Chapter Thirty-Three
You might remember a few weeks ago we were at a funeral and if you don't let me catch you up to speed. Our dearest and oldest friend Dylan was murdered, we were distraught when we heard the news and even more distraught when the funeral came around. It was honestly the saddest I'd ever felt in my life seeing the coffin and knowning that he was nothing but a memory now but... OH BUT! That was a lie, it was all just one big fucking lie because in reality Dylan wasn't dead infact he was standing in my living room looking very alive.
I opened my eyes and saw him standing in front of the window looking concerned and honestly a lot of different emotions. I had to blink a good three or four times to make sure I was actually awake.
"Huh? Wha... what happened, why are you—Dylan?" There was a million questions running through my mind, why aren't you dead? Why are you here? Are you dead and I've just lost my mind?
Ronnie and Layla were sat on the couch both of them with their heads in their hands and both of them crying. Harry and Cal were slowly helping me back up to my feet as I regained consciousness.
"I'm sorry Er-bear, I'm really fucking sorry." A single tear fell from Dylan's cheek as I looked him in the eye, I still didn't believe he was real and I couldn't because he was dead, he died. I slowly walked towards him leaving Harry and Cal behind me, I was silent as I walked over to the window. I stood directly infront of Dylan who was dead, he died and I lifted my hand up slowly and carefully.
It wasn't until my hand connected with his face that I truely believed he was real, that he wasn't dead and that's when the anger took over me. I slapped him so hard that the pain traveled straight up my arm and into my neck.
"Aye I deserved that." Was all he said.
"You're alive? How?" I struggled to find the words because I couldn't quite comprehend what was going on in front of me.
"He turned up at the door, I thought I was hallucinating so I called Layla and Freezy." Ronnie's voice cracked as he spoke and looked up at me. His eyes were red and there were tears streaming down his face, Layla was sitting beside him in the exact same state as he was while Harry and Cal stood side by side at the other end of the room in shock. They didn't know Dylan, they had only heard stories about him but they were still just as shook up as the rest of us were. What about Angie? Did she know her son had risen from the dead?
"I need to sit down." I took a deep breath and sat down beside Layla on the new couch, I hadn't even noticed that it had been delivered yet or that it had been put together and moved to exactly where I wanted it.
"Can I explain? Please Er, let me explain." Dylan made his way over to me and crouched down to my level, he held his hands and mine and squeezed them slightly. I said nothing, I looked at our hands that were intertwined and then looked at his face. Nodding my head slowly, Ronnie and Layla looked up at Dylan and waited for him to begin explaining himself.
"Right, here we go." He began saying as he stood up and walked back to where he once stood, he look several breaths before actually beginning to speak.
"They thought I was dead, fuck I thought I was dead. I was close but not close enough, in that moment I wanted to die actually it's all I thought about. They dragged me to the car, I don't remember much except from the blood but I remember a woman cleaning me up. She told me I'd been in and out for days and that they'd told everyone I was dead. They kept me in one of their stashes for two weeks and then they gave me a hundred grand to disappear." My eyes widened just as everyone elses in the room did, one fucking hundred thousand pounds and for what? To just disappear, something isn't adding up.
"Half of it's yours I hear though so here's your money Er-bear." He chucked me a duffel bag and when I opened it I was almost sick but Layla? Well she ran to the downstairs bathroom faster than I'd ever seen her run before. "We're just gonna go see if Layla's alright." Cal excused him and Harry as they both left the room and closed the door behind them.
"Why do I feel like you're missing something Dylan? As fucking if Gary Jackson is gonna hand over 100k for nothing." I shook my head not believing it for one fucking second. "Just take the fucking money Erin." Ronnie groaned lifting his his up and rolling his eyes.
"No fucking way, it's dirty money Ron! There is no way in hell I'm taking that, you can pay me back with your wages. I spent years, YEARS clearing my name and getting away from this shit!"
"The business was settled when I 'died', they didn't want any more blood on their hands so they let me go. Gary's already getting sent down, actually most of them are so they told me to get the fuck out of Glasgow and to never come back."
"Actually the business was settled when Ronnie gave them fifty grand, right Ron." He nodded in his head slowly in reply, probably too shocked to speak.
"I stayed in a hotel for a bit in New Castle before coming to London, it took me a while to find you but I met a girl in a coffee shop who knew you and she told me where I could find you."
"Who?" I asked, he shrugged his shoulders and continued looking out the window.
"Short girl, brown hair and kinda bitchy." Lets be the honest the description wasn't the best, I was completely clueless.
"She sent me to the flats you used to stay at but it was a guy who answered the door, Callum something and he gave me this address."
"I swear to god if you've bumped into Katie I'm gonna sent that bitch to the fucking grave!" Layla, Harry and Cal joined us back in the room just as Dylan finished talking.
"What's Katie got to do with this?" Harry asked cluelessly as he wrapped his arm around my waist and held me tightly.
"Who's Katie?" Dylan asked. "Harry's ex who's got it in for me." I sighed.
"I'm surprised she never told you about the baby." After the words left Layla's mouth she slapped her hand over her mouth to stop her from saying more, Dylan didn't know about the baby... well I guess now he did. Everyone's eyes were practically popping out of their heads, my heart felt as if it was in my throat.
"Baby? What baby?" The truth was finally about to come out but I wasn't ready, I'd never be ready for this because I knew that if Dylan ever found out that I'd aborted our child he'd hate me forever.
"Oh Layla's pregnant." I shrugged it off as Layla lifted her top up slightly to show off her small bump.
"God sake Erin, he was bound to find out one day." Ronnie spoke up sighing.
"Ronnie no, please not now." I begged my brother, I'd had enough drama to last a lifetime at this rate and this was all I fucking needed.
"Erin what baby!" Dylan began to raise his voice as he demanded the truth. Ronnie sighed again and that's when I knew that it was time, Dylan was going to find out the truth there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it— although part of me could tell that he'd already guessed.
"Erin fell pregnant when yous were together years ago and she got rid of it." Ronnie spoke, my heart had now fallen straight into my stomach. I said nothing, absolutely nothing because what was I supposed to say? Oh I'm sorry I got an abortion behind your back and kept it from you for all these years, please forgive me?
"I'm so sorry Erin." Layla apologised with her hand still covering her mouth, I shook my head not wanting to talk to her right now or anyone for that matter— I just wanted the ground to swallow me up at this rate. My eyes never left Dylan's, he looked so broken and disappointed in me and I completely understand why because I was disappointed in myself.
"We're gonna leave you two alone for a bit, come on guys." Harry announced walking over to me and wrapping his arms around me, he placed a kiss on my forehead and then headed out the living room with Cal, Layla and Ronnie following on behind.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Dylan's voice broke as he broke the silence a few minutes later.
"We were young Dylan, I was fifteen and there was absolutely no way I could've been someone's mum when I was just a kid myself."
"I would've been there Erin, I love you and I've always loved you. We would've managed." Again he held his hands in mine and squeezed them as he spoke.
"I wanted to keep it, I wanted to tell you but I couldn't. I didn't even know I was pregnant until my mum pointed out that the tampons hadn't been used yet, Layla got the test for me and it came back positive within seconds. My mum talked me into getting an abortion after a few weeks, here's the scan picture I got before... obviously." I opened up my purse and pulled out the tiny photograph that was hidden in the back slot, I glanced at it and immediately began sobbing as I handed the photo to Dylan.
"She would've been seven by now." I said as the tears streamed down my face.
"She?" I shrugged in response, "I don't know, I just always thought it would've been a girl. It was way too early to tell."
"Fuck!" I didn't know what to say or do, I apologised so many times as I held him in my arms while he sobbed. Each tear that fell from his face broke off a piece of my heart. We sat and cried in silence for a least twenty minutes before Layla and Ronnie came back into the room.
"The boys figured they should leave us alone, they've got to the shop to get you a bottle of wine." Layla announced walking back into the room with two bottles of beer, one for me and one for Dylan.
"I think I'm gonna need more than a bottle after the day I've had" I chuckled trying to make light of the situation.
THURSDAY
This week had been hectic but then again it always was. I'd started the week off by a painfully long day at work only to return home to find my dead best friend standing in my living room.
Dylan had begun living with us since he had no where to go, he'd temporarily moved into Ronnie's bedroom with him because the spare bedroom was still under construction. The original plan was for that room to be Harry's filming room and that was still the plan because Harry had also moved in with us. So here I was, the only girl in a house filled with three boys... what could go fucking wrong?
Dylan and I stayed up the whole of Monday night talking, by the whole night I genuinely mean the whole night. On Tuesday when I got into work I fell asleep on three separate occasions, one in a really important meeting which was brutally embarrassing but after explaining to Mitch the events that occurred the previous night he told me to go home and get some rest and that's exactly what I did. I slept from two in the afternoon until eleven o'clock at night and trust me I needed that sleep because I was fucking exhausted.
On Wednesday we went shopping again but this time for Dylan so we could get him a proper bed and new clothes and shoes since he didn't have much when he arrived.
After believing that someone was dead and then them randomly appearing at your front door in the middle of day, you'd expect things would be weird but they weren't— in fact it was the complete opposite. Things between Ronnie, Dylan and myself had gone back to the way it was before, Harry was definitely sick of us because the three of us were so loud all the time but it was hilarious.
Layla and Cal had been round every day and she'd gone back to the way she was before she discovered her pregnancy, well not the whole way because she obviously wasn't drinking, smoking and partying until all hours of the morning but she had gone back to the Layla we all knew and loved.
In other news the house had been fully decorated and furnished now... minus the spare room but that was Harry's job, there was absolutely no way I was even stepping foot in that room or else he'd probably bite my head off.
"Tobi's birthday's coming up next month, we're throwing a surprise party at Jj's since he's got the biggest place." Harry announced, oh great another party at Jj's.
"Let's just hope Freya doesn't break another window then." I chuckled flipping the page in the magazine as I adjusted the blanket. Harry and I were currently in bed, he was planning out a video whilst I was flipping through a magazine completely fucking bored out of my mind. It was late, not too late but still late for someone who had to be awake at five the next morning. I contemplated for at least five minutes on whether I should just go to sleep or not but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't fall asleep.
"I can't sleep, this is shit!" I groaned pushing the covers off me in a huff.
"I can think of something that might tire you out." Harry smirked closing the lid of the laptop and turning to face me, I knew exactly what he meant and the thought of it didn't make me tired one single bit.
"Oh fuck it!" I said pulling my top over my head and leaning towards him.