***
I ran the thirty minute walk to his house, taking short cuts through different fields. I knew he got home around 3:15pm, and I wanted to be there before he did.
I got there with five minutes to spare and almost collapsed on the steps outside his house. I saw Kelly hesitate at one of the windows and decide to just leave me be.
I looked like a drowned rat, but I didn't care. I sat staring at the road searching for a glimpse of his car. When it appeared a little after 3:20pm, I stood up and waited for him to get out of the car.
At first he just sat staring at me through the windshield watching me nervously play with my hands.
Slowly he opened his car door and climbed out, closing the door, without looking at me. When he turned to face me, my stomach twisted into knots, as I looked at the sadness in his face. That's all I needed to make me rush over to him and throw my arms around him.
Cupping my hand around the back of his head, I pulled his head down to kiss his cheek. He didn't respond he just stood there looking down at the ground. I pulled his face to mine and looked up to his sad eyes. I wasn't sure if he was crying or it was the rain on his cheeks. We stood there, foreheads pressed together.
“Hey.” I whispered as he finally relented and looked me in the eyes. “I love you.” I stretched up to kiss him. The pain on his face was obvious and it showed when he kissed me back.
“I love you so much.” He almost cried out.
By now we were both soaking wet and neither of us seemed to care.
“I'm so sorry.” We both said at the same time, as he reached up to stroke my left cheek. I leaned into his hand, I had so missed him doing this.
“You've nothing to be sorry for.” He started to say, as I moved my fingers to his lips and shushed him. When he tried to speak again, I reached up to kiss him, this time he kissed me back more urgently.
Eventually he pulled away and took a step back to examine me, with his hands holding my shoulders. By now the rain had stopped.
“Come on, let's get you inside.” He pulled me to his side and we walked up the steps and into his house.
“Kelly?” Sean called as she appeared from the kitchen, glowering at me. “Can Erin borrow some of your clothes, whilst her clothes dry please?” She grunted and headed upstairs, where we followed her.
“I'll be in my room.” He pointed to a door I assumed was his. “Just come through when you're finished.”
I followed Kelly into her room and stood looking around at all the different purples and blues, she had in her room. I hadn't realised there were so many different shades.
Kelly shoved a pair of jeans and t-shirt in my hands, with force. I flinched and said nothing. I was sure she was going to give me a piece of her mind, and I wanted her to.
She disappeared for a minute and when she returned she launched a towel at me.
“Thanks.” I smiled at her timidly.
“Look, don't thank me.” She stepped closer to point a finger in my face. “You're lucky I don't beat the hell out of you.” I laughed nervously, which seemed to irate her more. “This isn't a laughing matter.” She hissed like she was a kettle. I expected steam to come out of her ears. I noticed her alarm clock switch off. “He's my brother and you have no idea how much he loves you and how much he's been hurting over you.” She stepped away and went to punch the door, but stopped, thinking better of it. With her hand on the door, she turned to look at me. “But if you ever hurt him like that again, so help me, I'll...”
“Kelly!” I heard Sean shout from the other room, stopping her finishing off what she was saying. She grunted and looked at me, slightly calmer.
“I'm warning you, okay?”
I nodded as I heard Sean shout at his sister again. When she left I heard them arguing on the landing. I couldn't quite make out what was being said though. I didn't feel scared or angry. I deserved everything she dished out.
I started undressing and wrapped myself in the towel. Jesus, they're soaking. I could have probably wrung them out and filled a half-pint glass with water.
Once I got dressed and towel dried my hair, I picked up my clothes and towel and carried them to the room Sean had pointed to. I knocked before opening the door. Sean was putting a CD in his stereo and smiled as he saw me walking in.
“I hope you don't mind James Morrison?”
“No that's fine.” I answered as he took the wet clothes and towel from me to hang on his radiator, as the song ‘'Under the influence'’ started playing.
Sitting on his bed, I looked around his room. His room was blue and white, posters of his favourite football team hung on the walls. On one wall there were four shelves, three with CD's and one with books. On another wall there were at least ten shelves full of trophies, football, rugby, swimming, tennis and athletics. I even spotted some martial arts ones.
“Impressive.” I pointed to them
“Yeah, not bad.” He laughed as he climbed onto the bed behind me and lay down as I continued to sit there, looking around his room.
“You have a tidy up whilst I was getting changed?” I teased as I spotted a pile of clothes thrown into the corner.
“You caught me.” He laughed as he raised his arms up, then reached over and pulled me down next to him.
I lay on my back, whilst he lay on his side, propped up on one arm, running his fingers over my body, sending waves of electricity over me.
“I missed you.” He smiled as he watched my body dance where his fingers touched.
“I missed you too.” I bit my lip trembling as tears filled my eyes.
I hadn't realised up until now how stupid I'd been. He must have felt my body freeze as he quickly looked up, eyes full of concern.
“What's wrong?” He put his hand to my cheek. “Did I do something wrong?” I shook my head. “Was it Kelly? I'll kill her.” He shouted, without waiting for an answer, he tried to climb off the bed, but I stopped him, pulling him down on top of me to kiss him.
When I stopped, his eyes were confused and full of concern.
“I'm sorry.” I whispered over choked tears. “I shouldn't have treated you like that...” I didn't manage to finish off what I was saying, because he was kissing me.
When he stopped, he went back to lying at the side of me, pulling me onto my side to face him.
“I don't want to ever hear you apologising.” He held his hand up to stop me from talking. “You had every right to act the way you did.”
“Shhhh...” I placed a finger to his lips. “I'll stop apologising.” I saw him smiling. “If you don't apologise.”
I left him to ponder this for a moment, and then he sighed and nodded.
***
The summer holiday seemed to fly by. I'd finally gotten around to telling Kasey-Ray about my gift, with Sean as back up, in case I did something stupid.
At first she was angry about being kept in the dark, and then her anger had turned to frustration, as she wondered what her gift would be. Then the frustration gave through to excitement. She was convinced that she had a gift. She spent the rest of the holiday in the garden, trying to get angry, in a hope it would show her gift.
She looked like a raving lunatic. We spent a lot of the time in the garden, laughing at her, mainly because she looked absolutely ridiculous and also in the hope it would make her angry and she would hopefully find her gift, if she had one, and stop acting like a mad woman.
She never did get angry though. She ended up sitting on the floor, laughing at herself.
Sean and I were rarely apart, except when he was at work and most nights. Some weekends my family and I would go to the cottage with Sean, sometimes the rest of them would come over.
But before we knew it, the holidays were over and it was time to go back to school.
Sean drove Kasey-Ray and I, and as soon as we pulled into the car park, Kasey-Ray quickly jumped out.
I was nervous as we sat there looking out of the window, Sean's hand stoking my leg.
I sighed
as I pulled down the sun-visor to look in the mirror. I smiled as I looked at my birthmark, which was pretty much gone. I leaned over to kiss Sean.
“I'll see you at lunch.” He told me again. We had decided to have a picnic at the place we had first met. “I love you.” He purred as he gave me another kiss.
“I love you too.”
Taking a deep breath, I opened the passenger door and stepped out to take my first day of my last year of high school.
With a huge smile on my face and a bounce in my step, I made my way to the school's main door, ignoring everyone's stares.
I knew now that they weren't staring at me because they were repulsed, and whatever their thoughts were now, I didn't care. To me, I was the happiest person on this planet and in love with the most wonderful and most beautiful man alive, and nothing could make me feel any different.
Could it?
Information
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About Author
Lavinia originally grew up in Cheshire and now lives in a small village just outside of Edinburgh with her husband and two daughters.
Writing has always been something that Lavinia have loved since an early age but it wasn't until 2010 when the idea came to her to write Erin the Fire Goddess.
Lavinia chose to name the main character and her sister after her two daughters, who inspire Lavinia to write every day.
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