(Pic: Benjamin Matthews)
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The park in this neighbourhood wasn't the greatest place to be; there were a bunch of smokers that didn't give a shit about children being nearby, and it wasn't all that big either, but it was a memorable place because it was the heart of the area I grew up in.
I felt all the memories flooding my head, all of them coming to me at once like a beautiful mess. Some of them good, some of them bad.
I was dumped by my first here girlfriend here.
I attended an annual carnival here with my closest friends.
I picked up a stray dog here, which I actually had to hand over to the RSPCA because he lost an ear and it was all infected.
Such beautiful memories.
My newest memory now, is coming face to face after two years with the man I once loved more than I ever loved myself (which means I loved him a hell of a lot). He cleared his throat and muttered something about going to talk to his brother, but I tugged on the sleeve of his jacket to pull him back down just as he was about to get up.
His moves were slow and cautious as he studied me and crouched down on the floor. It wasn't like I had left school on the best terms with each other and he missed out on everything that happened to me in those two years I attended sixth form because we both moved to different places.
"Zach told me you were at university, are you home for the rest of the week or something?" He asked awkwardly. The only two people who knew about my thing were Zach and Kyle, and I was glad Zach hadn't told Ben. I guess you could they were pretty close now.
"I actually dropped out last Friday." I muttered sheepishly, the guilt creeping up on me again.
He was taken aback, "why?"
"It was shit."
"Dude you went to Cambridge." He gave a 'what-the-actual-fuck' look.
"No, Cambridge required three A star grades, so I didn't make it. It was one of my options though. I actually went to City instead." I corrected. "Why didn't you go to university?" Surely, he'd want be studying instead of visiting the park.
"Um, I want to, but I'm not sure at the same time, so I'm taking a gap year. I actually want to go into sports management though."
I was curious why he wanted to do a job like that when he was an absolute genius, he could become a lawyer with ease, or even a doctor. The guy was revising for his GCSE two years before he even had to. I guess that career is super high end though, so it could lead onto something amazing for him.
"That's cool." I muttered. He lay down on the glass and faced up to the sky and I stayed sitting cross legged next to him.
"Let's play football!" I clapped my hands together eagerly and stole the ball from him. He shot up, and cocked a brow.
I ran up to my sister and attacked her in a bear hug, "come on, it's Hoppers versus Matthews!" She jumped in glee and grabbed the tattered football and dropped it to the ground. Ben and his brother stood opposite is, looking a little menacing.
I stuck two fingers between my lips and blew a whistle, immediately getting immersed into the game and feeling super hyper like a child on sugar.
The game was a brilliant; playful yet not too competitive, well, until I had the ball and Ben was running up to me with monster sized steps. I did all kinds of tricks, stopping him from getting the ball, while he tackled me like his life depended on it.
I laughed like a little school girl as he chased me down the field and did everything in his willpower to stop me kicking the ball into his goalpost. I kicked the ball to my sister, who was screaming and shouting from behind Ben and trying to stop Harry getting in front of her.
Ben tackled me at that very moment, and almost got the ball had it not been that my leg got in the way while kicking and causing him to lose his balance. I gasped as he tried to keep upright, but he never did and ended up falling, pulling me down on the ground with him.
"Ugh." I grunted as my back hit the grass and Ben fell on top of me. Pain shot through me and so did all my breath, leaving me spluttering and struggling like an idiot while Ben sat me up carefully and continuously patted my back so I could regain my breath.
"Sorry." Ben said guiltily as soon as I caught my breath again.
"It's OK, it happens." I replied, waving it off. I knew he meant it sincerely, it was just in his tone. I was about to stand up but then all of Ben's weight fell on top of me again and I saw Harry's head peak by his shoulder.
"BUNDLE!" The two kids squealed.
"Oh my god!" I yelped as Ben's weight only got heavier on top of me when Casey jumped on top of Harry.
Ben grunted in my ear, the warm air tickling me and making some very wrong fantasies appear in my weird and wonderful mind. He wiggled about a little but it wasn't much use because my sister and his brother were slowing him down as they ruffled his hair and played with the hood of his jacket, causing it to fall in front of his eye and procrastinate him from standing up.
"This isn't fair! Ben's like four times my weight." I whined as I struggled to get out beneath him.
"Life's not fair." Casey teased. The mischievous young kids started screaming as Ben sat up and causing them to fall off his back. I couldn't not admire how he did it with so much ease and energy. I would've thought he'd be all puffed out from playing football.
He offered me a hand to help me stand up, and I gladly accepted, but I didn't realise Ben was up to his old tricks again and so he let go and let me fall in the grass again.
"Ow." I whimpered as my back hit the grass again. At least this time, I didn't fall very hard.
He laughed and then walked off towards my parents, or, parent and stepmum. I cursed under my breath and used most of the energy I had left to stand up and dust myself off.
"Lunch!" Dad called. We all went over there, except for Ben, who was already there.
I plopped down on the plaid blanket and stole half a sandwich off of Ben's paper plate. He glared at me but I just shrugged and bit into the ham and cheese goodness.
"You looked like you were having fun there." Karen commented.
"Everyone except for me. I think my back is broken." I muttered and then whimpered when Ben's arm kept coming closer to me. I thought he was going to hit my back for the shits and giggles, but instead he reached over me and grabbed the packet of brand new packet of Jammie Dodgers.
Ben took out three biscuits from the packet and put them in his plate, looking happy whilst doing so. Of course, I just had to steal two of them and put them both in my mouth as if I were a squirrel stuffing as many acorns in my mouth as possible. He gave me the most offended look he could muster and took out more biscuits in his plate.
I wasn't hungry all that much, so I didn't eat any more sandwiches after that.
Even though it was December, I enjoyed being in the middle of the freezing cold park and having a picnic. I was shivering and my teeth were chattering, but I was a bit funny like that, and did a lot things completely out of the blue.
"Mummy, can we all go back home after and have hot chocolate?" Casey giggled. Karen just nodded and continued on talking to whatever she was talking about with Dad. Casey chorused a cheer with Harry while I played with my fingers and thought over all those times when I was so madly infatuated with Ben and fantasised over him coming over to my house and doing stuff.
"Flynny, are you blushing?" Ben asked me teasingly, my eyes widening on their own accord from hearing the somewhat sexual way my name escapes off his lips. He didn't say it loud enough for everyone else to hear, which I was super thankful about. Nobody and I mean nobody knows about all those feeling I had towards him.
"Shut up. My cheeks are just red because it's cold." I slapped his arm but his super fast reflexes caught my wrist and the searing heat from his hand left me feeling all tingly.
Karen started packing away all the stuff and gathered up everything that needed to go in the bin as soon as we stood up and Ben started folding the blanket. A brilliant idea slipped into my mind and I jumped up with in excitement.
"Oh Dad you know there's that annual Christmas fair in the next town over? I was wondering if we could go there? It would be so fun! There's an ice skating rink and-"
"Flynn-"
"-Loads and loads of markets and- oh! There's an football game on next week, and that reminds of that time Mia, you know, my friend I'm university, we were playing a game and-"
"Flynn-"
"-Wyatt accidentally hit her in the face with a football! Can you believe it? It was so hilar-"
"Flynn! We can talk about all of that after that thing we're going to tomorrow." Dad cut me off. I sighed and muttered an agreement. I saw as literally everyone looked at me as if I had two heads, but I waved it off.
"Hey Harry, I'll race you home." I tested, getting down on the ground already in a starting position.
He grinned at me, "fine."
We started racing down the field and Karen was shouting at us, telling us we'd get a stitch because we had only just eaten, but I didn't care all that much and continued on running as fast as I could. Harry, for such a little tyke, was super fast and on my heels the entire time.
I was panting as we got to the front door and sat on the front step as we both waited for somebody with keys to open the door.
"You are a fast little kid, you know that right?" I told him, he just thanked me and sat beside me, smiling to himself. I was glad I liked making people smile, I should make it a daily task.
"Hey maybe I should." I voiced, earning a confused look from Harry. "I should!"
"Should what?"
"Never mind." I muttered to him, laughing at how stupid I was being right now by talking to myself like I'm crazy or something.
Harry just raised his brows and shook his head, and then he started beat boxing, probably out of boredom.
"I said a r-r-remix." I started. "Sittin' here with my boy, Harry, waiting for the fa-fa-family."
"Freezing our butts off, oh what a.. Jolly?" Harry added. I snorted.
"I barely know him, but I know he's pretty fast, like he has superhuman power to ru-"
"No." Harry said, "you killed it."
I started laughing like I was high or something, and soon he joined in too. My stomach was already hurting from running after eating, but now it was hurting from laughing too hard. I think he felt the same way as he whimpered slightly in between laughs.
It took a while before Dad was stood in front of us glaring down at his idiot son, "Flynn, Jesus Christ."
I collected myself and stood up, helping Harry stand up too. We both had our lips pursed together trying to stifle out laughs, but one glance at each other was all it took for us to burst out laughing and crying at the same time.
"Dad, I think they're going to die of laughter." Casey stated, prodding me with her finger while I wiped a tear from my eye.
"All right, Flynn..." Dad pulled me into the house once he unlocked the door and pulled me into the kitchen while Ben tried to calm his brother down. "Take a deep breath."
I listened, and stopped laughing fairly quickly just because Harry was there with that laughing face of his to make me laugh even harder.
Karen bought me a glass of water and I gulped it all down at once before wiping my mouth with my hand and placing the glass on the counter.
I went back into the living room, where Ben was lazily sat on the sofa, his shoes were off, his jacket was hung and his feet were across the sofa.
"You've made yourself pretty dang comfortable." I muttered, moving his feet off the sofa so there's room for me to sit.
"Casey! You know the rules! No boys upstairs!" Karen yelled from the foot of the staircase. I snorted.
"Mum!" She whined as she stepped down the stairs with Harry on her tail. "We weren't doing anything."
"Rules are rules." She explained and went into the kitchen with dad following her.
"I'm sure you weren't." I said to Casey as soon as she walked in the room. She blushed, but held her guard nonetheless.
"We weren't!" She said in unison with Harry and stomped her feet.
I smirked, "alright, I believe you. You already told me over the phone about your crush on Jamie..."
"You weren't meant to tell anyone that!" She ran over to me, pouncing on top of me and causing me to fall on Ben, who was chilling on his back beforehand.
I was literally being sandwiched by his huge torso and Casey's tiny frame.
"Pleh!" Ben spat, "you're hair went in my mouth!"
"Shut up Ben!" I cried as I fought Casey who was continuously yelling at me. I don't think she was butthurt about it, I reckon she was just a little embarrassed.
"I can taste hairspray!" He whined as he struggled to push me off.
"Casey!" I yelled as I grabbed her wrists and sat up with as much strength as I could muster.
"Jamie? You mean Jamie Laws?" Harry asked Casey incredulously.
"Yes..." She muttered shyly.
"He's a total weirdo, he's in my maths class... And I don't think he's into older girls."
"Lies." Casey crossed her arm, glaring at the boy.
"OKAY." I clapped my hands together, stopping things before they got out of hand, "Karen is making hot chocolate for us so let's all settle on a movie to watch."
I glance to Ben, who looked as if he was trying get hair out his mouth. "I think we're just going to head off after having hot choc-"
"No, no, no! Stay as long as you like." Karen said as she brought a tray of hot chocolate in the room.
Ben went to reach for my mug which was Adventure Time themed, but I slapped his hand away and grabbed the mug. "My mug."
I took a sip and put the mug back down before jogging over to the drawer that we kept all of our films in.
"So there is: The Poltergeist, The Purge, Insidious, Drag Me To Hell- oh I remember watching The Conjuring with Kyle! He got SO scared, he was hiding behind a pillow the entire time and shaking on the sofa!" The memory wasn't too long ago, it was just hilarious the way he tried to be act all big and strong beforehand.
"How about a film suitable for eleven year olds." Ben said.
"Oh...." Harry frowned, "Ben don't be a killjoy, just because you don't like scary films..."
"Harry!" Ben yelled.
I snickered, "wow. I actually found a weakness."
Ben just cursed under his breath. "Let's watch... Mulan." I said as I took out the DVD.
Harry scoffed, Ben shrugged and Casey smiled in glee. "Mulan, Mulan, Mulan!" She chanted.
"Mulan is so wonderful! It's all about freedom and being true to yourself and so-"
"Wha-" Harry started, but I cut him off, barely taking any notice of him.
"-She followed her heart and oh! It's just one of my all time favourites! It's sounds a lot like me! I used to never be true to myself and-"
"Slow down!" Casey gushed out.
"-I used to be super obnoxious and I was always trying to be cool and-"
"Flynn! Slow down!" Ben yelled, coming to my side and holding my arms down. Not in a way I hoped, but I'm guessing he was doing it in case I accidentally whacked him in the face from all of the exaggerated arm movements.
"What happened?" Dad walked into the room, panicked.
"I.. Flynn was just..." Ben started but didn't finish the sentence.
Casey looked a little scared, her entire body was hunched over. She ran over to dad and whispered in her ear.
"What? What are you whispering about?" I growled, throwing the DVD on the floor.
"Flynn, we are leaving. Now." Dad said, grabbing his coat off the coat hook.
"Wha-"
"Shoes on. Now." He demanded as he slipped his own shoes on. "Ben... And kids, you can stay here if you like, we'll be back shortly-"
"No!" I said, balling my fists up.
"Flynn, don't you dare say no, we're leaving. Now." Dad grit his teeth, his face getting a little red. "You will come over here, and you will put your shoes on, and you-"
Casey screamed, and then started crying. Ben hopelessly comforted her while I argued with dad.
Finally deciding it was no use arguing, I ran upstairs, fuming, and slammed my door behind me.
Who the hell did he think he was ordering me around? I'm nearly nineteen, I can make my own decisions.