"We are, aren't we?"
"Well, none the less."
We ate and laughed and giggled and Isabelle and Henry rolled their eyes almost everytime I opened my mouth. So I figured revenge would be suitable, and started telling them the story of when Henry smelled suspiciously of smoke.
His eyes snapped open when he figured it out and quickly interupted me. After this, we went home. Not home home, but home in London. Niall had kept his flat in London because he was here often enough to use it.
Niall took the twins and I to London every summer, but often enough we sent them for a week or so to go endevor in something with Harry. A thank you, if you will. Niall and I used that time to have hot, nasty sex, and do other couply things.
Anywho, I sent the twins off to their room, and I went to Niall's and I's. I popped the lap top open, and clicked on skype.
The clothes I was wearing were really uncomfortable and all I really wanted was to change into pajamas, but he'd open up skype and be really mean about it. In a Niall sort of mean, that is.
"Hey baby!" He shouted, in a hotel room obviously.
"Hey how are you?"
"I was on my way to lunch but then I figured your beautiful face was a tad bit more important."
"Thank you. I was going to change but then I figured you would've open skype at that point..."
"You really think I mind?"
"No."
"Well then go change into pajamas. Get comfy."
So I shut the camera so he couldn't see and put on a blue lace cami and white shorts with boats on them.
"Hey."
"Well you look pretty."
"Thank you. How's LA?"
"Fine, fine. Go to sleep love. You're yawning as I speak."
"Nuh, I'm fine."
"Lies. Talk to you later."
And he turned off skype. I scoffed, and shut my laptop, popped a melatonin, and drifted into a sleep. The bed felt empty, which is terribly cheesy, but when you're so used to having someone there, you can see my dilemma.
I woke up the next morning, put on some jeans with a major tear in the knee from gardening, and a white tee. Casual, very American. I couldn't tell you how American I felt now. I think I was more suited to be in America, it just worked more for me. London's nice, but the weather is always the same.
Chicago it snows by the buckets in the winter, and in the summer it was nice and sweltering. Spring and fall brought rain which felt like London, but there was more of a happiness to it. That said, London has a beautiful, tragic sort of gloom to it.
"Ok, Hen, Is."
I called them. They were sleeping like rocks. I went to their room, and sighed. They were dead to the world. I went and I sat on Henry. Henry was on the Varisty football (americano) team, which made his momma proud. He did indeed do soccer, but he's an American. Anywho, he was very strong which really helped.
I sat on his stomach, right where his lungs were. This should get him.
"Aughhh mommm stopp!" He said, rolling over, landing me on Isabelle. Isabelle managed not to get my broad shoulders, making her narrow. And thinner and taller than I ever was.
"MOM!"
She shrieked.
"God I'm not that fat am I?"
"Yup."
"I was setting myself up for that, wasn't I?"
"Yes mother."
"Oh. Well, eat quickly, we're popping by Uncle Harry's today."
They perked up at the mention of Harry, becaue Harry was the cool uncle. They figured Harry got all the girls when he was in the band and Niall got me, so Harry was cooler. And that Niall and I were there parents, they had less regard for us.
They still loved us, those ungrateful mother fuckers...
"Ok ok ok. Jeez."
"It's after noon."
"It's the after noon?"
"Yeah, I was just trying to say that if was after noon, as apposed to before it, but yeah."
So I rang Harry. He said that we should eat them tell them. Eat as in dinner, so we spent the day wandering about. The twins also loved the UK because they were famous here. It was funny really.
"Look there's a pap!"
"Let's put on a show, yeah?"
They gave a look that clearly said, you're bs me, so I just walked on by. We shopped a bit, got them snacks, shopped some more, saw a film, and ended up at Harry's flat late.
"Sorry, we were sidetracked," I said, kissing his cheek, which to this day made him blush.
I still loved him. There were moments, when he came there or I came here, that I was tempted, so, so incredibly tempted to throw everything away and just live with him here forever. Oh course, I never kissed him, I never hugged him longer than possibly appropriate. I made sure to never ever ever cross that boundry.
Because Harry would never let me return across it, he would wonder and pester and believe and I would have filled him with hope because no matter what I did, the idiot still loved me. I set him up, no matter how crazy it made me at first, but he rejected them all. I stepped my game up, he just kept going. I wasn't worried about setting him up anymore, because I knew he would say no. That made me a smug bitch.
He asked them about school, tried to have Henry explain football to him for the billionth time, never getting past the concept of downs.
"Wait, so if it's the first down, you keep it?"
"Yes."
"And if it hits the ground, it's a down."
"True."
"But if you land on the ground with the ball, no matter how many downs there are, the other team's quarter back takes it?"
Henry shook his head and continued to eat his broccoli.
"So errr, uh now I have something to announce."
Harry said, ever eloquent.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"No, like what is it?" Corrected Isabelle.
"Oh um well, Valerie you start."
"Ok. Sure. Uh well so you two... how am I supposed to say this?"
"Mom just spit it out. You're worrying me."
"Ok, wellso, Niall isn't your real dad. Like, he's adopted you lot, but he in no way shape or form done anything to your genetic codes."
They let that sink in for a moment. Isabelle started breathing heavily for a moment, and I knew she put it together.
"Wait. So our father is..." She said, looking back and forth between me and Harry.
"Yeah, me." Said Harry, who gained Henry's attention.
"So why are you married to Niall?"
"Well, that's a long story."
"Niall was more suited to be a father than I was, and, She loves him."
"Do you love him?"
"Yes."
"Do you love her?"
"Yes."
"I don't understand this,"
Isabelle said, head in hands.
"I don't either."
45. Me either
Start from the beginning
