The Story of Us // L.S

Five.

Songs for this chapter are:

-Who's David? // Busted

-One Call Away // Charlie Puth 

-I See Fire // Ed Sheeran

*

I placed my knife and fork down on my empty plate and sat enjoying the silence dinner had created. I was so sure Isobel's eight year old mind had moved on to other things and she wouldn't be focusing on Louis anymore. 

But as she slurped up the last string of spaghetti and looked up to me and smiling. "Then what happened?" I shut my eyes briefly trying to compose my thoughts and stop the erratic heartbeats. Every time I thought about Louis I couldn't help but hope he'd come back. That he'd realise what an idiot he had been and that he really truly loved me. That he'd ring the doorbell and I'd answer it and he'd be stood there looking just like the first time I had met him. Hair dripping wet and with water droplets running down his face. He'd tell me he loved me like he used to and kiss me like before, then Isobel would run round the corner and they would hug and everything would be okay.

But it had been eight years. And he wasn't going to come back. 

I opened my eyes and was met with the concerned face of our daughter. "Daddy, if you don't want to talk about him it's okay. I know the accident was sad." I felt my heart clench as she referred to the accident. The tragic event she thought ripped her away from her father. 

"It's okay, I'm just trying to think about what happened next. It was a long time ago. We just sort of became a thing very quickly and spent a lot of time together. Every second we had together was perfect and romantic. We did so many cliché things together like ice skating, and that's how I ended up in A&E. We were holding hands skating along the ice when suddenly he fell, pulling me with him. I tried to stop myself so held my arm out in front of me but I landed on it and broke my wrist. He always told me it was my fault and swore that he never fell.

I mean not every second of every day was eventful. We did a lot of boring stuff too like watching movies wrapped up in blankets or baking. Before you ask, his favourite film was spiderman. He was really into his superheros and stuff. I personally hated them and we had many arguments over which genre of film we were going to watch. 

We started to spend so much time together that I asked him to move in with me and he agreed. At first we lived in my tiny flat but then we started to look for bigger places and we moved into a bungalow. It's still there and I drive past it sometimes. It's near the big rusty skate park and dog walking park. We talked about getting a dog too but Louis was never keen. Although I didn't know it at the time, he was set on having a child rather than a dog." 

I stood up and cleared the plates, turning my back on Isobel. I was glad that she couldn't pick up on my resentful tone because I didn't want her to think I hated her when I loved her more than anything. I just hated the circumstances that surrounded her arrival, but I didn't want her to think she was unwanted. Once she came into my life I didn't want anything more. 

"Louis wanted me?" 

"Mhmm, more than anything." 

I wasn't sure if I could lie to her anymore so I turned the tap on to distract her and so I could hear anything other than the sound of my own lying voice.