Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)

I hated being out of it when something important happened. You must be feeling the same thing, right? It's just so eternally frustrating to wake up and everything is in complete chaos and your head hurts like you have mega hangover when you know you haven't previously been drinking. Everything felt heavy and there was a stickiness across the back of my head where Mary must've hit me. I moaned as I slowly opened my eyes, everything hazy and dream like. When I moved my head, everything blurred and refocused. I felt nauseated so I instantly closed my eyes again, taking a deep breath to make the motion sickness go away. As I tried to open my eyes again, they were held down by two fingers and a pair of precious lips were pressed against my ear, muttering something unintelligible at first but it came to me at last.

"Keep them closed, for your sake and mine, keep them closed," said the voice that I recognised as Tommy's. "When I nudge you, act like you have just awoken."

I was going to respond but the lips were on mine, keeping me quiet. They were off mine in a second and there was a quiet hush in room, or wherever I was at that moment. I tried my best to keep still, to keep my breathing to a minimum, as hard as it was. I heard creaking of the floor and shuffling of feet with distant closing of doors and muttering. I could still feel Tommy's presence in the room and tried to distinguish his movements from the rest that I heard in the silence. He was kneeling beside me, his hands upon his lap and breathing with heavy sighs. If he was crying, I didn't want him to be. I wanted no unnecessary tears to be shed for me. I was just a regular human, after all, and it's not like I meant much to anyone that was in this house apart from Tommy. If anyone had a right to cry for me, it would have to be Tommy, but I still didn't want him to cry for me.

Someone came into the room because I heard their shuffling footsteps from outside the door and the slow squeaking of the door handle as the door opened. There was another soft breathing added as the person shuffled into the room and shut the door behind them. Tommy didn't move from beside me as this person knelt down on the other side of me, feeling their eyes searching my features and the rest of my body. Hearing this person sigh, when they spoke I recognised a slight kindness in their voice and that it was female. It had a similar quality to Tommy's and when she spoke, it confirmed my thoughts of Tommy and this woman being related.

"Mum's in my room down the hall," the woman said. "She seemed pretty worked up."

This only raised more questions. Tommy said he was an only child, didn't he? If this woman was his sister, why did he not tell me about her? There was lots of things that Tommy had not told me about and his sister was one of them, his mother being an absolute nutcase and his father being as interchangeable as a piece of clothing. I could tell how Tommy came to be as strong as he was because of his crazy parents but I wasn't sure about his sister as yet. It took a lot of self-worth and respect to get through life with parents like Mary and Anthony. I wanted to take his hand and tell him how strong he was, how much I loved him, but his words held me true. I wanted to do this for him, moving only when he nudged me to.

"She's always been this worked up," Tommy said from beside me in a monotone voice. "Sometimes you have just been too blind to see it."

"Well, thanks for pointing it out so dramatically on the day I was coming back to visit our rentals for easter," Tommy's sister said. "Just a teenie bit OTT, don't you think?"

"The way things were going, it was bound to happen, don't you think?" he said.

"I never thought it was going to be this bad," she said, sighing. "But how is your girl, anyway? She looks pretty beat up. Would've thought you would have fixed her up by now."

"I was going to wait until she came back round," Tommy said, taking my hand. "Would've been easier that way then dealing with her waking up in shock."

"Her wounds could've been serious!" she exclaimed as her hands went to the wound on the back of my head.

"Some nurse you are," Tommy grunted as I felt his nudge and I instantly awoke.

Gasping as my eyes flung open, I looked up at the ceiling where I saw Tommy and his sister in the edges of my vision. In my brief study of her features, Tommy and her looked a lot a like despite their clear age difference. His sister looked really young for whatever age she was. Maybe eight or so years younger than Tommy' was, maybe. But that was only my guess. Her expression turned from worried to shocked as she looked upon my sudden movement. Upon Tommy's face was a small smirk, knowing that he had played a little trick upon his sister. Tommy was the first to react to my movements and pulled me up from my position, sitting me up against his jumper.

"Your jumper…" she motioned as I tried to relax against me, coughing slightly, which was something my body was doing itself, not something I had told it to do.

"I ask myself everyday why I have a sister so vain," Tommy said as he held me in a position that might have been comfortable to me but God knows how uncomfortable to him. "Why was I born with such an idiotic inbred of a sister."

"Don't be so rude," I managed to mutter through my coughs. "At least you have family."

"For a girl that just got hit over the back of the head pretty bad, she actually makes some sense," she said. "I like you."

"I'm not sure about you yet," I said with a weak smile, feeling my mouth a little swollen. "But will you be my maid of honour?"

Her face got even more serious as she glared at Tommy, saying, "Get her up on the bed, now. We have some serious talking to do when I get back with my medicine case."

In that instant, she got up and left the room. Tommy groaned from behind me and helped me up onto the bed. I thought he would have struggled with someone like me but he did it effortlessly. I was either lighter than I had expected or he was stronger than I thought he was. I was happy either way that I was now lying on something a little more comfortable. I was about to collapse backwards were my head would have hit against the wall but Tommy was there in time and held me against his jumper. He leaned against the wall and lifted me up into his lap were his fingers slithered around to the back of my neck. I felt him touching my wound lightly, making a ticking noise as his lips touched a place near the wound. I smiled softly but my lips went back to their pained position as soon as I tried to smile.

"You never told me you had a sister," I said as I felt him pushing the stray hairs off my wound.

"We don't talk as much as we should," Tommy said.

"Figured that much," I said as she returned to the room and knelt down in front of me with a small case of medicines.

"Tommy Joe Ratliff," she said as she motioned for me to turn around. "Start talking."

"This is my sister, Debbie," Tommy said from behind me as he held out his hand to his sister and she rolled her eyes as she handed him a cotton bud. "She's an absolute sweetheart and I absolutely love her."

"Isn't that the biggest lie I've ever heard," Debbie said as Tommy pressed the cotton bud to my wound and I cringed, making Debbie groan. "You're making her cringe."

"It's not like she wouldn't have done the same if you pressed it to this wound," Tommy retorted as he continued to press the cotton bud against my wound. "Right now, I think she trusts me more than you."

Debbie narrowed her eyes at Tommy as she refocussed upon me, saying, "I'm Debroah-Ann Ratliff, Tommy's little sister by about five years. As you know, Tommy and I don't really like to get along as the rest of my family. Mum and dad practically disowned me for eloping with this guy a few years back and they've never talked about me since." That made sense. "Now that we know about each other enough, do you trust me yet to help clean up that wound?"

"No," I said as bluntly as I could and hearing Tommy laugh behind me. "The only person I actually trust is Tommy."

Debbie groaned as Tommy handed her the blood stained cotton bud in exchange for a new one, saying, "So, what were you saying about asking my sister to be your bridesmaid?"

"I was originally going to ask your nut case of a mother but that seems a little out of the question right now," I said, my sense fully restoring and the neausiating experience I had felt earlier slowly, but surely, disappearing.

"I'm starting to like you even more," Debbie said. "And what kind of wedding were you expecting to have, just in case I might accept your offer of being your maid of honour."

"A very small one at that," I replied, squeezing Tommy's leg.

"I like the sound of that," Tommy said, kissing the crook of my neck.

"With the amount of money that you have, I would have expected that you would have soothing a little more larger," Debbie said as Tommy exchanged the second cotton bud for a square band aid and while he was at it, he pulled he band aids off my fingers and seeing them completely healed.

"I think I would like to keep my money for other reasons, thanks," I said as Tommy's arms went around me and held me tight.

"When I saw you both on the front of 'Vogue', I never thought you would actually last," Debbie said, packing her things. "But it looks like you guys are stronger than ever." Her eyes went to the ring upon my finger. "And Tommy is deeper than I thought he was, getting a ring like mum's." I smiled, taking the ring from my finger and handing it to Debbie as she studied it, seeing the inscription on the inside. "Tommy Joe & Kassandra Ratliff. Sweet." She handed the ring back to me. "I think I might accept, being your only family that is actually going to be coming and all."

"I extended Anthony and invitation, but if he doesn't want to accept, that's his problem," I said as I put the ring back on my finger.

"He won't come, even if mum let him," Debbie said. "But seriously, Tommy. Why didn't you tell me you were cutting yourself from the world forever?"

"It's not like it lasted long with you so don't complain," Tommy said as he watched her stand. "Besides, it's not like we talk much, do we?"

"You got that right," Debbie said, motioning to me. "We need to find you a dress asap and organise everything. I've already got an idea of who we could use as your photographer, so that's one thing sorted."

"You mean your little lover boy?" Tommy laughed as Debbie walked to the door.

"Give him a chance," Debbie said as she turned her attentions back to me. "But for the next six weeks, you and aI are going to be best friends."

"Consider yourself lucky it's Debbie and not Mary," Tommy said as he swung me around so that I was lying down upon the bed and he pressed himself on top of me. "You wanna get out of here?"

"You bet," I said as he kissed my lips lightly, noting the pain upon my lips.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As Tommy drove us home, it was the weirdest feeling that I have ever had in my entire life. Everything felt so strange and surreal. It was like it was finally hitting me that Tommy and I would be living here for the rest of our lives. Together, forever, with two children. Children, out of all things. I was suspecting that Tommy had already dealt with the fact that he was never going to return to the apartment that he was sharing with Monte and completely settled into the house that we walked into. As we did, Tommy following behind me with the bag of our clothes, Adam walked into the foyer and stopped in the middle when he saw us. I don't think he was so happy to see us because he was hugging me before I had even realised.

"I missed you," he whispered into my ear and felt the wound on the back of my head, spinning me around to get a better look. "What is this?"

"Mary went on some rampage and got her on the back of the head," Tommy said as if it meant nothing and continued through the foyer. "I'll be back at our room."

"This is serious!" Adam said as he turned me back around and I nodded to Tommy as he left. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said. "Tommy's sister is a nurse as she was there to help out with the wound."

"Seriously, the Ratliff family is a strange one," Adam said. "Excluding Tommy, of course."

"Be glad that Debbie is the only one that is coming to the wedding," I said as we walked from the foyer to the backyard. "She's going to be my maid of honour."

"For real?" Adam asked as we reached the patio and leaned against the railing beside each other, the sunlight kissing his breathtaking eyes.

"I was hoping that Tommy would be asking you to be his best man," I said but his expression showed that he clearly hadn't been asked yet. "But it looks like I'm going to have to ask myself…so, would you like to be his best man?"

"For sure!" Adam said, his expression excited. "I would love to be."

"We're having something small in six weeks, according to Debbie," I said.

"But prepare for something big, knowing her?" Adam asked with a laugh.

"If that's what she's like, prepare away," I said as he hugged me excitedly.

"Now I have something to distract me when we finish this album," he said as I saw Tommy standing at the door to the studios and our room, motioning for us to go to the studios.

"Just make sure that Tommy doesn't see the dress and I'll be a happy bride."