Forever and Always

‘I’ll just go get him,’ the girl replied, turning around.
‘Wait.’ she said, turning to face them again ‘You’re Claire’s brother, right?’ Ed nodded.
‘I heard about you two. Claire sounded in a pretty big mess when she called. Come in by the way.’ They arrived in the living room and she shouted upstairs. This was Ali’s elder sister Valary, who was close friends with Ed’s sister Claire. She looked almost identical to Ali; except she was a little taller and her hair was still black, whereas Ali had discovered the merits of hair dye.
‘Ali! Ed and Alex are here!’ she hollered up the stairs, before sitting on the arm of the sofa. The band playing upstairs (they sounded like Biffy Clyro to Alex, but he wasn’t certain, nor did he really care) was silenced instantly and thundering footsteps were heard before Ali landed with a thud at the bottom of the stairs.
‘Hey.’ He said, flicking his dirty blond hair away from his eyes. He caught sight of the uncovered wound on Ed’s cheek and his eyes widened slightly. Ed opened his mouth to explain but Ali silenced him with a wave of his hand.
‘You don’t have to explain. Em called and told me everything.’ He said. It made perfect sense that Emily would call him first; they do date after all.
‘And before you ask, you can stay here. My parents are away on another business trip.’ He continued. Ali’s parents are hardly ever around because of their jobs, so they normally leave Valary in charge, but she doesn’t really care what Ali does, as long as he doesn’t get killed or something like that.
‘Thanks Al,’ Alex smiled weakly ‘Any chance I could get him bandaged up before he falls asleep on me again?’
‘Wha…’ Ed said sleepily.
‘Yeah.’ Ali replied ‘There should be a first aid box or something like over there somewhere. Val, go give him a hand.’ Ali disappeared upstairs and Valary walked over to them both. She passed Alex a green box.
‘You should be careful with those antiseptic wipes; that looks nasty.’ she advised.
A phone rang somewhere and Valary went darting off and grabbed the white handset.
‘Hello, Paul residence, Valary speaking. How may I help you?’ She began. Alex and Ed presumed she liked sounding like she worked in a call center.
‘Oh, hey Claire.’ she continued, looking at Ed. Alex gently wiped the wound on Ed’s cheek and Ed winced slightly.
‘Sorry.’ Alex whispered, binning the wipe and unrolling something he thought was reasonable to cover it. He trimmed it down and tenderly stuck it over the cut.
‘Thanks Lex. What would I do without you?’ Ed whispered, smiling.
‘You’d be very, very lonely for a start…’ Alex replied, taking his hand.
‘Claire, he’s fine, honestly.’ Valary sighed exasperatedly. She passed the phone to Ed.
‘Just talk to her, she doesn’t believe me that you’re okay.’ she sighed. Ed put the phone to his ear and instantly a tinny reflection of Claire’s voice was blasting from the phone.
‘Ed? Ed, are you okay?’ she asked anxiously.
‘Claire, I’m fine.’ Ed replied, trying to comfort her.
‘Oh thank God.’ she sighed in relief.
‘Is that it?’ Ed asked, getting distracted by Ali coming back down the stairs. Val mouthed ‘thank you.’ as Ed passed the phone back to her.
‘You can go up and sleep to your heart’s content now.’ Ali told them ‘Made up a bed on the floor for you guys.’
‘Thanks.’ Alex said, giving Ed a quick shake to make sure he was still awake.
‘Oh, one thing though.’ Ali started ‘No screwing on my bedroom floor please.’