By the time that the following Friday comes around, I've almost forgotten about William Shelley. Almost. Although my brain has forgotten the details of his facial features, I can still remember the sickly feeling that he gave me as he stood in the darkness and watched Lorrie and I inside of the Chevy. My subconscious remembers the way that his threatening eyes bore into the blacked out windows, almost as if he was scrutinizing every part of me...
Earlier this morning, Mom and Maddie came with me to the pulmonology clinic to get my lungs checked and to top-up my three types of medication before the flight this evening. So far, everything seems to be fine. Good old Dr Lea said that there was no need to take any action because the treatment is working. Walking out of the clinic, I couldn't help but beam up at the sky and silently thank whoever or whatever is up there for this second chance at life.
Now, nine hours later, I'm stood waiting with Maddie, Teddy and May, for Lorrie to arrive at the airport. He was called out last minute apparently to deal with some 'family business', which means that he couldn't ride with us on the way here. Which leaves us here, awkwardly standing on the sidewalk, fighting off the late-night humidity.
"What does his family business entail?" Maddie randomly asks, making Teddy and me freeze. We awkwardly look at each other, silently trying to think of some kind of diversion.
"Lorrie's Dad is a mechanic." Teddy says quickly. "They own a garage down on Rose Street."
"What kind of urgent business would he need to attend to at a garage?" Maddie questions, furrowing her brows.
"I don't know, he likes to help out the family as much as he can. Family is very important to him." Teddy replies, obviously being careful with his words.
May automatically looks uncomfortable at the mention of Rose Street, making all four of us slip into an awkward silence. Great start to the trip, I can't help but think.
"Hey! I'm here, sorry for the late arrival." We all turn around to see a very flustered looking Lorrie. His normally cute-messy hair is genuinely messy, as if he's run from the other side of Phoenix to get here. I also notice that he's still wearing a pair of black cargo trousers, the type that he uses for training, and his white thermal long-sleeve that hugs all of his muscles. He's obviously just come here straight from whatever 'business' that he's had to attend to. Given that Lorrie is the most composed person that I know, seeing this side to him, the disordered side to him, makes me laugh slightly. I'm about to make a sarcastic comment about being tardy when I notice a familiar face standing behind Lorrie, awkwardly smiling at me.
"Esidore?" I ask, all sarcasm dissipating from my system.
He looks sort of sheepish at the situation, as though he feels that he is intruding. Well, he kind of is, I guess. But why? He's also dressed in his gear, wearing a pair of black cargo trousers and a large grey hoodie. He's also carrying a large duffel bag that looks packed to the brim. Wait a minute...
"Surprise!" he laughs light-heartedly, dropping his large duffel bag on Lorrie so that he can come and give me a hug. "I'm joining the couple's retreat!"
As he wraps his huge, burly arms around me, almost squeezing the life right out of me, I give Lorrie a questioning look. He returns it with a we need to talk look.
......
"So, are we going to talk about this?" I ask Lorrie and Esidore, who are sat on either side of me in our very tightly constructed plane seats. I have both Lorrie's and Esidore's biceps pressed against me, making me feel very claustrophobic. And very hot.
We are now an hour into the flight and Teddy, Maddie and May have all dozed off on top of each other, across the aisle from us. We are free to talk openly, after waiting for what feels like ages.
Lorrie meaningfully glances at Esidore who seems to take a silent command. Not a second later, Esidore double checks that nobody around us is listening, by stretching his neck and glancing around the cabin. After a few seconds, he gives us a small nod, giving us the all clear.
"I'm sorry for throwing this on you suddenly Bumblebee but it's kind of been a last minute arrangement." Lorrie begins, biting his lip. I will myself to ignore his cuteness.
"It's okay, Essie and I are best friends aren't we?" I joke, trying to lighten the situation up by giving Esidore a nudge.
"Damn right." He replies, putting his huge arm around me and squeezing.
Lorrie raises an eyebrow at him and Esidore retracts his arm, letting out a long sigh.
"Jelly much?" he winks at Lorrie, who scoffs.
"Stop it you two. Lorrie, what's going on? As much as I love Essie, we're not exactly at the let's meet my Dad stage of our friendship."
"There's been an incident Gen. This afternoon, Teddy spotted a guy unnaturally lingering outside of your house. He was taking pictures. When Teddy rang me up, he described him to be just like our good old friend William Shelley-"
"What?" I screech, causing the two of them to frantically shush me. Calm down Gen, just breathe.
"Yes, I'm afraid that we were right. William is making an appearance and it seems that he has taken a noticeable interest in you Bumblebee." Lorrie whispers, glancing over Esidore to check that the others are still sleeping. "We think he knows that you've gone away for the weekend. We have no idea how long he was monitoring the house for but since Saturday, the boys have been doing routine checks of your house every few hours, he wasn't there at one and he wasn't there at four. Teddy called me at three."
"This is a lot." I say honestly, leaning back against my seat.
They've been monitoring my house all week? I haven't seen a single one of them? Wait, they're trained to monitor my house without me noticing. Bloody training! How many times has William been around to my house? Has anyone else been lurking? Why hasn't Teddy told me? What does he even want with me? Is he trying to get to Lorrie? Like taking Thea to hurt Enzo? Lorrie won't let him do that, he can't. So why is Esidore coming with us? For back-up? Am I now in danger? They can't watch me every second for the rest of my life. We can't live like this. Lorrie warned me about all of this. This is what he was trying to protect me from at the start of everything. I have to deal with all of this. Be confident Gen, be strong.
"I know that it's a lot. I'm sorry baby but you wanted me to be honest with you. You wanted to be part of my life. Now you are." Lorrie says whilst taking my hand in his and kissing it gently. Some of my fear dissolves with the feeling of his lips on my skin. Okay, I can do this. "Essie is coming with us because we need to be careful. We needed back-up for this trip, just in case William does know that you're going to see your Dad."
I turn to look at Essie, who is smiling apologetically down at me.
"If it's any consolation, I'm very good with parents. They find me funny." He says, giving me a gentle nudge. That makes me chuckle, despite the situation. Man, you've got to love Essie.
"That is so very consoling." I reply, lightly smiling back up at him. "What about my Mom and grandparents? Are they in any danger?" I ask Lorrie, who is still holding my hand.
"I've got Caesar and Lucan staying with Teddy's parents, keeping an eye on the place. His parents were once originals, they know the drill and were happy to help." Lorrie replies. "They'll be perfectly fine."
With that, I lean back into my seat again and sigh, trying to breathe out all of my anxiety. It doesn't exactly work. At least my family are safe. After a few moments, Lorrie leans forwards and digs around in the bag that he got from duty free, as if he suddenly got an idea. Curiously, I glance over at him. Leaning back and wrapping an arm around my shoulders, he hands me a pink bag of chips. My heart jumps inside of my chest, scaring away some of the unpleasantness that was lurking inside.
Prawn crackers.
I feel Esidore chuckle from beside me but I don't care. I'm too busy staring at Lorrie like I've just unwrapped him on Christmas morning. This boy has my heart wrapped up around his little finger. His eyes are full of tenderness and affection, willing me to be happy. Leaning into his side, and resting my head against his chest, I pop open the bag and place it between the three of us. I'm safe with Lorrie, he's in control. He won't let anything bad happen. Silently, I thank them both for caring so much about me and my family. I thank Lorrie for putting me first.
I thank myself for seeing the beautiful moments amongst the scary ones.
......
Dad meets us all at the JF Kennedy airport with a mixture of surprise and amusement.
"Woah. I didn't realise how many children I have. They seem to be multiplying by the year." Dad jokes as he approaches us, earning a pretty laugh from Maddie.
For a moment, it's almost as if someone has wired him up to the mains electricity, he can't even contain his surprise at hearing Maddie laugh. I have to remind myself how long it has been since we last saw him, so much has happened since then. At the sight of his familiar blue overalls, I tear myself away from Lorrie's side, letting go of his hand, and run to Dad with excitement. He catches me, like he always does, and squashes me against him in a hug.
"Hello Genie, look at you." He holds me back in his arms so that he can get a proper look at me, scanning over my face and body with his warm eyes. "Look at you all smiley and tanned. You look like you've just walked off of the scenes of Baywatch. Well actually," He looks at the group surrounding us, "all of you do."
This time it's Maddie's turn to embrace him in a hug, one filled with pure emotion.
"Hello Mads, you certainly look..." he kisses the top of her head before pulling back a little. "Happier." He finishes, sounding almost relieved. "Okay, are you guys going to introduce me to your little party over here?"
"I'll go first, my invite list is significantly shorter." Maddie says, still buzzing with energy. She takes Teddy's hand in hers, bringing him forwards to meet our very curious Dad. "This is Teddy. He lives down the road from us. We're kind of dating." She says the last part a little nervously. I think that it's the first time she's admitted it to anybody.
"Ah Teddy, Maddie's Mom has been telling me about all of the pretty flowers that you keep bringing them, it's nice to meet you. I'm glad to see that my little girl is a lot happier. Thank you for taking care of her." Dad says, leaning forwards and shaking Teddy's hand. Poor Teddy looks almost nervous as he expresses his thanks back to Dad, which is weird given that Teddy is normally so full of energy and life.
Dad then glances at me, waiting. Oh.
"Dad, this is May." She giddily steps forwards, going to shake his hand. "She's my best friend at school."
"Hello Mr Fletcher, it's lovely to meet you, Gen has been telling me many wonderful things about you." She says, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Dad smiles warmly in return.
"It's nice to meet you too sweetie, I hope you're going to like New York."
May smiles in return, stepping back so that I can introduce my other two boys. Let's start with Lorrie, then it will be easier to explain Esidore.
"This, Dad, is Lorrie." I say, turning around to look at Lorrie. He's already next to me, putting one hand on my lower back to show that he's got this. "He's my boyfriend." Kind of.
"Hello Sir, it's nice to finally meet you."
Without hesitation, Lorrie steps closer to my Dad and gives him a firm handshake. Dad looks slightly impressed by his confidence, nodding in approval.
"It's nice to meet you too Son. I've heard a lot about you from my phone calls with Gen. You're into bikes aren't you?" Dad grins, causing Lorrie to grin back. Oh boy, here we go.
"Yes Sir, I've got a Harley Night Train back at home. My Papa is also a mechanic, he fixed her up for me before my sixteenth."
"A Night Train? Impressive. They're European models, how did you manage to get your hands on one?"
"My Papa has a lot of friends in different places." Pfft, not wrong there. "A friend from England sold it to us." Lorrie replies.
Before the bromance can continue any further, I step forwards and take Lorrie's warm hand.
"I don't know about you guys, but I would actually like to see a little bit of New York." I say, pulling Lorrie back slightly so that Esidore can get in. "And this Dad, is Esidore. He's Lorrie and I's friend from Arizona. Essie and Lorrie grew up together."
"Well, it's good to meet you Essie. More the merrier, I say, and this is definitely going to be merry." Dad says, accepting Esidore's large hand. I think that only I notice the brief wave of intimidation that washes over Dad as he sizes Essie up.
"Nice to meet you Sir. I'm looking forwards to the merriness, I personally think that merry should be my second name."
The five of us scoff, making Essie grin amusedly. Dad chuckles before shaking his head at the whole situation. The poor guy just wanted to see his daughters, now he has a 'couple's retreat' sitting at his doorstep. This is definitely going to be... well, merry.