The Middle - Volume Three ✔️

Chapter 60

Jamie

"OHMYGOD! JAAAAAMIE!"

My cousin Lori pretty much floors me as I walk into the arrivals lounge. She's tall, so fucking tall, almost 6 foot I'd say. Her hair is blonde, shoulder length and tousled. She has a hoop through her right nostril and about 20 piercings on each ear. She's cool as fuck, and we get on really well. My aunt Helen is standing smiling at me too. She's an older version of Lori, minus all the piercings. Helen and my dad grew up with my grandparents in Scotland, so she is Scottish through and through. I love their accents so much, and as shitty as I have felt lately, I can't help but smile back at her. This was a good decision. And oh my god, I'm in Scotland! This is amazing!

"Hey you guys, it's so good to see you!" I say with genuine enthusiasm.

"Hey you guys!" Lori mimicks my accent, grinning from ear to ear. "You are so American! I've missed you!"

"Come on, let's go out to the car." My aunt Helen says as she grabs my suitcase for me. "We can catch up on the drive to the house."

And we do. It's been years since I've seen them, so we have plenty to talk about on the car ride over to Helen's house. Between my interest in the stories they're telling me and my mild concern over Helen driving on the left hand side of the road, I don't even have time to think about any of the shit I don't wanna think about. Before I know it, I'm laying my head down to sleep in Steve and Helen's spare room.

***

"Rise and shine sleepy head!"

Lori pulls the drapes back in the spare room and I rub my eyes while sitting up in bed. Christ, this is jet lag? I'm not a fan.

"What do you want to do today? Go see the Castle? Wonder up and down Prince's Street like absolute tourists? Go to the zoo?!" She's extremely excited, standing in front of me in her fleecy pyjamas. Scotland is very fucking cold this time of year.

"I don't know, whatever you guys wanna do?" I reply groggily. "I mean, I totally wanna do all of those things, just whatever."

"We should go to the zoo." Lori informs me, sitting down on the edge of my bed. "It's mobbed at weekends, so we should totally go today."

"Sounds good." I smile at her before reaching onto the bedside table for my phone. It's still on flight mode from last night.

"Oh, I'll get you our WiFi code so you can get online! You must have heaps of messages from your dad and that." Lori exclaims before hopping off of the bed and rushing out of the room. I love the way she talks.

I get up and make my way downstairs. Helen is already in the kitchen making breakfast, and Steve's there too.

"Hello there, USA." Steve smiles up at me from his newspaper. "Long time, no see. How was the flight?"

"Fine, I slept most of the way." I lie. It was not fine. My first long haul flight was terrible, I hated every moment of it. But I'm happy to be here, so they don't need to know that.

"Robert still asleep?" I ask as I sit down at the kitchen table next to Lori.

"Oh gosh, I completely forgot to tell you last night!" Helen exclaims, turning to face me with her frying pan in hand. "Robert's at Uni in Glasgow, he left a few days ago. You won't get to see him!"

"We can FaceTime him or Skype him or something if you really want to see him?" Lori suggests, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, maybe later." I say with a smile as Lori slides something resembling a credit card over to me.