Outside

43

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2 YEARS LATER...

Upon my umbrella came the sound of harsh pellets of rain, whilst tinier droplets fell from the edges and soaked the leather of my bag, which I had hung on my shoulder.

My heels clacked against the hard concrete and little speckles of water flicked from them with every step I took toward my house, I wasn't even half way yet and I was already drenched from my umbrella being a shitty cheap one from a corner shop and my coat not even being waterproof.

I could tell it wasn't going to get any better so I just packed away my umbrella and carried on walking, looking forward to being able to have a warm bath as soon as I made it home.

The streets were busier than usual lately due to it being exactly two weeks until Christmas, which meant I only had to go into work for another week and then I had a little bit of freedom for a few.

It wasn't that I hated work, it was actually really fun working with children... it just wasn't exactly what I imagined when I was looking for jobs to do with writing. My first choice was obviously journalism, which I actually do from home since the publisher is back in London, but I got a bit bored after a while and decided to do something else... and I came across an advert for teaching at a high school in Wales. I'd been to Wales many times before, so I knew how to get there and everything else, so I applied and took an interview.

I managed to save up enough to rent a little house in Wales, quit my job at the restaurant, promised I'd stay in touch with Lois and Vera, who actually became one of my closest friends in a short amount of time, said goodbye to my parents and Domino... and then I moved to Wales not long after getting the job, I didn't want to have to travel four hours every morning just to teach a load of kids about poems and how to write a coherent sentence.

After finally arriving home, I placed my heels neatly on the rack and hooked my coat up beside the rest. I dumped my broken umbrella in the bin on my way through the kitchen and grabbed a cup of tea, sitting on the stool tucked under the island and stirring in the milk.

"Lyla? Is that you? I did know you were home... it's so early" Rory came into the kitchen, placing a kiss on the top of my head as he passed me.

"It's a friday, I'm always home early on fridays" I laughed, sipping my tea and cupping it with my hands to warm myself up.

"Oh yeah... look at you, you're absolutely soaked my love" he smiled, sitting beside my once he poured himself a glass of water.

"The weathers terrible, I'm glad I only have a week left" I sighed, knowing that I was probably going to be sick within the next week if the weather stayed like this, especially now that my umbrella was broken and I didn't even own a coat that had any sort of hood or ones that were water proof.

"I'm glad too" Rory smiled and grabbed my face, pulling me towards him so that he could place a kiss on my lips.

"I'm gonna go have a bath... I won't be long" I said, sliding off the stool, "oh, and what's for dinner?"

"We can order in a takeaway" he replied and followed me upstairs, going into his office to finish off some work whilst I went into the bedroom to collect some fresh clothes.

I stepped into the water and cringed at how hot it was on my toes, but I soon got used to it when I sat myself down and rested my back against the cold bath. I never usually had baths, mum and dad always told me they were filthy and that it was like 'laying in your own dirt' so we never had a bath in our bathroom, but having a nice, warm bubble bath was the best part of my day, it was all I looked forward to on the way home from work.

The only thing that bothered me was the fact that I was just alone with my thoughts, I never thought of myself as someone who's life was full of problems, I knew people had it worse than me so I never dwelled on anything, but it was hard not to think about everything when I was alone, it wasn't like I had anything to distract myself whilst I was laying in a bath.

The past two year had been full of nights like this, alone with my thoughts... and they weren't very good thoughts. It was terrible the first year after what went down with everyone back home, I was constantly trying my best to not break down, trying my best to stay mentally stable, not only for myself but for the people around me, when I got the job in Wales I was still in a dark place, my mind was everywhere and every time the room was silent I couldn't help but think of everyone.

I always found myself wondering what they were all doing, I was out of the picture completely and I had no idea what was going on, which was probably for the best, because if I knew everything, it would've been so hard for me to move on, but luckily it wasn't really hard and I found Rory in a little café down the road from where we lived now... he was working there at the time and we talked for hours about the most random topics we could think of and not long after, he asked me to be his girlfriend.

I was never one to date someone only weeks after knowing them, I hated rushing into things because I learned from experience that they never ended well, but Rory and I had almost been together for a year and a half so I figured that I was wrong.

I heard the doorbell ring just as I was washing my hair and I knew that Rory most likely wouldn't have heard it since he always had his earphones in whilst he worked so I quickly rinsed off my hair, stepped out of the bath and wrapped a towel around my head and another one around my body. After unplugging the bath, I rushed down the stairs and to the front door, unlocking it and seeing the face of someone I definitely wasn't expecting to open the door to, someone I hadn't seen in a long time.