Damned If I Do Ya [An All Time Low Fanfic]

Chapter Fifteen

Although I didn’t have the best childhood, I felt my heart sank as I looked down at my mother’s file. Your mother. She’s someone who is supposed to be there for you. Answer your embarrassing questions. Take care of you when you’re sick. Encourage and support you. Not run away to another country and pretend that you didn’t even exist. Still, I felt a twinge of sadness that she had died. I never really got to know her and now it was too late. Her birth, marriage and death certificate were in the file and I stared at her birth certificate. Rose Jade Walker. She was born on the 16th of June.
I recalled that my granddad called her Rose, because when she was born, she had rosy cheeks and green eyes. My grand mum was an artist. She died in childbirth and he thought that it was what his wife would want.
I then looked at the marriage certificate. She married my dad young. She was only 19. My father was 21 at the time. They married in November.
Teresa interjected, “You were born a week later Holly. They wanted to be married when they had you.” She shot me a friendly smile and handed me her death certificate.
I gulped and looked at it. She had only been 37. Breast Cancer. I bit my lip and continued reading.
She died at the hospital in London on Christmas morning.
“Where, where is she now? That was two months ago?” I managed to say.
“She’s in the morgue. They’re waiting for other family members to have a proper funeral.”
“But what about my dad? Is he still alive? Is he in England?”
“He moved to Wales after he divorced your mother and married again.”
“They divorced? When?”
“They divorced two years after they moved to the UK. He has another son now.”
I was leaning forward with my elbows on the table staring bleakly at Teresa but now I sat up quickly. “Another?” I asked.
She didn’t say anything just dug in her file and produced another sheet of paper. She spread the paper on the table and turned it to me. I stared at the heading on the top of the certificate. It was a Death Certificate. Suddenly the door opened with a bang.
“We’re home bitches!” Jack shouted as he walked down the corridor. Teresa raised her eyebrows at Jacks cursing. Jack stalked into the kitchen and dropped the bags on the island. He saw that I was in the dining room and his attention glanced to Teresa sitting in the chair beside me. Teresa stood up to introduce herself to Jack. She was a lot smaller than Jack. He looked confused and worried. Teresa walked away with him into the living room. I stared at the death cert again. Mark Walker. Birth on the 12th of April. Death on the 13th of April. Death from lung failure. Parents; Rose Walker and Liam Walker.

“So just sign here.” Teresa said, pointing to a line at the bottom of the page. I scribbled my name and put the pen down. She gave me a sympathetic smile and took the page from me. She stood up.
“I’m sorry Holly. I hope you have a nice flight to England.” I walked her to the door and said goodbye. I stalked back into the living room, where Jack was booking my flight tickets to London on his laptop. Zack and Rian sat on the opposite sofa with two beers. I sank down beside Jack and put my head on his shoulder.
“Flights to London are booked out until Tuesday. The only one left is Wednesday night. At midnight? Is that okay?” he asked.
I nodded and closed my eyes.
“We’re playing that night dude.” Rian added.
“Shut up. I can pull out if I want.”
Alex walked into the room and laughed, “No you can’t.”
“I’m a guitarist, I do what I want.”
“Yeah, well I don’t care Jack. You’re playing.”
“What crawled up your ass and didn’t die?”
“Your attitude.”
“That’s ironic coming from you.” Jack retorted.
I did worry about Alex sometimes. When I first arrived, he seemed happy to have me around. Lately, he didn’t talk to me unless he had to. Maybe it was about being a dad. That didn’t mean he had to be an ass to Jack though.
“Shut up. Who was here earlier?”
“Maybe if you came downstairs sometimes you would know.”
“So, you’re complaining about me? You’ve had a homeless girl here for four months now.”
“This is my house Alex. Not yours.”
Zack had stopped playing bass and looked over to me. Did Alex really hate me that much? I loved Alex, I loved all the guys so was this how they felt about me?
I stood up and brushed past Alex as I walked upstairs. Before I went into Jacks room I heard Alex ask. “What’s her problem?”

I closed the door quietly and lied down on the bed facing the window. I resisted the urge to slam it; it would only make them hate me more. Jack had made me pack away my clothes in a closet and he hid my suitcase so I couldn’t run away. I started to cry. Wow. I really didn’t fit in anywhere did I?
I heard the door open and Jack walked in and sank down beside me.
“I’m sorry. I made you guys fight.” I said staring bleakly out the window. It was getting dark now, the sun had already set and the moon was rising.
“That wasn’t a fight, Holly. Trust me.”
“So he hates me?”
“He doesn’t hate you, he-”
“Yes he does and so does Zack and Rian and you.”
“What would make you think that they hate you? I wouldn’t hate you Holly.” He said, looking hurt.
“Sorry, it just seems like it. On a completely unrelated subject, do you know where my suitcase is?”
“Somewhere high up where your little arms can’t reach.”
“Short jokes, really?” I asked looking at him.
“Always appropriate.” He laughed.
He snaked a long arm around my waist and pulled me closer. “Nobody hates you in this house.”
He tangled his fingers in my curly hair, which I had forgotten to straighten. I felt his pulse hammer against my palms. He shrugged his shirt free from his shoulders and worked on mine.