The Kind of Hoax That Leaves a Lump in Your Throat

The flight was booked for Tuesday because mid week flights are cheaper, and it was safe to say I was shitting myself. I must have been about 4 the last time I went on a plane so I had no idea what to expect.

Josh and I were waiting for out flight to be called and I couldn’t stop bobbing my legs up and down uncontrollably. In the end josh put his hands on my knee’s to stop them and looked into my eyes.

“Love, I fly all the time, you have nothing to be worried about okay? I’ll make sure nothing happens to you”

“Promise?”

“Promise” he smiled and then kissed me. “You nervous about seeing your parents?”

“More nervous than you seem to be”

“Yeah well ive already spoken to your mum, she loves me”

“How do you know that?”

“I can just tell” he winked. “Plus, all the ladies love me”

Our flight was then called and we boarded. Josh held my hand when we took off and he kept laughing at how much of a wimp I was being. After about an hour I’d calmed down and I pretty much slept for the first part of the flight. We then stopped Singapore and were off again. The flight passed in a blur which is strange since it took over 20, but I was grateful for that. Soon we had landed and we were off the plane.

“Right so your rents are picking us up from here, you go find them and I’ll go get our bags okay?”

“You sure you don’t want any help?”

“I’ll be fine, plus I figured you’d be doing all that emotional reunion stuff and you don’t need me in the way”

He kissed my cheeks quickly and then disappeared, leaving me to go in search of my parents. I was walking around aimlessly for about 5 minutes with them no where in sight, but then I caught sight of my mums hair.

Lets be honest, you couldn’t miss it really.

My mum was always scared of going grey, so she covered it up with blonde highlights. She’s been doing it for as long as I could remember, and it seemed as if she wasn’t stopping any time soon. My dad looked pretty much the same too; the only real difference was that they both now had killer tans.

I got that little pang in my chest, and I felt like the breath had been knocked out of me at the sight of them. I guess I never realised how much I missed them. I couldn’t deny it now though. Even though they were right in front of me, it didn’t feel real.

They hadn’t seen me yet, and I hadn’t really planned how I was going to do this. I mean should I just walk up to them? Or were we gonna do that cheesy stare at each other from a distance bit before sprinting to each other and flinging ourselves into each others arms?

They were looking around for me, but for some reason they never looked right at me. I began walking over to them and when I was about 10 feet away my mum suddenly clocked me.

Her eyes went wide and the biggest smile I have ever seen her ware suddenly took over her face. I smiled back just as brightly and we quickly closed the small gap between us.

As soon as her arms were around me I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding and the floodgates opened. I felt another pair of arms go around us and figured it was probably my dad. We didn’t say anything for a while; we just held each other and silently cried happy tears.

My mum lifter her head up and brushed some hair out of my face and wiped a few tears away whilst she was at it. “Violet” she whispered in her new accent. “You look so beautiful and grown up. Where my baby gone?”

“Im still here” I giggled and she held me against her again.

“We’ve missed you” my dad then suddenly chimed in.

“I’ve missed you too. I really have”

“Well you’re here now” my mum smiled and then grabbed my hand. “Where’s this lad of yours? I can’t wait to meet him; he sounds like a right gentleman”

“He better be, or he’ll have me to answer too” my dad joked and jabbed his elbow in my ribs.

“Dad, he’s fine. He’s just getting our bags, we should probably got find him” I smiled and we walked over to where the baggage area was.

I saw josh right away, he was trying to carry all our bags, and looked like he was about to drop them all. I dropped my mums hand and rushed over to him and as he saw me coming over he put a few on the floor.

“Why didn’t you get one of those trolley things?”

“There weren’t any left” he moaned and flexed his arms. “You alright?” he asked wiping away the last few tears that were clinging to my cheeks.

“Yeah, come on, my mum is very eager to meet you” I joked.

“Whoopee” he replied with a laugh before grabbing the bags and making our way back over to may parents.

“Mum, dad, this is josh. Josh these are my parents” I smiled.

“Lovely to meet you josh” my mum said and held her hand out.

“Lovely to meet you too Mrs. Simmons”

“Please call me Wendy” she smiled. I could tell she liked him. Thank God.

“Nice to meet you josh, call me Jon” my dad smiled and held his hand out for josh to shake.

“Nice to meet you too”

“Right, lets get out of here shall we?” my mum announced before we all grabbed a bag and made out way out to the car park. Thankfully they drove on the left here so I wouldn’t be freaking out as cars came hurtling towards me.

We made small talk on the way, mostly about my job, where I was living etcetera. and then we moved onto josh’s job which they found far more interesting than mine. Then again who could blame them?

It took about an hour to get to their house and when we did; my eyes nearly fell out of my head.

When we were all living back in England we lived in a tiny two bedroom house with not enough room to swing a cat. But their new house was entirely the opposite. I could tell it was massive inside from just looking at it.

“Wow, how the hell did you afford this?” I asked, slightly bewildered.

“Ours jobs are far better paid now love, so money goes a bit further” my dad replied.

“I can see that” I said. Even josh looked impressed at the size of it.

“right ive set up the main guest bedroom for you two, but if you wanna go in one of the other’s feel free” my mum said, leading us up the front steps.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, thanks mum”

She opened the door and we walked into the house. there was a massive staircase in front of us and then all the doors to the other rooms were off to the side. My mum didn’t stop; she carried on walking and then started up the staircase.

“oh so you live in a mansion but there’s no lift or escalator?” I questioned and she just laughed.

“hush up lazy bum. Exercise will do you good”

I somehow made it to the top and then my mum led us down the long hallway into the main guest bedroom. It was massive, with a walk in wardrobe and a mirror that took up almost one of the walls. She dumped some bags on the bed, as did I, and then fell to the floor.

“god I need to do more exercise” I breathed and josh just laughed before putting same bags next to me. “I don’t think I can do that again”

“well, us big strong men will get the rest of them eh?” my dad said, and then josh and him left the room.

“up ya get love, you need to unpack” my mum said and I could hear her unzipping a bag.

“I’ll be up in a sec” I moaned and then the sound of her rummaging around in my bag stopped. I looked up at her to see she was holding a vest with tennis balls sewn into the back of it.

“vi, what the hell is this?”

“its kind of a long story” I giggled and sat up before sitting on the bed. “I um, I have sleep apnoea, and if I can’t sleep I have to put that on.”

“violet” she said shocked and then collapsed down next to me. “I had no idea, how long have you known for?”

“just over 6 months maybe? I’m fine though mum, im dealing with it”

“im so sorry I haven’t been there for you” she said after a few seconds of silence. Her voice was thick and when I looked at her there were tears falling down her face.

“hey you weren’t to know. It’s fine mum”

“we shouldn’t have left; you were too young to be by yourself.”

“mum, I’m fine okay? Im happy. And I can tell you are too. maybe it was good you went when you did. Ive grown up a lot and I think that’s what I needed.”

She sniffed and looked at me then. “I guess. Ive just miss you is all”

“ive missed you too” I smiled and then she held onto me like I might disappear.

We broke apart when we heard a loud crash come from downstairs, but then josh’s booming laugh came with it. I smiled and shook my head and when I looked back at my mum she was giving me “the look”. It was very unsettling.

“what?”

“He means a lot to you, huh?”

I sighed and looked down at my hands. “Yeah, he does”

“good. Im glad you have someone like him. he seems like a lovely young man”

“he is” I replied, before josh and my dad came back in giggling.

“now I hate to ask, but what was that noise?”

“oh nothing” my dad said quickly before placing the bags on the floor and leaving the room in a rush. My mum sighed and stood up shaking her head and put my stuff back down.

“right, I’ll leave you two too it, our room is at the opposite end of the hall, we’ll be downstairs if you need us” she smiled and then left.

Josh took her place and pulled me onto his lap before planting a kiss of then end of my nose. “what was that noise?” I questioned and josh just laughed.

“nothing, we cleared it up”

“josh!”

“its nothing love” he laughed.

“keeping secrets’ from me Joshua?”

“oh wow, use of the full name? I must be in deep shit”

“yup” I giggled and he pressed his lips to mine. “thank you for doing this for me josh”

“for you my love, I’d do anything, you know that.”

“now let’s get unpacking” I smiled and he groaned.

“Can we not just like leave it, and then it’ll save packing it again.”

“That is the most stupid thing I have ever heard” I commented and then got up. It took us about an hour and a half to unpack everything, and when everything was done we collapsed onto the bed. After a few seconds josh moved around a bit and then stopped.

“Mattresses don’t squeak” he said and winked.

“what does… oh josh that’s awful”

“What? If the need arises, then we won’t be heard, that’s all”

I shook my head and buried my head in his chest.

“joshy im tired”

“sleep then love, it is kinda late”

“okay.” I sighed and we quickly got under the covers, “Night josh”

“Night love, sweet dreams”