Nellie Lovett

Chapter 3

Mr Todd was staying upstairs, Toby wasn't too sure how he felt about it. On the one hand, he hated Mr Todd, he thought that he was crazy and dangerous, but on the other hand Mrs Lovett felt safe with him around, and of course if she wanted him there, Toby did, because he loved her more than anyone else.

He wanted her to feel safe, after what happened, he felt like it was his fault, because he wasn't strong enough to protect her. Mr Todd had that job now, and he was doing everything he could to make it up to her. That morning, before everyone else got up, Toby went out and bought her fruit and flowers, he arranged them as nicely as he could and brought it too her in bed.

"Here you go mum, I thought you'd like it.." He said nervously.

"Oh Toby! You little angel, you didn't have to you know!" Mrs Lovett said, giving her son a hug before he put the tray on the bed. "Is Mr Todd up?"

"I haven't seen him, why?" Toby asked. He had noticed that she asked about him a lot, like a wife did about her husband, but obviously they weren't married.

"Oh, never mind dear." Nellie said, shaking her head.

"Mum, can I ask you a question?" Toby asked, Nellie could tell that he wasn't entirely comfortable asking it.

"What is it?" Nellie asked. "Did you steal my money to buy this? Don't worry about it, dear, its fin-"

"No, it's not about that." Toby said quickly. "It's about Mr Todd."

"What about him?" Mrs Lovett said, a little scared that Toby wouldn't be okay with the barber staying with them again.

"Do you...want to marry him?" Toby asked.

"Toby! God no! Where would you get that idea!" Mrs Lovett said.

"Because when he left you cried yourself to sleep every night and now he's back you don't do it no more." Toby said, shrugging.

"I think you mean do I love him dear." Mrs Lovett said, looking down guiltily. "And I think that if I said no I'd be lying, so I can't lie to you son."

"You...you...love him?" Toby said.

"I do." Mrs Lovett said, starting to sob, she put her head in her hands. "It's so hard, Toby, you don't understand because your just a boy, but I just can't go through my day without seeing him, I need to be around him to be happy. And I know it's wrong, and I shouldn't feel this way, but I do."

Toby just nodded and walked out of the room, he went downstairs and ripped a small chunk of bread off the loaf and started nibbling it. He always knew that there was something going on with them, something that Mrs Lovett wasn't sharing, but he had never thought it would be love. He wasn't quite sure what love was, he'd only heard of it in fairytale so when the prince and the princess fall in love at the end of the story and run away together.

But he knew that it wasn't real, that it was just a story. He knew that his mother would be depressed as long as her fairytale didn't end as she wanted it. Maybe if she just told him how she felt, everything would turn out great, but adults were always too ashamed of their feelings to admit them, Toby knew that from experience. Maybe Toby should tell him. Maybe that would make everything more easy for her.

He went upstairs to see Mr Todd, he didn't really like going up there, Mr Todd scared him, but if it was for her it was worth it. He knocked on the door. "Mr Todd, can I come to in?"

"Come in boy." Sweeney said, he was sharpening his razors when Toby walked in, which just frightened him more. "Why did you come up here? You don't usually."

"I...umm, I needed to talk to you about something. It's about a girl." He said.

Sweewey laughed. "You having trouble with the kids around the block?" He asked.

"Yes!" Toby said, deciding to see things from different angle. "You see there's a girl, her name is...Madelyn, and she likes this boy, Peter, she really likes him, but he used to be with this other girl and now she doesn't know if he likes her back. As Madelyns friends, do you think I should tell Peter?" He said, trying to hide the fact that he was talking about Nellie and Sweeney. 

"Well..." Sweeney said. "If I were you, I'd talk to Peter. I mean, if he doesn't like Madelyn, nothing will happen because she'll never find out, and if he does, that's great for her."

"Okay..." Toby said. "Can I ask you another question?" 

"I don't see why not."

"Do you love my mum?"

Sweeney just stared at Toby for a good ten minutes. "Excuse me?" He said finally.

"Do you love her?"

"Why would you ask that? Did you see... Oh no, you know don't you! How do you know, how did you figure it out? Was I being to obvious, I thought I wasn't, I thought that she couldn't tell. Does she know?" Sweeney said, getting into a mini panic.

"You love her?" Toby asked. "You love her, don't you."

"I-I don't know, I think I do, but she can't know, she definitely doesn't feel the same way." Sweeney said sadly. "Now go check on her, I haven't seen her all day."

Toby nodded and walked down the stairs to the kitchen. How were they so stupid? How did they not realise how they felt about each other? He was going to make this work. They were going to end up together; they had too. For after all, they were literally made for each other. He needed a plan. Mrs Lovett and Mr Todd were made in the stars, and Toby would make sure that they looked up at the sky.

Yay new chapter! Hope you guys are liking these, and I'm rly bored so, do you have GCSE's in your country? If you do, what are you taking? I'm taking Geography RS and Art, it's rly stressful though ☹️