Say It One More Time

I walked in to find the hallway covered with shoes. As we walked into the living room I saw mum being cradled by Aunty Laura, Uncle James pacing up and down angrily, and then Ally, Iris, Bob, Ray and Mikey sat slightly awkwardly, all looking worried.
“Rennie! Oh thank god!” Ally screamed, running at me and smothering me in a hug, “Where did you go? We were so worried!”
“Apparently near where Mikey works… I wasn’t thinking, I was too angry…” I mumbled to her, “Does mum know?”
I felt her nod into my shoulder; I looked over to see mum staring blankly at the wall.
I let go of Ally and walked over to her. Laura moved over immediately to let me in. I wrapped my arms around her, crying once more.

“I’m so sorry” I whispered.
“No.” mum said bluntly, “You didn’t tell him to go and fuck another woman.”
I pulled away, seeing a look of pure anger on her face. I have never seen her like this before.
“I can’t fucking believe that I fell for that stupid lie, over and over again.” As she spoke, she wriggled her wedding ring off her finger, quickly followed by her engagement ring. She held them tightly in her fist before throwing them as hard as she could into the kitchen.
Laura let out a gasp as she watched her sister’s life practically fall apart in front of us.
We all sat in silence for what felt like hours before we heard the door handle turning.
Mum’s head shot up, an evil glare plastered over her face.
Frank had sat down next to me a while ago, but now he laced his fingers into mine, offering me support.

“H-honey? Are you home?” I heard his voice call out nervously.
“Are you fucking kidding me?! You actually think you have the right to call me honey after you stick your tongue down some slag’s throat, and god knows what else?! You fucking make me sick.” Mum screamed, louder than I’ve ever heard her shout.
“Please… Let me explain…” he now tried the same move on mum. I wasn’t going to let him do that.
“No. Don’t you fucking dare try the sympathy vote on mum. I didn’t work on me, it is not going work on her!”
Everyone in the room was glaring at dad.
“Please… Just hear me out…”
“No. Get the fuck out. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
“Please honey, I love you, don’t do this, it was a misunderstanding!” he tried pleading.
“Lorena might be young, but I don’t think she ‘misunderstood’ what you kissing another woman meant, she’s not stupid and neither am I! Get the fuck out!”
“No… Please…”
“She said get out,” James cut in this time, “So do it. Go.”
“You have no right to tell me to get out of my own fucking house!” Dad shouted at James.
“She doesn’t want you here, she said so herself, so just do yourself a favour, and get out.”
“Fuck you James, I’m staying.”

This pushed James to breaking point. Before anyone could say anything more, James had punched dad square in the face, causing blood to leak out of his nose.
“Get the fuck out!” He shouted, before picking dad up, and shoving him out of the still open front door, slamming it shut and locking it tight.
“Jesus fucking Christ…” he muttered as he returned to the living room.
It wasn’t long before we could hear dad pounding on the door.
“Well… It doesn’t look like any of us are going anywhere tonight…” Laura stated.
“Do you guys want to phone your parents? I don’t mind if you stay” mum said gently to my friends. “I’ll bring some quilts down and you can all sleep in here”
“Are you sure mum?” I asked her.
“Yeah… You need to be with friends… I’ve got Laura and James…”
“Yeah and we’ll have the police soon if he doesn’t stop banging…” Gee mumbled.
“Come on Rennie, help me get the quilts, help yourself to the phone guys” mum said, smoothing herself off as she stood up and left the room.

I followed her up the stairs to the airing cupboard.
“I’m so sorry you had to see that sweetie” she said to me, pulling me into a hug and kissing the top of my head.
“At least he can’t mess us around anymore…” I commented on the lost meals and evenings alone that this affair had caused.
She passed me a pile of quilts, which I decided to throw down the stairs.
She giggled, looking at me strangely.
“What? It’s easier that way” I defended my actions, “Plus, I can now get the men to do the carrying” she laughed a small laugh again, shaking her head.
“Oi! Which of you guys wants to prove their strength and manliness?!” I shouted downstairs.
It wasn’t long before Gee and Bob raced into the hall and fell over the pile of quilts that they hadn’t seen.
“I burst into laughter at the sight of them, and soon enough I heard Frank’s giggle coming from the doorway as he watched Bob and Gee struggle with standing up. I smiled looking at them, truly grateful for meeting them.
“So… What’s going on with you and that Frank?” Mum said, nudging my arm.
“Oh… Erm… Well, he kinda asked me on a date on Saturday…” I could my cheeks burning up.
“Finally! I’ve known that you like him for ages, plus Laura says he’s a good kid.”
I smiled, thinking about what Saturday was going to bring.
“I bought a new outfit for it today, I’ll show you tomorrow after school, we’ll have a girly night in”
“Ooh now that sounds good, I’ll pick up a film, maybe a bottle of wine…”
“Sounds like a plan” I smiled. We picked up the last of the quilts and pillows and threw them down the stairs, on top of Gee who was still stuck on the floor.

We went back downstairs, mum went into the kitchen and put the kettle on, but I went straight into the living room.
“Hey, are you ok Rennie?” Iris asked as I sat down.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine, at least I’ve got you guys here”
“And you’ve got Frankie!” Gee giggled like a child. Mikey just rolled his eyes at his older brother’s immaturity. I threw the pillow that I still had in my hands in his direction, hitting him square in the face, causing an outburst of laughter from everyone.
James walked in with a look of complete confusion on his face.
“Right… Well I have no idea what you guys are up to… But there’s pizzas and drinks in the kitchen if you want.” He said before quickly leaving. It didn’t take long for Bob to jump up and run out of the room, soon followed by Iris. I swear she is actually the female Bob sometimes…

Just as everyone else was getting up to leave, Frank tapped me on the arm, quietly getting my attention.
“You ok Rennie?” he asked me.
“Yeah… As good as I can be really… But yeah…”
“You know… If you want to cancel Saturday… I don’t mind, I understand…” his eyes looked sad as he said this.
“No! I don’t want to, it won’t do me any good sitting around wallowing in self-pity… Plus… I’ve already bought a new outfit”
He smiled at me, pleased that I wasn’t going to change my mind.
“Can I know what this outfit is?” he asked slyly.
“Nope” I smiled at him as I turned away and skipped into the kitchen.

“It’s a good job I went shopping today and stocked up on pizza isn’t it?” Mum laughed as we all tried to sit ourselves at the table, unfortunately, we only have four chairs… “Maybe I should’ve picked up some chairs while I was out…”
“Well I think the men should sit on the floor… I’m sure us girls can squeeze in” I suggested to a chorus of moans from the guys, including James.
“Don’t be silly, you kids take yours into the living room, put a film on or something” Mum insisted, I still preferred the idea of making them sit on the floor… Oh well… I picked up two of the plates and made my way into the living room, hoping that the others would follow. With food.
I put the plates down on the coffee table and went over to the DVD cabinet to choose a film. I picked out ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’, it was one of my favourite films and books.
I put it into the DVD player as the rest of the food and the drinks arrived, and pressed play.

“Ooh I love this film!” Gee squealed as he jumped onto the sofa.
“Same, it’s one of my favourites” I told them as I too, sat down.
“Hey! Save some of the veggie pizzas for me!” Frank shouted as Ray dove straight into one of them. Me and Frank were the only vegetarians, so we got quite protective over our pizzas.
I stole the plate off Ray, picked up the other one and made my way over to where Frank was sitting.
“There you go Frankie, one whole pizza to yourself” I said, talking to him like he was a little kid. He grinned in response, immediately stuffing a slice into his mouth…
“Wow… You are so civilised Frank…” I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.
Bob laughed, “You sound so posh when you talk like that!” he said, with a mouth full of pizza.
“You’re just as bad…” I then told him.
“Shhhh! I’m trying to watch this!” Gee interrupted suddenly, shutting us all up. We continued to eat, now in silence, while we watched the film.