Crush Culture {{Harry Lewis - W2S}}

✮ FOURTY NINE ✮

Mila's pov

Trains were relaxing. Seeing the fields zooming by and counting clouds. With all the lovely scenery Mila couldn't bring herself to be nervous, after all, she had a good seven hours to sleep and settle her mind.

However, once she had; gotten off the train, been pushed against a wall, had two taxis stolen and had to wait twenty minutes for the next one, she wasn't feeling too warm and bubbly.

The taxi ride was awkward, a driver who spoke little English and only played foreign songs. Mila's hands had clenched around her bag many times as he drove down back streets before her mind reminded her that she knew Middlesbrough, and therefore knew he was just taking short cuts.

Her breath faulted as they turned down a familiar road, her childhood flashed out of the window. The corner shop she and Lucy would meet at every morning before college, the primary school she had hated going to due to the ugly green uniforms, the houses which her friends had grown up in. Then, on the opposite side of the road, all by itself...

The cemetery.

The cemetery where her brother was buried in. The cemetery she would play in as a young girl, the cemetery she would cry in as a teenager.

"Merry Christmas" the man spoke in a dull tone as Mila paid him, giving him a short nod and tight-lipped smile as she got out.

The road was long, at least fifteen houses on either side, a small dead-end road across from the house she had grown up in. Mila ducked her head, noticing familiar faces down the street that had popularised her childhood.

It wasn't that she didn't want to see them, after all at least three other houses on the street held her extended family, it was just that her mother would only be disappointed if she wasn't the first to see her daughter.

Slowly Mila dragger her suitcase up the broken path, furrowing her eyebrows at the toys littering the small front garden. Her eyes caught the bench which sat below the front window, the plaque in memory of her father shining, reflecting the white snow that had fallen the night before. 

Her hand raised, knocking as lightly as she could on the white door, silently hoping that nobody would answer. Unfortunately, her prayers were not answered as the door flung open, a stunned face meeting hers.

"Mel?"

Mila nearly broke down, the face in front of her unexpected.

"Louis," she swallowed deeply, "I wasn't expect-"

"You weren't expecting?" He laughed, cutting her off, "I haven't seen you in years"

Louis had always intimidated Mila, in her eyes, he was her cool older brother who was untouchable.

Tall and lean, a perfectly styled beard, teeth white and straight. He wore a black Hugo Boss T-shirt, always one to take advantage of the well paying job he'd been lucky enough to snag.

"Yeah...three years." Mila licked her lips, imagining how she looked to him. Old leggings and Harrys blue Umbro jumper. With that and her untidy hair, she probably looked homeless, but after all, she had been travelling for the past eight hours.

"Yeah..." he mumbled, stepping out of the house, closing her door.

"Oh, I'm here to-"

"Yeah, I know," he told her, "come on, sit down" he led her over to the bench, rubbing his thighs as he sat down, pulling out a cigarette packet, the lighter already inside.

"Is Mam okay?" Mila questioned, noticing the closed blinds.

"She's fine, sat inside with the kids, having a good Christmas eve. Lisa's in there too, you remember Lisa" Mila nodded, obviously remembering her brother's wife, "she's happy, and I don't want you to ruin the mood. If you've come for a fight we don't want any-"

"No" Mila interrupted him, wafting her hand as he blew smoke purposely in her direction, smirking as he saw her frown, "I didn't come for a fight, I miss you guys"

"So you didn't miss us last year?" He raised an eyebrow, staring her down with a questioning look before shrugging, "never mattered to me, but you broke mam's heart, Mel"

"I never meant to hurt her..." Mila looked forward, the sun setting over the houses across the road, "I just couldn't stay here"

"And France was the next best place?" He tapped the ashes.

She could understand why he was mad, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Louis was a lot like their dad, stoic, unmoving. His anger was calm, calculated, terrifying.

"It was a place" she shrugged.

"I know, far away means the problems gone, right?" He raised an eyebrow, flicking the fag butt into the snow covered bucket that sat beside the bench, "I'm pretty sure that how it works"

"I'm back now, why does it matter that I left?" She was getting angry now, he was judging her when he had done the same thing. Sure he had only moved a few cities over with his family whilst she had gone to another country with a friend, but both were avoiding the truth of what had happened.

"Not to me, but to mam it did, she was upset when Lucy called to say that you'd gone mad and deleted her number, cried for days and-"

"Wait...what?" Mila turned to look at Louis completely, her head cocked.

"What?" He looked clueless, standing up and making his way to the door.

"I never deleted her number, why would Lucy-" she paused, finally realising, "that fucking bitch"

"Language-" he cut her off, "kids are inside"

"Sorry, Lucy's been doing me over, marinating me, moulding me into who she wanted me to be oh my-" Mila rambled, shaking her head as she followed after her elder brother, the smirk on his face growing as he laughed.

"What? That Lucy lass was a bitch, and you're surprised?"

"Language-" she replied, a small smile rising to her face as he opened the door, laughing.

"Come on, meet the kids"

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Written: 26th February 2021
Published:28th February 2021
Louis based off of my cousin :,)