work?” I asked, taking a sip of my tea.

 “No, I’m not going in today.”

 I almost spat my mouthful of hot tea into the two bowls of cereal on the counter. I choked and she patted my back.

 “Why?” I gasped. My mother, the woman who didn’t take a day off work even on her birthday, wasn’t going in today?

 “Ash, I haven’t taken a day off work in years. I have so much holiday time saved up, if I used it all I would be able to retire by the time it was over.” she sighed. She told me that she was going back to bed and I nodded just as the twins came running downstairs.

 I sat them down at the breakfast bar and gave them the cereal. On some levels I spent a lot of time with my siblings, on another it was nothing at all. I took them places but I didn’t really interact with them.

 “How would you two like it if we went to the park at the weekend? For the whole of Saturday?” I asked, leaning against the counter. They clapped their hands.

 “Can Brad come? And Dylan, and Aaron?” Bart asked. I nodded.

 “Can Ray come?” Lisa asked. I paused.

 “I’ll ask him.”

 Being ready so early made it seem like we had an infinite amount of time before we had to leave for school so we started to play a game of hide and seek. This resulted in me crawling around the living room on my hands and knees, ‘making sure they weren’t under the sofa’.

 I kissed mum goodbye and she waved from the front door as me and my siblings walked hand in hand to their school. At the gate I bent down on one knee and they hugged me before running into the building. For some reason my ridiculous happiness made me feel like nothing could stop me as I swaggered down the road.

 “Morning, Ash.” Tanya said the second I entered the form room, flashing a dazzling smile at me.

 My guys were beckoning for me to go and join them but I went over to Tanya instead. She looked happily surprised.

 “So, I was wondering, Ash, if you were free this Saturday? Maybe we could go into the city and just hang out. What d’you think?” she asked.

 “Sorry, Tan, I literally just promised I’d take my little brother and sister to the park for the day… unless you want to join us? I’m going to ask Brad, Aaron and Dylan- and Ray, of course.” I told her. My heart skipped a beat as I involuntarily added the ‘of course’, but she didn’t seem to notice. She simply nodded and agreed to meet us there.

 The guys, obviously, were all up for it. Apparently the weather was going to be good so we could spend the whole day just chilling out at the park.

 My endless high lasted all the way till fourth period; music class.

 I entered the room a little late but our teacher wasn’t there yet. Everyone settled down when she arrived, though. I frowned. Ten minutes into the lesson my eyes combed through the students in the room relentlessly…

 And that was when my breath caught as my sight landed on someone standing behind the door- I could just about see him through the little glass window.

 Ray was stood on the other side of the doorway, staring at me, his right eye swollen and black.