Spoiler! :
The only problem is that after I've had a break from writing and started editing, I swear I forget how to write or something... That's why I'm on the fence a bit about this chapter. I don't really like it... I could do with a lot of you guys' help.
My eyes darted back and forth between Ollie and the little boy, who I assumed was his brother. Unlike the one enticed to the television, that boy was calling Ollie and tugging frantically at the bottom of his shirt.
“Hang on, Finn!” Ollie hastily, but carefully, pushed the boy off him.
Finn’s lips pouted and he immediately stomped back towards the sofa, crossing his arms as he sat down. He must have been glaring at Ollie for ages because when he finally placed his phone back into his pocket, Finn was still doing so.
The second Ollie did remove his face from the screen of his phone, I remained silent, standing in the room as though I really shouldn’t have been there. I shouldn’t have been there. I began chewing at every nail on my hand until my fingers were practically bare.
Ollie turned to me for the first time in a while.
“Uh... I’m really sorry about this, Tori,” he said, although his eyes were on his mother. “I’ll drive you home now, just, uh, hang on a minute.”
I nodded my head mechanically, what remained of my fingernails still in my mouth.
“Finn, Ryan.” Ollie sat on the coffee table, facing the sofa. “Come on, it’s time for bed.”
Without giving the boys a chance to protest Ollie picked up Ryan and reached his hand out for Finn to grab it. He wasn’t having any of it though.
Ollie gritted his teeth, Ryan still in his arms as he told Finn to follow him upstairs. While all of this was going on, I did nothing but fidget awkwardly. I couldn’t stop myself from glancing at the young woman who was lying limply on the sofa.
“Fine,” Ollie muttered, “I’ll be back down now.”
Leaving Finn on the sofa, still pouting, Ollie ran up the stairs with Ryan. As he disappeared upstairs, a thousand butterflies erupted in my stomach.
What was I supposed to do? What if Ollie’s mum woke up before he came back down? Maybe I could have just walked out and left a note explaining that I’d gone or something? No, I was being immature. Besides, Ollie wouldn’t be long. How long could it take to get a child into a bed?
Almost ten minutes had passed, and I began realising how long it could take to do exactly that. I was so silent within those ten minutes, I was beginning to wonder if I was even breathing. It almost didn't feel as though I was here, merely watching everything unfold in front of me. I certainly didn't feel right here. I should have just left, even if it meant taking the bus home.
“Who are you?” A voice made me jump.
I turned to the door at the back of the room to see a young, dark haired boy holding a carton of milk. He was looking at me strangely, as though he’d been observing me for a while.
“She’s Ollie’s friend,” Finn replied eagerly before I could say a word.
His sudden burst of happiness made me feel oddly more comfortable. He hadn’t said a single word since Ollie had gone upstairs.
“Wha’? He’s back?” The boy asked, placing the carton of milk onto the floor quickly.
Finn nodded. “He don’t even care that mummy’s back from holidays though, Charlie!”
I was going to have to start writing these names down.. . Charlie concentrated on me, tilting his head to the side. Did I really look that weird here? Everyone who saw me seemed to stare at me for a frustratingly long time.
Taking his eyes off me at last, Charlie turned to his mother. They soon returned to his younger brother, who was now on his feet.
“Has Ollie gone upstairs, mate?” Charlie asked. Once again, Finn nodded. “Uh, okay. Don’t wake mum up, I’ll be ba-”
His voice was drowned out by thundering noise. All three of us turned suddenly to face the stairs and saw Ollie running down them. Each pounding step reverberated until he reached the bottom.
I noticed Charlie shoot him a sharp glare. What I noticed even more was his eyes then jolting in my direction. Rude or what?
“I’m hungry!” Finn’s voice made all of us jump. “Can I ask mummy to get me a sandwich?”
“No, don’t wake her up, Finn. Charlie will get you one now, okay?” Ollie replied.
Without an ounce of hesitation, Finn skipped towards the door Charlie was standing by and opened it. Charlie gave Ollie one last glance before following Finn into the room behind him.
I noticed that both my feet were facing the front door before I lowered my head and sighed. Giving me a brief apologetic look, Ollie bent down beside the sofa his mother was lying on and faced me for a moment.
“I really am sorry about this,” he mumbled, rubbing his neck. “If I’d ‘ave know about this, I woul-”
“Ollie, it’s fine,” I reassured him, trying to hide any ounce of anxiety in my voice.
He gave me a weak smile before turning back to his mother. I shuffled towards a small chair that was beside the television as Ollie gently shook his mother’s shoulder.
I’d have sworn that I was in the middle of a game of Russian Roulette. I was patiently waiting for something to happen, anything. The faint taste of the fish and chips I'd previously eaten was on the tip of my tongue, but now it was a lot more sickly than before.
Ollie was shaking his mother more violently now. As though she was a teenager on a school morning, Ollie’s mother began stirring, mumbling a few random words. I’d moved on from my bitten fingernails and was now chewing on the sleeve of my shirt.
A minute had passed until Ollie’s mother was completely conscious and sitting up on the sofa. She had a somewhat lost look in her eyes. I was wondering if she actually knew where she was.
“Hello, darling!” she suddenly beamed, “how are you? I haven't." She hiccuped. "...Haven't seen you in ages!”
A broad grin spread across her face before she squeezed her arms around Ollie. To my surprise, she didn’t have a cockney accent. If her words weren’t slurred, her accent would have matched mine.
"Have you done something with your hair?" Hiccup. "Have you?" She began kissing every part of Ollie she could possibly reach. "You're a handsome boy, you are."
Immediately releasing himself from her grasp, Ollie jumped up, his entire face twisted. Pacing back and forth a slight bit, he began rubbing his arm.
“Where the hell ‘ave you been?” I could hear that he was angry now. “I’m okay with you leavin’, but not for over a month and not without tellin’ me! Somethin’ could ‘ave happened to you and I would ‘ave had no idea! You’re frickin’ lucky that Ella and Jeff’s around to look after the kid’s when I’m in work,” he muttered. “I just... somethin’ could ‘ave happened to you...”
I was beginning to wonder who the parent was by now. While Ollie continued rambling, it was obvious that his mother wasn’t even listening. Instead, she was twirling her hair with her fingers, giggling and hiccuping every so often. Her eyes wandered aimlessly around the room.
I knew very well how much Ollie cared about his mother, but the reason why was becoming more vague every second. His mother had extremely irritated me. There was a thick line of smeared mascara under her eyes as well as patchy, red lipstick over her thin lips. Her cheeks were a blushed red. I doubted she'd used a make-up wipe in a while.
I knew she had trouble with depression, but that was excuse for leaving her six children, excluding Ollie, in a house to fend for themselves. Ollie's mum was pretty darn lucky that she had him to look after the children, that was for sure. It was unbelievable. She’d disappeared for who knew how long and she hadn’t even come back with a valid excuse.
Once Ollie had finished rambling, his mother stared at him, her lips pouted. She gracelessly stood up, leaning on Ollie for support.
“Okay, okay.” She hugged him for the second time. “I’m sorry." Hiccup. " Darling, I’m sorry. Okay? I’m sorry.”
Out of nowhere, Ollie’s mum began sniffing and before I knew it, there were tears running down her red cheeks and onto Ollie’s chest. She kept on apologising as her sobbing continued.
I’d never seen anyone behave like that before. The way she slurred her words and suddenly broke down scared me. I didn’t even want to think about how Ollie felt. Smeared make-up and clothes aside, by looking at her, you’d have never thought she was the kind of person to have gotten herself into a state like this. Her pale lips were parted into a relaxed smile and there was the odd freckle dotted over her thin nose. The long blonde hair and kind looking eyes just didn't match up to a woman you'd have expected to see tripping over street corners with a bottle of vodka in her hands. The young woman's clothes were a slight exception though.
On her legs, she wore a pair of jeans with huge tares in them. Whether those tares were supposed to be there, I didn't know. I doubted it. There was a rather pointless black strand of clothing on her torso. As my eyes lowered to her feet, I noticed that they were bare. Her heels were covered in harsh cuts and dark purple bruises. I quickly turned away.
Although her make-up was messy and her clothes were hardly even there, she was obviously an extremely pretty woman. In fact, her petite features made her look like nothing but an innocent child. Observing her clothes, it was almost as if she was trying her best to hide everything natural about her. She was a very fresh faced woman and shared the same soft features as her eldest son. Their deep green eyes were an exact match.
I’d never imagined for Ollie’s mum to look like that. I’d had an idea wedged into my mind that she would be rather old - which she certainly wasn’t – and look a lot... uglier, I supposed, than she did. The way she dressed was what I expecet though. Plus, my predictions on her personality were matching up well, so far.
“I’ll help you to your room,” Ollie sighed, unravelling himself from the grasp of his tearful mother. “I’ll be back now,” he said, turning to me.
Grabbing Ollie again, his mum began humming to herself as he basically dragged her towards the stairs. As she was being led up the stairs, she often tripped over a step, soon followed by a giggly oops.
Moments later, Ollie and his mother were gone. I was on the edge of my seat as they went upstairs. I was half expecting Ollie's mum to fall down the stairs. I glanced at the front door. The temptation to just get up and leave was radically increasing.
Silence. That was something I was slowly growing to hate. Right now, I wished more than anything that I hadn’t been so naive and agreed to come on this stupid day out with Ollie. To begin with, I was clearly in the way and I just felt wrong being here right now. I wasn’t thick; I knew that the situation around me was something sensitive and definitely family related. Nothing to do with me. If only I could have ran out of the door and kept on running until I got home.
The kitchen door handle made me jump out of my seat as it turned suddenly. The door opened to reveal Finn and Charlie, almost an entire bread roll splattered around Finn’s mouth.
“Has Ollie taken my mum upstairs?” Charlie asked as he picked Finn up. I simply nodded. “Oh, good. Are you staying ‘ere tonight or somethin’?”
“No!” I replied a bit too hastily. “Uh, no. I think Ollie’s going to take me home once he’s...” I tried to think of what to say. “Sorted things out.”
“All right, cool,” Charlie said, heading towards the stairs. “See you around, I guess.” He began walking up the stairs with Finn still in his arms before turning back to me. “Victoria, ain’t it?” I replied with a quiet yes and Charlie smiled. “Your eyebrows ain’t tha’ scary. I guess Ollie exaggerated.”
Ollie was lucky I was on good terms with him at the moment, that was for sure. What else had he told his siblings about me? The thought was genuinely frightening.
That gut wrenching silence soon returned, but thankfully, it was short lived. Soon enough, Ollie was back downstairs. The both of us stared at each other then, completely unknowing of what to say or do.
“Is everything all right now?” I eventually managed to whisper.
Ollie dropped himself onto the sofa, exhaling heavily as he leaned back. He responded by giving me a silent nod, something I’d seen a lot of this evening.
“Don’t get pissed off... but is it okay if you wait a few more minutes before you go home?” Ollie sighed, pulling his legs up onto the sofa. “I don’t really wanna leave the kids and my mum ‘ere on their own... I texted Ella and she said she’d be here soon, and that were a while ago now. She’ll probably be willin’ to take you home.
Even the thought of seeing Ella made my heart leap hopefully. I felt like I needed to bring back some kind of normality.
Ollie then did something I’d never seen him do before. He rubbed his temple with his index finger and squinted his eyes shut. I’d never seen Ollie cry before, but I was beginning to think that I would soon. When I thought he was about to break, he suddenly relaxed his eyelids and breathed in and out heavily, eventually reopening his eyes.
“Bloomin’ hell, where’s Ella? I could ‘ave walked to your house and bought a donkey by now.” Ollie tried to joke, but it wasn’t hard to notice him trying to hide any trace of emotion he had.
I smiled anyway, just to make things feel a little less awkward. It didn’t help much at all, but it appeared to convince Ollie that I hadn’t noticed the strain in his voice.
I was relieved when minutes later, his eyelids began to flicker. Moments later, they were shut. All that I needed now was for Ella to knock on the door, take me home, and then I could pretend that only the first half of today had happened. My prayers were soon answered when I heard a soft knock on the door. Standing up, I trudged out of the room and into the porch area.
Part of me was wondering if I should have woken Ollie up to answer it, but it was the only time he’d looked relaxed since we’d been in his flat. I didn’t want to be the one to wake him up and remind him of what was going on.
Opening the door, every part of me that could have possibly smiled, smiled. Ella followed me into the living room as I explained every single thing that had happened. Once I’d finished, she more or less told me how insensible I’d been, which was fair enough.
I heard my voice croak sometimes while I was explaining what had happened, especially when I mentioned Ollie's mum. My mind kept running over what I'd seen, unsure of whether to believe it or not. Maybe I was being naive about it. Of course there were other people who got drunk like that and maybe she wasn't as bad as I'd perceived her, but after having such a relaxing day, every single thing that was happening right now felt extreme.
Why did everything good have to come to a chest tightening end? I stood up out of my seat, hopefully showing Ella that I really wanted to leave now.
“How long has he been asleep?” Ella asked, nodding at Ollie.
“Not that long, no more than five minutes, I don’t think.”
Ella stood up and quietly walked towards him, stopping when she reached the sofa. I watched her as she sighed and softly ran her hand through his hair, leaving her palm on his forehead for a brief moment. Ella kept her eyes on Ollie as she took a set of keys out of her pocket. “Come on then." She turned around to face me. "I better get you home. If your parents ask, you’ve been to my house, okay?”
Happily agreeing to her terms, I hastily followed her towards the front door. A part of me was insecure about leaving Ollie alone with his family, which I knew was pointless because that was what he did every day anyway.
I was about to step out of the flat when I paused briefly before asking Ella to hang on for a minute. Turning back around, I jogged back into the living room and grabbed a piece of paper that was on the coffee table. Someone had scribbled over it with coloured pencils or crayons. I picked one of them up and hurriedly began writing with it.
Don’t worry about work tomorrow, just make sure you sort things out here first. Even though it didn’t end as well as it could have, today itself was weirdly fun. You were right about the fish and chips.
I paused for a brief moment.
Tori x x
I folded the paper up messily and placed it under a tea stained placemat. I stood and stared then.
I didn’t have a clue how eight people lived here, it seemed bizarre. The flat was small, not big enough for a load of children, that was for sure.
Then there was my house.
Ten bedrooms, six bathrooms, and two living rooms. All for three people. I laughed bitterly at the thought.
In Ella’s car on the way home, I almost fell asleep. If it wasn’t for the millions of thoughts parading around in my head, I would have been out like a light.
When Ollie had told me that he had to look after his brothers and sisters, I struggled to believe him. I assumed that his mum must have helped out at least a small bit. After tonight, I realised that it wasn’t just his siblings that Ollie had to look after. I looked on the bright-side. For the first time today, at least I was driving in a car that wasn't travelling at eighty miles an hour.
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