love never walks alone

chapter nineteen

"You ready yet Keely, we’re going to miss the flight!" I shouted out to Keely as she was taking her time getting ready. "Coming, one minute," she answered back. "Come on, you always do this, hurry, I’m almost weeing myself here! I’m nervous as it is" "Ready" she said as she walked out, "What took you so long?" I asked, acting as if I hadn’t noticed the spirals she had just got put in her hair. "Get lost," she said, knowing full well that I was doing it on purpose. "Come on, I’m going to have to speed down the motorway – we’re running late" We were walking through Gatwick Airport, she was so fascinated by it all, she always was, whereas me, I was scared at the thought of flying. I was so nervous, and worse still I knew that when I got off, a boyfriend whose parents I was going to meet, later that day’d greet me. "Don’t look so worried," Keely said as she saw the unease written all over my face, "Mairead and Brendon aren’t monsters. They’re such lovely people" I couldn’t believe it; my best friend had met them before me. "But Keely, will they like me, I mean I’m going out with their son. You’ve seen Sunset Beach! What if his mum doesn’t like me? That’ll mean… oh god, I don’t even want to think about it" she looked at me and smiled, clearly enjoying it all and playing on my anxiety, I looked at her, "You cow! It’s okae for you, you’ve met Shane’s parents – AND they liked you" she replied with, "How do you know the ‘Macker’s’ won’t like you? Your just being paranoid, just be yourself, and they’ll love you". "The Macker’s? Pah! Don’t say that! It’s the McFadden’s to you! And what do you think about the fact that I have put off meeting them for so long. I mean, what will they think of me…do you reckon they know about Bryan and me…y’know???" she looked at me, "Shut up already, you’re worrying for no reason," I suppose she was right. But it didn’t stop my apprehension in meeting them. All throughout the flight, that was all I could think of, "Would Bryan’s parents like me".

***

As we got off the plane and collected our luggage that was just thrown into one suitcase between the two, we walked out of the "NOTHING TO DECLARE" green gateway and saw Bryan and Shane standing there, with Bryan, was his little sister, and Shane, well he was alone, and I knew why too. They came over to greet us, "Hi ya" I said to Shane as Keely and I went to meet our opposite partners, "Did you have a safe flight?" he asked, "yeh – scary though" I replied. He looked at me teasingly and said, "rather you that me…" my face dropped, my heart was beating really fast, Keely and I crossed our paths and met our other halves. "Hi ya babe" said Bryan as he hugged me tight, "Hey" I said moving forward to kiss him. "This is my sister Sue" he said pointing toward the girl with the bob haircut, "Hello" she said, moving towards me, "Bryan has told me a lot about you" she smiled, "It’s all lies" I said, the discomfort showing on my face. "Well," said Shane, "we better get a move on, I have a lot to do today. It’s already getting dark, I don’t want to leave it too late" I looked over and smiled. Keely and me were just about going our separate ways, "you take the suitcase" she said, "I have some clothes down Shane’s house." I looked at her as we were just about to get into different cars, "I’ll ring you tonight" she whispered whilst hugging me "Good luck" "thanks" I said as I looked at her, nervous as ever, "Good luck to you too" I said as I winked at Shane. She just took it as passing comment; no more did she need to ask me questions, else I think she knew I would have exploded.

I sat in the front of Bryan’s car as an eerie silence tensed up the atmosphere. "So, what time will ma and da be back?" he asked Sue, my face lit up, he knew it would, it put me at ease for a while, "Later on, in about a couple of hours" she said looking at him through the rear view mirror.

As we got to his home, it looked lovely, so cosy and warm, he led me through and showed me around. I saw a few erm…well familiar pictures on the walls, some that made Bryan cringe, "No, don’t look at them – they’re sooo ugly" he said, I looked up at him, "No they’re not. You look so cute. Wait till you see me, I had pigtails and everything" I embarrassingly told him. "Can’t wait," he said. He led me through to his bedroom, "this is where I sleep," he said showing me his bed, "You are kidding me aren’t you?" I said as I looked upon the gorgeous four poster bed, with a SUPERMAN duvet "You don’t…" he looked at me and with a coy smile, "Yeh, its cool…" "Yeh, for ten year olds!!" I looked up at him and couldn’t help but erupt into a fit of chuckles.

Just then Sue called up, "BRY, Ma’s HOME" "Oh god," I screeched, "um, um, um," I couldn’t get a word out as my speech became flustered. "This is it," he said, not making it any better, "You’ll be fine," he kissed me on the cheek, "good luck – not that you’ll need it" and led me down the stairs.

I walked into the living room, to see two eager faces looking straight at me, looking as scared as me in-fact, "Ma," started Bryan, "Da, this is Rav, Rav, this is me Ma, and me Da"………

chapter twenty