LOTTIE's POV
Walking around my old school felt weird. I recognised everything yet it was all so different. Most of the teachers were the same and I took photos with them. A few of the students stopped Scar for photos too. We knew that would happen.
We went into the main auditorium to show Rose where the performances happen. Her mouth hung open as she looked around. "This is pretty impressive," Scarlett said from beside me. Colin was behind us interrogating the tour guide and principal about the school.
"Miss Kloss we have been meaning to show you this." They took me backstage to where all the plaques and achievements were hung. Some famous faces have visited the school. And there my picture was. I was mid-leap my legs in a perfect horizontal line my feet pointed. "Wow!" Scar said from beside me. "Wow indeed. You're our most successful ballet dancer who attended the school. Not to mention your musical theatre work too." I blushed looking at my feet feeling embarrassed. "I want to do that!" Rose pointed to the photo. "You'll learn. With lost of practice." The tour guide told her. "Lottie taught me to pirouette when she was doing the nutcracker!" She bragged and I chuckled.
We toured the rest of the extremely large school before going to the dorms. "This was mine and Flo's room," I say pushing the door open. Everyone was in class so they were empty. "We had fairy lights covering the ceiling and our desks were together and we had a big fluffy rug on the floor," I explained the difference. "And." I opened the closet and pulled Rose with me. "We added our names." I show her the wall where everyone who had stayed in this room had signed. Flo and I were 10th and 11th to sign. Florence Pugh and Charlotte Kloss I ran my hand over the writing remember the moment I wrote it. We were dating at the time and talking about leaving and we both got emotional because I knew we'd be living over an hour from each other. So we decided to add our names to the wall to be together forever.
"Would my room look like this?" Rose asked looking around. "All the rooms are the same you can add things to make it your own," I told her looking around my old room. Scar let Rose explore. She went into the bathroom. "We get our own bathrooms too. I love this place." She cheered. I laughed at her response.
Colin was still asking questions. And Rose was dancing around the room. "I want to stay here forever," Rose said beaming at Scarlett. "We'll daddy and I need to talk it over first. And you're going to try it out. Because mummy and daddy won't be in the city. You'll be here by yourself." Scarlett explains to her. "No, I won't. I'll have friends." Rose said skipping out of the room.
"She's growing up too fast" Scar complained.
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Once the tour was over we went back to the hotel. We had been issued her uniform that she'd have to were for the few days she's there. "I can't believe you and Florence wore this." Scarlett laughed holding up the blazer. "We wore it in a fashion," I tell her. "We'd roll the sleeves up, we'd wear these like black dresses that were a tube skirt but a dress. I don't know how to describe it but we wore it over our blue shirt and then the tie would be worn depending on which teachers we had." "You wore a uniform." She laughed. "The whole of England wears uniform you loser." We got Rose to try it on. Scarlett made me wear her hat. The school was a posh boarding school and we wore a straw bowl hat with a blue sash around the head part and it was tied in a bow at the back the ribbon would drape in your hair. It was cute when you were young but when we got older we only put them on for school photos. So I was wearing Roses whilst I tied her tie. Scarlett tried to but she just knotted it.
"She looks adorable." I gushed putting the hat on her head now, her little pigtails on either side of her. "I love it." Scar snapped photos and her daughter posed until she got bored.
She got changed and we went out for an early dinner so Rose could rest before going back to the school for a few days. Colin wasn't around and I was glad.
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"Goodnight, Lottie." She hugged me tightly wrapping her legs around me so when I stood up I was carrying her. Goodnight. Sweet dreams." I tell her to let go but she hung on. "Thank you for bringing me to the school. I love it!" She kissed my cheek. "We'll you better thank mummy and daddy then," I tell her putting her on the ground at the sound of the door opening.
I looked and it was Colin. "Come on let's go inside." Scarlett ushered her inside closing the door. I heard the lock and I went to go to my room but his hand caught my arm. "Get off of me!" I say pulling my arm free. "Stay away from my wife and child." "She's not your wife. You can't control her." "I thought I taught you last night how to shut that pretty little mouth of yours." "Guess I'm a slow learner." I open my door and entered, he followed before I could close it.
"Get out." "You'll stay away from them." "No. No, I won't." "Then I'll have to teach you another lesson." "I'm not leaving her so you can hurt her. So I guess you will." I say. I can't believe this was her life for however long she was with him. This is what he did. Bossed her around threatening her. Hurting her. She didn't deserve this. So yeah I would take another black eye to protect my friend. Her little girl is in there she didn't need to witness this. "If she wasn't next door I'd kill you." I swallowed the lump in my throat. He left and banged in Scarlett's door. I stood in the entrance of mine watching him. "Rose you're staying with me tonight." He demanded. "No, she's not." He stepped forward so I came out. Rose ran past her dad and to me holding my legs. "Don't let him hurt my mummy again." She said a flood of tears ran down her cheeks.
"Can't you see what you're doing to her?" I asked him, picking Rose up she hid away in my neck. "You're scaring her," I tell him holding my arm out stopping him from coming close to me. "Give her to me." "Please," Scarlett said shaking her head. "I'm not going to do that," I tell him, Rose clung to me tighter. "Just go, let this cooldown and you can see her in the morning." I pleaded with him, begging him with my eyes not to scare her anymore. "Rose baby." She sobbed. "It's okay," I whispered to her. "I've got you."
"Please don't hurt her any more than you have," I tell him. He backed up Scarlett flinched as he walked past. I was frozen on the spot waiting for him to close his door. When he did I went into Scarlett's room with a crying Rose. Scarlett took her immediately and told her some lie, daddy would never hurt me. He just got angry and shouted. It's okay don't be scared. It made me sick, she was lying for the monster.
"Are you okay?" I asked her. She nodded. "I'm going to go to my room." "Okay."
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"Hello?" I answered my phone. "She won't stop asking for you. Can you come over?" "Yeah. Give me a second." "Thank you. Rose, she's coming please stop crying." She begged as she hung up. I quickly put a layer of make-up on hiding the bruising on my eye and went over to her room. I waited for her to open the door and then she locked it back the second I was inside.
"Lottie." She ran to me. I picked her up and held her tightly. "What's wrong bubs?" I asked her sitting down on the bed with her in my lap. "I wanted you... You make mummy not sad." "Well I'm here now, so we've got to get in bed because you're going to have such a fun day tomorrow," I tell her getting her excited and distracting her. That's what Eddie did to me whenever something went wrong at home. "Go on." I pulled the sheets back and she crawled up. "Will you stay?" "For a while." "No, all night." She said dragging out the all making sure I understood. "You better be here in the morning." She warned me and I laughed at her silliness. "Go on close your eyes."
"Sing me my song. Sing me my song." I looked at Scarlett. "Baby mine don't you cry." She began. "Baby mine dry your eyes." She continued. "Both of you." She asked. "Rest your head close to my heart, never to part baby of mine." I sang with Scarlett. Rose closed her eyes and I wrapped an arm around Scarlett pulling her to sit with me so I can hold her. We sang the rest of the song and Rose was snoring.
Scarlett stood up and went into the bathroom. I followed her closing the door. "Come here. It's okay." I tell her holding her in an embrace stroking her hair. "I didn't know she saw anything." "It's okay. You can talk with her in the morning. It'll sort itself out." I tried. "He hurt you." "I'm fine." She touched my face where the bruise was, she was being so gentle it didn't hurt a bit. "I'm so sorry." "All I care about is she's safe. And you're safe." "Why are you so good to us?" "Because I care about you." "You didn't even know us a few months ago. And I got you hit twice. And threatened and-"I care about you because I do. And your safety is more important to me than anything. I want you to feel safe." I tell her looking into her eyes so she believed me.
"I feel safe with you." "Then I'm here. Always." "I know. You've always been there. Gosh, you were grieving and dealing with my shit." "You helped me through that." She frowned. "Letting me talk, making me laugh staying with me most nights." "You stayed with me." "Then I guess we're just excellent multitaskers. But you helped me a lot." It's true I probably would have turned to drink a whole lot if I didn't have Scarlett making me laugh throughout the day. "Lizzie did that." "Lizzie didn't even know," I told her honestly. "I didn't tell her." "Why?" "Because I've never been one for feelings." With Scar I felt safe to talk like I wasn't being judged by her and I was so happy to have that person. Of course, I had Flo but she was grieving my brother too. So it was hard to talk about it with her.
"Stay?" I nodded. "Anything you need." She held me tight again crying. "I've got you," I tell her rubbing circles on her back. "You should get some rest," I tell her wiping her face dry with my sleeve. "We'll be away from him tomorrow. We can leave for the farm straight away." "Yeah?" "Yeah, Grandpa would love to see us bright and early." "Thank you." I pecked her cheek and lead her to the bedroom. She laid in the middle of the bed and I got on the end. We didn't cuddle but she held my hand and I didn't mind if it helped her sleep I didn't care what she did.
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Morning rolled around and Rose woke us both up. "Five more minutes," Scarlett mumbled rolling over to face me. "Mummy, you say that every morning," Rose said jumping off the bed. "I'm going to school, I'm going to school." She sang skipping around the room in circles.
"Can I get dressed?" I nodded. "What do you want for breakfast?" "Scones and jam!" She shouted. "Okay. Fruit too?" She pulled a face. I pulled one back with a head tilt. "Cereal?" She countered. "Fine." I agreed. "Scar?" I asked her. "Whatever you're having." "A kale smoothie," I say back. "I'll have eggs and some toast." "Okay." I chuckled at her change in answer.
I ordered our food. I got a bowl of fruit instead of the gross green smoothie. And I did Rose's hair for her before she changed into her uniform. Breakfast came and Scarlett was still sleeping. "Mummys on the box!" Rose said excitedly. "That means you got to eat them all up," I tell her pouring her a bowl. She was smiling at the box admiring her mum coping with the pose she was doing. I found it really cute.
She ate her cereal whilst I sorted her scone out and then took Scar's eggs and toast to her on the bed where she was just now sitting up. "Morning." I smile at her. "Morning." She cupped my cheek before taking the food. "Thanks." I smiled at her in response then took my seat with Rose at the table. "Muma you're on the box." Rose pointed out. "Oh wow!" "I ate it all up." She said proudly and I smiled.
Being around Rose made me want children more but the overwhelming fear of being like my mother kept wiping it from my mind. I couldn't bring a child into this world if I would hurt them in the same way my mum did to me. Not a chance. I'll just be the cool aunt to Flo and Tom's kids... Maybe Scarlett's if she has anymore. Rose and I will always just be besties and I'm okay with that.
Once breakfast was done I went to my room to get ready for the day and pack my bag. I checked the room over a few times making sure I got everything before I went back to Scarlett's room to help her pack. She was doing her make-up in the Mirror and Rose was colouring.
"Came to the rescue," I say pushing my case in the room. "You're a lifesaver." She says and I laughed going to the closet to pack.
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"Mummy will pick you up in 4 days okay." "Okay." Rose was not bothered. "See ya." She waved and ran inside. Colin tried to speak to Scarlett but she walked off to the car.
We had the car take us to the Farm. I watched Scarletts face as we got further out of the city. She was amazed by the scenery, for me it was my normal. "Wow, it's amazing out here." "Wait until you see the farmhouse. You'll love it. It was built in 1947 I think and it's just, too die for." "I can't wait." She held my hand again, I didn't react to it just continued to text Tom.
Florence was ignoring my messages and I wanted to know if she was okay.