When We Were Younger (you me at six)

A Daydream Away

AHHHH I'VE FINISHED WRITING EVERYTHING. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. I'm considering just uploading everything tonight so that it's done. Idk, I might, I might not. ANYWAY, second last chapter. Hope you enjoy!

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"Hayley, why are you wearing your Man U shirt?" Sophie asked me. I was sprawled over my bed, messing about on my laptop whilst talking to Sophie on Skype.

"They're playing Arsenal today and Josh is coming over to watch the match. I thought I'd annoy him even more by wearing my team's colours," I replied with a grin. She rolled her eyes at me. Sophie wasn't the best person to have a conversation about football with, or any sport for that matter.

"You're so mature," she said sarcastically and I laughed. "Anyway, how's life without the mothership been? It's been what, almost a month now?"

I nodded sadly. "I miss her a lot. It's so weird being on my own. I can basically do whatever the fuck I want but mum was never that strict in the first place. There's not a lot that I wasn't allowed to do before. She was always more like a friend to us, wasn't she?

Sophie nodded her head understandingly. "I'm so glad we patched things up before she left. I couldn't stand to have her think I hated her for the whole five months."

Two days before my mum's departure, she had phoned Sophie to try and reconcile what was left of their mother-daughter relationship. It had involved a lot of tears, almost two full boxes of tissues and an extremely high phone bill for that month. The important thing was that they were no longer in an argument.

"Ah well, one month down, four to go. Anyway Soph, I better go. The kick off's at three, Josh will be here in a minute," I said as I sat up and began to fix my hair.

"I'll talk to you later then. Bye Hayls, love you."

"Love you too!" I shouted as I closed the laptop down. I made my way over to my mirror and quickly ran a brush through my hair. The doorbell rang and I sprinted down the stairs two at a time. I unlocked the door and opened it to allow Josh into the house.

"Why is your door always locked now?" he frowned.

"There could be an axe murderer out there or something and he could just waltz right in here and kill me if I left the door unlocked!" I said defensively.

"I really don't think a locked door is going to stop an axe murderer," he smirked and I stuck my tongue out at him. "Your shirt's hideous by the way."

I gasped in mock outrage. "How dare you say such a thing! Just you wait and see, Man U will win and you'll be left crying because Arsenal are awful."

"Why do you even support Man U? You're Scottish."

"And? Every Scottish person has a Scottish and an English team that they support, mine are Rangers and Man U." He rolled his eyes at me and I flipped him off. I dragged him into the living room and sat down just as the teams were making their way on to the pitch at Old Trafford.

Ten minutes into the first half, Arsenal scored, taking the lead. Josh literally leapt off the sofa and ran around my living room screaming his head off. I scowled and flung a cushion at him, launching it perfectly off his head.

"Don't get too cocky. Arsenal will fuck it up, they always do," I said, although I sounded somewhat bitter.

Just before half time, I was proven right. Henri made a dirty tackle right outside the penalty box, awarding a free kick to Manchester. "Are you fucking kidding? That's it? Send him off, ref!" I screamed.

My yells were drowned out by the sound of Josh groaning as Rooney sent the ball flying into the back of the net. The stadium erupted in cheers and I whooped enthusiastically. Josh tried to smother me with a pillow to drown out my shouts but I ended up kicking him in the balls in my attempt to escape. "Woops, sorry about that."

He only groaned as the whistle for half time sounded. I kissed him gently in an attempt to make things better. Since my mother wasn't around, Josh and I had made use of the empty house and the lack of interrupting parents quite a few times. In fact, it was more than quite a few.

"I'll go get us some drinks, shall I?" I leapt off the sofa and made my way in to the kitchen. I returned a few minutes later with two cans of coke and bag of frozen peas to help Josh with the -ahem- swelling.

"Mum said you've to come round for tea tonight," he said as he gratefully took the frozen bag.

"Again? Josh, I feel so bad. You're mum's been doing so much for me this last month."

"She feels bad that your mum's not here. She wants you to think of her as kind of your substitute mother for now."

I smiled at the thought. The Franceschi's truly felt like family to me. "Well then of course I'll be there."

Seventy minutes into the game, Rooney scored again. I cheered and started laughing at the foul stream of curse words coming from Josh's mouth. The final whistle sounded and I stuck my tongue out at Josh. "Told you we'd win," I said. I couldn't contain the smirk on my face. He scowled at me.

"You're lucky I love you."

"C'mon," I said as I stood up. I pulled him off the sofa and walked towards the front door. "We better get going if we're going to yours for tea."

I locked the door and turned back to Josh. My hand slipped into his outstretched arm, our fingers locking together. We slowly wandered towards his, playing The Penis Game and laughing at some of the looks we were getting. We turned onto a street and there was a group of chavs standing at the corner. This was going to win me the game. I took a deep breath and as we walked past them, I yelled penis louder than Josh or I had ever done before. Their heads whirled towards me and they stared at me like I was insane. Josh was literally doubled over laughing.

"Oh my god, did you see the look on that tall guy's face? It was hilarious," he howled. I laughed along with him. The two of us were still in hysterics by the time we reached his house.

We walked straight in to be greeted by the delightful smell of spaghetti bolognese. "Perfect timing, I was just dishing up," his mum called from the kitchen. We made our way in to the dining room and sat down at the table. The rest of the family soon joined us and we devoured the delicious meal. As we ate, we talked and laughed and shared anecdotes, just like a regular family. I felt so lucky to be a part of that family.

Once dinner was over, Josh and I went into the living room and started to watch a movie. His parents and Elissa bid us goodnight as they went upstairs to bed. Josh and I had the day off school whilst everyone else had to get up early for work. We snuggled down on the sofa underneath some blankets and began to watch the first Harry Potter movie. Tom Felton was so cute as a young Draco.

I could feel my eyelids get heavier and my head rested against Josh's shoulder. "Are you tired?" he whispered. I nodded my head slightly and tried to stifle a yawn. "I am too, let's go to sleep. Night Hayley."

"Night Josh." I yawned. We remained snuggled underneath the blankets, not bothering to move upstairs to bed. Josh made a surprisingly comfy pillow. My eyelids closed completely and I was pulled into the darkness.

Once again, Josh featured heavily in my dreams. Although this time, there was nothing remotely nightmarish about them. They all revolved around the one thing, him saying he loved me.

He told me as we lay on the beach together. He told me as we sat in front of a warm fire in winter. He told me on stage in front of thousands of people. He told me as we walked down the aisle together.

I could only hope that one day, these dreams would become a reality.