Run Away [Editing]

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

“Ellie, is it really you?” she asked holding me tightly as possible.

“Yeah Mum it’s me. I’ve missed you so much,” I said as the tears stream down both our faces. Alex was still standing in the doorway waiting for us to break apart.

“Who’s the lovely boy?” Mum asked finally. We broke apart to look at Alex. I took his hand in mine; I smiled brightly at him, my face bright red.

“He’s my Alex, Mum. He’s almost twenty, we met over a year ago,” I said loving the words that come out of my mouth. “He’s a great guy, I love him so much.”

“Oh right sweetheart, where did you meet him?” Mum said looking confused.

“We met when she went away it was her third day there. She was caught by the police on her first night she was asleep on a bench, she told them she was on holiday, she also said that she’d just come from visiting her grandma a couple of days early. Then she moved into the house where I lived. Ell did I ever tell that Olivia told me to go and give you your breakfast,” Alex said.

“Oh that Olivia, she knew we were going to get together the first day she met me. She did tell me that her favourite was a very nice boy, I guess it turned out to be you,” I laughed.

“Why don’t we take this into the house,” Mum said letting us through. I took Alex to the lounge. “I’m sure your father would like to know you’re back.”

“Daddy,” I smiled, I ran out of the room to his office. I saw him sitting on his chair. I ran to him and I hug him tightly. “Daddy it’s me.”

“My gorgeous Ellie you’re home at last,” he said kissing me. “I’ve missed you too much.”

“Come on Daddy you’ve got to meet Alex,” I said taking his hand warmly in mine. I led him to the lounge where Mum and Alex were talking. “Daddy Alex, Alex Daddy.”

“Nice to meet you sir,” Alex said in his formal voice I’ve only ever heard once or twice. “I was just talking to your wife about Ellie; she’s such a lovely girl.”

“Thank you. By the way you can call me Allen. We did miss her too much, our little Millie missed her the most.”

“Millie, when is she coming back?” I asked impatiently.

“Later, her boyfriend is coming over for dinner, are you staying?” Mum asked us.

“Millie has a boyfriend that’s so cool I never ever imagined her having one,” I said ecstatic.

Alex spoke up, “Um we’d love to stay, it would be nice to get to know Ellie's family.”

“Sure Alex, that’s great, we’d like to know you better too. You can stay in the guest bedroom and Ellie you can go in your old room.”

“Actually Mum, Alex sleeps with me. He keeps the nightmares away,” I said softly trying to let them understand.

“You sleep together,” Mum said shocked.

“Mum how long do you think we’ve been together? We’ve been together exactly a six months and we’ve know each other just over a year. Alex is my best friend.”

“I don’t mind going in a spare room,” Alex said a little awkwardly.

“No, no it’s okay you can share, I guess Bella here was a little shocked,” Dad said trying to clear the air.

I lent over to Alex and whispered, “I’m so glad I didn’t tell them I’m pregnant, now that would have thrown them off completely.” Alex laughed lightly.

“Ellie darling I still don’t understand why you ran away, I thought you loved your life?” Mum said after a few minutes sitting down next to Dad. I sat on Alex on the arm chair, my arm around his neck.

I sighed. “I did love my life before we moved, loved all my friends.  But when I started my new school not many people wanted to be friends with me there was a few people. Then at the end of year eleven Marc started to become abusive,” I choked, Alex’s hand stroking my back to calm me down. “And then it didn’t stop. The day I took off I was so fed up with being hurt I had to leave. I had nightmares every night. They only went away when I met Alex and Olivia and all the people in similar situations like mine. I made friends with the nicest people in the world; we care for each other, our friendships stick. The last time I had a nightmare was on my birthday this year, Alex woke me up from it he comforted me and then we got together.”

“Sweetheart if we knew all this we would have helped stop it but I guess cos you seemed so happy we didn’t realize what was happening, we’re sorry for it. We want to know about your life now,” Mum said smiling at me.

“Alex have you got my camera?” I asked Alex. I saw him reach into his pocket and slip out the camera. “Daddy have you got a lead for a camera to a TV?”

“Yeah I’ll go and get one,” Dad said. Alex squeezed me tightly. I turned to him and kissed him quickly. Dad came back and reached for my camera but plugs it into the TV. The first picture comes up, it’s the day I met Alex.

“This is the day we met, we went shopping with Olivia, that’s her there,” I pointed. “We bought me a phone and some clothes. Then that evening we went to the beach and watch the sun set it was beautiful.” We flicked through all the photos, and then we came to one of the rare photos of Alex and Zoe together. “Um that’s Zoe Alex’s ex.” Mum and Dad nodded. We went through the pictures again, a couple of Olivia and Tom popped up. “Olivia and Tom and Mike,” I said smiling at them. We reached New Year’s Eve, there’s a picture I haven’t seen before, and it’s of Alex and I, we’re standing together kissing, our first kiss. “Alex, do you know who took this?”

“Um no but it looks like it might have been taken from your room. I remember that night, it was such a shame Olivia missed the fireworks, she had to tend to Tom,” Alex explained.

Then I got a sudden thought. “It must have been Olivia.” There were hardly any photos from the New Year to my birthday, they were mostly of Tom. Then after that there are lots of Alex and me together. The photos at his birthday are of us eating cake and a couple of us kissing. Then yesterday, Olivia is looking at my hand showing the ring to the camera we’re both smiling. Then the next on is of Alex and I kissing the ring showing again. “Oh,” I whispered, I wasn’t going to tell them yet but now they’ve seen these there’s no excusing it.

“Is there something you would like to tell us?” Dad said looking at the pictures.

“Hmm, um,” I mumbled unsure what to say.

“I proposed to Ell yesterday well she said yes. Everyone was happy about it.”

“Ellie is that baby yours?” Mum asked.

“What baby?” I asked completely confused about what she is talking about.

“Your friend’s baby is that baby actually yours, is that the real reason you ran away,” Mum asked completely this time. “Did you give your baby up for adoption?”

“No I wasn’t pregnant, I’ve never really had a boyfriend before Alex and even if I was having a baby I would never give it up even if someone begged me too. Tom was born in November; I met Olivia when she was three months pregnant. I ran away because I was scared, nothing more nothing less. I love Alex and because of that we’re getting married.”

“Oh okay fine. All we ever wanted was you to be home and now you are we’re happy.” We looked through the rest of the photos either Alex or I saying the meaning behind the photos.