Tia Summers turned out to be the sweetest woman I'd ever encountered in my existence. There wasn't a minute of the entire evening in which she wasn't smiling or making each of us laugh and her hilarious aura was almost powerful enough to distract me from my previous negative feelings about spending dinner with her son.

Almost.

Our dining table has places for six people and yet Taylor chose to sit right beside me opposite our mums. Every two minutes i found myself having to swat his hand away from my knee and by the time it had got to dessert I had had enough.

Mum had made an apple pie for dessert and since she wanted us to have that "fresh out of the oven" taste she had chosen to bake it after the pasta dish we had meaning that there was a break in between courses. As mum and Tia departed to the kitchen to continue their never-ending flow of conversation I gained my opportunity to confront Taylor and yet when I turned to face him I was halted in my tracks when I saw a rather bemused expression on his face.

"What...?" I asked cautiously, starting to worry that I had pasta sauce all around my mouth and mum had simply failed to tell me.

"Are you preparing for a speech or something? You've been mouthing words to yourself for the last three minutes," he replied, with that stupid grin still present.

Naturally his comments rapidly turned my cheeks into tomatoes and all thoughts of ranting at him flew out the window since I became too embarrassed to think about anything but how ridiculous I must have looked.

"Cat got your tongue?" he continued to tease, and I froze in my seat.

*** 4 years previously***

"Dad! It's so good to see you again, I've got so much to tell you about school. Jax got his first detention today and he cried like a total baby!" I laughed, trying to make sure my voice was picked up on the microphone of the laptop.

"I can imagine that entirely," dad responded, smiling as widely as I was.

It had been at least a month since I'd spoken to dad since he's been deployed to the Middle East and I'd built up a whole list of things I wanted to talk about with him. The two of us had always been close and it was heartbreaking to me whenever he had to go away for up to 18 months at a time.

"To be honest Mr Gray was really OTT about it, I mean Jax only forgot his homework like three times and we all make mistakes, right? Truth is he was too busy watching America's Next Top Model episodes from season 1, but still,"

"I hope you're not doing the same young lady," my dad teased, raising his eyebrow at me through the webcam.

I simply diverted my eyes knowing he'd caught me out.

"Cat got your tongue?" dad winked at me.

Suddenly a group of soldiers in their army gear ran behind my dad's back. A loud explosion could be heard in the background and all of the men were shouting to one another. Gun shots were gradually getting louder and louder and even though I was asking dad what was happening over and over again he clearly couldn't hear me as he looked around at the chaos behind him.

Dad didn't say another word before the connection was lost and I was left staring at a blank Skype screen.

*** Present Time ***

You see those were the last words my dad said to me. The last time I spoke to him. And even though four years had passed since the day we learnt of his death, my memory was forever engraved with the chaos of the scene I witnessed at fourteen years old. That phrase still affected me and I hadn't had it said to me for so long that it was like a catalyst for me to remember the event.

My dad was thirty five years old when he died. He wouldn't live to see his only daughter graduate, nor would he see her get married or get to play with his grandchildren. Thirty five is no age to die, and for a long time after his funeral I had firmly decided that the world was a horrible place.

I was no longer in the mood to sit at the table with a guy I had wished never to see again. I was no longer in the mood to call him out on his touches or his cocky attitude. I honestly just wanted to go to bed and forget about the whole thing.

"I'm just gonna take these plates through," I murmured, collecting each of our plates as well as the serving dish and walking away from a puzzled Taylor into the kitchen.

A/N

So it has been a month since I last updated and I'm so happy to see that 203 people have read this story. It may not seem like a large number to many but it means a lot to me to know people are reading my work.

I'm currently studying for my GCSEs so I've been super busy but after this week I shall be free to update more regularly.

The photo is of Tia Summers, played by Maria Canals-Barrera.

Question of the day - is everyone looking forward to Summer?!

Amelia <3