Living the Life of Riley | ✔

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Three days later, and with the doctor's appointment finished, I was sat on the stairs waiting for Liam.  He'd rang me and told me to “man up and get your butt back home”.  He said he had something to tell me, or something along those lines.  To be fair, I wasn't really listening at all.

“Here.”  I turned to see Thom handing me a sqaure plastic box, filled with fruit.  Yuck.

“What's this for?”  I asked, holding up the box.  I was a little confused.  Since when did Thom give me presents?

“Good-bye present and something for the little one.”

“You know I'm not going to eat this.”  I told him.  “I don't do fruit.”

“You should.  It would be better for-”

“Don't.”  My tone was a warning to Thom.  We'd already had a fight over him being too protective.  The kid wasn't even his!  I was thankful, I just didn't need to be told what was healthy and what wasn't.  I'd already had that lecture from the doctor.  Anyway, Cassie would make me eat healthier when I got back.  I'd be living on rabbit food which sucked majorly.  I didn't want to sustain a diet for a vegetarian.  I liked my meat.

“Fine.  Fine.”  Thom's hands went up in an “I surrender” motion.  “You know, I think Kelly's going to miss you.”

“I suppose he'll miss being frightened.”  Kelly, who was not a woman, was terrified of me.  He was one of the biggest men living at Thom's... hotel (as I've decided name this house) and yet little ole' me frightened the living crap out of him.  It might have been when I screamed at him, calling him every name I could think of under the sun or because I'd repeatedly hit him in the crown jewels with some object.  An apple, the remote, a tennis ball... you name it.  Nothing sharp though – I wasn't a psycho.

Hearing a loud beep outside, I stood up and swung my backpack onto my shoulder.  Time to go home and face the music (is that the right phrase?  I'm sure it was).  Great.  Just what I'd been waiting for.

“Good luck.”  Thom put a hand on my shoulder and smiled.

“Cheers.  I'll need it – Cassie's probably wanting to kill me.”  I smiled.  Like she could.  I was vicious when I wanted to be but I didn't really fancy picking a fight with Liam's girlfriend.  Plus she wears heels.  And heels really hurt.  I'd had quite a few experiences.

“No, I meant when you go back to school.  Didn't you have a mountain of work to do?”

“No?  It's Wednesday.  Only missed today.”

“What?”  He shouted while I was walking away from Thom.  Liam didn't appreciate people being late.  If you were meeting Liam, you needed to be on time.  Like a professional, which sucked when you were running late.  It was one of the few things Liam couldn't tolerate.

“I'm only in on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays!”  I waved before opening the door enough to slide out.  I jogged down the steps and into Liam's silver car.  It smelled like vanilla in here.  Last time it smelt like oranges.  He must have changed the air freshner dingy.

Sitting on the seat, I looked over to Liam and gave him the biggest grin I could manage.  He gave a small smile back before starting the car.  Instead of going towards Vienna Downs, the village where I was now living and had just learnt the name of, he drove down another road.  A quieter road.  One that looked familiar to a country lane in a range of horror films.

“You're not going to kill me, right?”  I joked.  I heard Liam chuckle.

“No.  I'm taking the long way home.  So we can have a little chat.”