All Yours Somehow

The next morning, when I woke up, I rolled over to see John was still sound asleep in my bed. At least he didn’t disappear without a goodbye, I thought to myself. I pulled my covers back and walked over to my dresser and pulled on some underwear. I saw John’s white t-shirt that he’d been wearing last night on the floor and grabbed it and pulled it over my head. Walking out of my room, I couldn’t hear any noise coming the house so continued through to the kitchen. I went straight to the fridge and grabbed some eggs and milk before searching through the cupboards looking for some other things. I eventually ended up with enough ingredients to make some pancakes and found some syrup to go with them. As I began to mix it all together, I heard someone moving around the house.

“Oh, hey sis,” Summer said, walking into the kitchen. “What happened to you last night?”

“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me,” I laughed. She gave me a confused look and knew she wanted to know what happened. “I ended up at Stephen’s house. Him and his brother were having one of their parties.”

“What the hell! I thought you hated them and avoided their stupid parties?!” she asked, taking a seat at the breakfast bar whilst I continued to cook.

“I only hate Stephen, and yes I do normally, but Holly took me there without telling me that’s where we were going,” I explained.

“Wait, who’s shirt are you wearing?” she asked. “Oh god, Hannah, please don’t tell me it’s Stephen’s...”

“God no! It’s actually-”

“Good morning ladies,” John said, walking up to the breakfast bar next to Summer, wearing just his boxers and jeans.

“JOHN!?” Summer squealed, jumping up and hugging him. All my family had a soft spot for John. To my parents, he was the son they never had, to Summer he was the big brother she had always longed for. Stephen was always quiet around my parents and had always insisted he didn’t have much in common with Summer. John, however, always made time to sit and talk to my mom and dad and even though she was only two years younger than me, John was very protective of my little sister.

“Summer! You’re perky this morning!” he responded.

“Well it is nearly midday!” she laughed.

“So, I guess it’s pancakes for three?” I turned around asked them.

“None for me, thanks. I’m actually just off to the gym,” Summer said, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. “John, it was good to see you. Han, I’ll catch you later!” she said before walking towards the front door and leaving the house.

“You know, it’s not exactly fair that my shirt looks better on you than it does me,” he commented, moving from the breakfast bar to stand behind me. He wrapped his arms around me as I put down the pancake mix. I turned around in his arms and looked up at him.

“Well, you shouldn’t leave it just lying around, never know who might pick it up,” I smiled.

“I could always take it back you know,” he whispered, bringing his mouth closer to my ear before running his hands underneath his shirt and around my back. Chills went down my spine.

“But then what would I wear?” I breathed, before turning back to making us pancakes. He groaned as I moved away from him.

“So, have you got any plans for today?” he asked.

“Erm, no actually, I am free as a bird.”

“OK, so how about me and you hang out today?” he smiled at me.

“Alright, what have you got in mind, O’Callaghan?”

“Shower and get ready. We’ll swing by my place and go from there?” he suggested. “By the way,” he whispered in my ear, “I love it when you call me O’Callaghan.”

I giggled and began to walk away. “In that case, O’Callaghan, I’ll be right back,” I smiled.

I got ready as fast as I could, leaving John in my living room as I did everything I needed to. Once I was all done, I walked back out to find him leaning against the breakfast bar looking at something on his phone.

“That didn’t take too long, how do you manage to look so effortlessly gorgeous?” he said, looking up at me as I walked in. He leaned down and kissed my cheek causing me to smile back at him widely.

“You cleaned up! I guess we’ll give breakfast a miss!” I said, looking back at the kitchen. “Right let’s go!” I said, starting towards my front door. I drove towards his house with the roof down and my stereo blasting as the wind blew my hair. I turned into his street and pulled up on his drive.

“I love how easily you can drive to my house,” he said, getting out the car. “It’s like you’ve never been away!”

We walked up to his door and he went straight in. I followed him to his bedroom and sat down on his bed.

“I just need to shower and dress and then we can head out,” John told me before grabbing clean clothes and heading towards his bathroom.

I was sat in his room checking my phone while I waited when suddenly his bedroom door opened and a woman walked in.

“OH!” John’s mum gasped, as she put a pile of clothes on top of his dresser. “Hannah? What are you doing here?”

“Hi, I’m hanging out with John today, I’m just waiting for him to get ready,” I told her.

“Oh that’s nice. I didn’t even hear you come in! I haven’t seen you in a while, how have you been? Finished college yet?”

“I’m good, thank you. Very nearly, just got this year’s finals to go and I’m all done.”

“I bet you can’t wait to finish, right? Last year’s always the hardest though,” she smiled. I’d always gotten along with John’s family like he did with mine. With two other sons as well as John, I was the daughter that his mom had always wanted.

“Da na na, dada daaa,” John walked back in humming and singing, whilst rubbing his hair with a towel. I looked him up and down as he stood there in just his jeans. “Oh, hey Mom.”

“Good morning, son,” she said, as she walked back out of his room and shutting the door behind her.

“You know, you really need to start wearing a shirt, otherwise, who knows what might happen,” I said, standing up and walking towards where he was stood. “Anyway, hurry up, I’ve thought of something we can do today!”

He looked through the clothes his mom had just brought in before pulling on a black t-shirt with some kind of pattern on the front. I told him to grab some swim shorts and directed him to my lake house.

“Your parents still own this place? I forgot how amazing this place is!”

“Yep, well technically, I do now. They’ve signed it over to me, it’s mine whenever I want to move in, it was sort of a late 21st birthday present,” I told him. I didn’t come to the lake house very often. It was too big for just me, so usually I only came here when me and Holly wanted some chill out time.

“Why aren’t you living here already?”

“It feels weird, I feel too young to be living on my own. Plus I like the fact that when I’m not at school for the holidays and summer, I get to come home to the house I grew up in,” I told him, as he grabbed his keys and wallet. “For now, I like that I can use it for hot days like today.”

It was an amazing house, almost the same size as our actual home. My dad owned his own business, so my family weren’t exactly desperate for cash, but we never shoved it in other people’s faces. We had lived in the same house all my life and my parents decided to buy this lake house when I was 8. We barely used it, it was normally just for days that my dad decided he wanted to go out on his boat.

John and I hung out around the house for a while. I found some food in the cupboards and managed to cook us some quick lunch which we ate on the back decking. We talked for a couple of hours catching up on everything we hadn’t already. He asked about college and everything that I was doing and then he told me about being on tour and what he’d been up to at home the few times he’d been back. It was moments like this that I really missed with John. There were never any real conversations anymore.

After sitting in the sun for a while, I had an idea.

“Wait here a second, I’ll be right back,” I told John, getting up.

I walked through the house to the master bedroom that was now my bedroom. I kept a few bits of clothes here just in case I ever decided to come here without bringing any from home. I found my favorite black bikini and went into my bathroom and put it on before pulling my hair up on top of my head.

“Damn Hannah! And I thought you looked good in my shirt!” John said as his eyes went wide when I stepped back outside.

“Well, you see I thought it was time we made use of this pool,” I smiled, walking over to him.

“Give me two seconds,” he said, getting up from where he was sat and running inside. He was back a minute later in the shorts he’d brought with him from his house. “Now, what was that about the pool?”

As I walked towards the pool in my backyard, John suddenly came behind me and picked me up and jumped in the pool. Before I knew it, we were both underwater, still with his arms holding me tightly. As we came back up, I turned around and he let go of me.

“You dick!” I said sarcastically as I splashed water in his direction. “I’m gonna kill you, O’Callaghan!”

“Oh no you don’t,” he laughed as he splashed back twice as hard.

We played about in the pool for a while before getting out and sitting on the side with just our legs dangling in the water.

“Today’s been really fun, thank you,” he said, looking down at me.

“Yeah, I’ve really enjoyed it,” I smiled back at him.

Everything felt different. Everything felt better.