Phil Lester's Daughter // PART 3

Chapter 36

"So what was the pen like anyway?"

We were sitting in the middle of a shopping centre in the food court, a McDonalds meal and Starbucks drink for each of us with a lot of plastic bags containing Christmas presents stacked in them surrounding us.

"It was... a fountain pen actually," my new cousin replied after taking a gulp of pumpkin spice latte, "And I brought it for Freddie."

"Freddie as in the one who attacked me yesterday Freddie?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Well... yeah..." Ryan says with a rub of the back of the neck, "We use to be close... well we kinda are now in a certain light..."

"What do you mean your still close?" Dan asks, "I thought you hated him."

"I do... and if I had any say about him I wouldn't want him to be close to me. What a shame he's my cousin though."

I glare at him, "He's your cousin?!"

He laughs nervously, "Our mom's were friends since forever, as they were twin sisters, and because of that bond, me and Freddie got very close. We spent a lot of time together and went to the same school.

"It was when I was 9 that Freddie's parents wanted me to come to the zoo with them, pacifically Central Park Zoo because I was born in New York and my mom and dad owned a BnB in a village two miles out of New York -"

"So you're from New York?" Willow asks with a raised eye brow.

Ryan nods as he carries on, "I remember that we had seen the lion enclosure and was off to get ice-cream when Freddie's dad had a phone call. Apparently the whole BnB set on fire. My mom got  trapped in the kitchen and my dad first helped a old lady who was upstairs out of the building before going for mom... but they both didn't make it. The fire caught up with them and killed them..."

By now Ryan had silent tears rolling down his cheeks. He removed his glasses to wipe his eyes.

"Ryan... I'm so sorry..." Dan says.

"It- it's not your fault," Ryan says, "But after that I lived with Freddie. Freddie's mom got really depressed and was soon diagnosed with it after my mom died. When we were 10, we had a friend called Steven and he invited me and Freddie to his birthday party at central park zoo. Obviously I was scared to go back because what happened last time we went but with some persuasion from Freddie and his parents, we went.

"About half way into the party though... Steven's mom got a call. Me and Freddie had to go to the hospital immediately. His mom and dad had gotten into a car crash as they came back from WallMart for some shopping. Obviously we were both distraught and his dad died at the scene and his mom died a couple hours later because of all the blood loss.

"We were made to go to an orphanage in New York but we were just there and no one took any interest in us. So we got moved to London and that was when I got adopted by this women named Kate and a man called Greg when I was 11. Freddie was so mad at me and we fell out and yelled at each other over skype and whenever I saw him at school, as we carried on going to the same school as one another, he would attack me.

"Obviously I didn't want my cousin to hate me so I decided I wanted to get him a present. When Freddie was younger, he always expressed an interest in writing scary dark stories so I thought for a present, I would get him a pen. When we went to WHSmiths and I told Kate and Greg my idea... and they said it was ridiculous. I was now 13, with no money and 'parents' who hated the fact I just wanted to get a long with my cousin again. I had seen this really cool pen, one I knew Freddie would like, so I tucked it into my pocket...

"We were leaving the shop, the buzzer went off and the guard found the pen. When he asked me why the hell I was doing this and I told him my story, he laughed and next thing I knew I was at the police station having a criminal record for theft being put on my documents for stealing a £10 pen.

"Kate and Greg didn't want me after that. They sent me back to the orphanage and Freddie made more fun of me for my record. And that's how it stayed for 3 years and two months until I was wandering around the building for fresh air when I heard a car pull up. Four people got out who I recognised with a instant and tried not to fanboy over them and watched as they entered the building. I saw the younger one leave and the way she was looking, I knew all the boys in there had tried to leech onto her like they do to every girl who goes in. I told her they weren't all like that. We got on well and next thing I knew I was being adopted again and sitting in a food court at a shopping centre sipping pumpkin spice latte's out of red starbucks cups," Ryan bfinishes with a gulp of his latte to prove his point.

We were all looking at him. He had had a really bad past, one that I wished he didn't have to go through. Ryan seemed like such a cool guy, why would anyone want to be mean to him?