CHAPTER 6

I wake up to an unfamiliar surrounding. It takes me a while to realise in Lily's guest room. 

I get up and open the curtains, getting sunlight in the room. I walk out of the bedroom and tip toe to the bathroom to brush my teeth. 

I walk back into the guestroom and switch on my phone. I open my text messages which I have from Kimberly, Kelly and Kelsey.

It's not just my opinion though, it is a fact. -Kim.

How are you enjoying your holiday so far? Missing me? xK

Hi Kiera, when are you coming back? New Castle misses you :3 -Kel.

I laugh silently at Kelsey's message and quickly type out a reply to all of them.

(To Kimberly) Whatever floats your boat! :) ~K~

(To Kelly) It's all right, I suppose. And as for missing you? Never! :P ~K~

(To Kelsey) Hey, I'm not sure yet Kels but it'll be soon. Haha, I miss it too! :) ~K~

I put my phone away and decide to head downstairs as I hear some movement coming from downstairs. 'Oh hey,' Lily says smiling once she notices me.

'Hi.' I reply sitting on one of the stools watching her make pancakes.

'Did you sleep well?'

'I guess,' I reply quietly, not bothering to return the question.

'So do you want to talk about yesterday?' I sigh, wanting to avoid this conversation.

'There's nothing to talk about, Lucy and Katie are being seriously immature. Like a whole new level of immatureness,' she smirks and replies 'there is a reason for their behavior though.'

'And what possible reason in the entire world will excuse their immature behavior?'

'Maybe you should ask them.'

'Maybe I don't want to,' I reply leaning my head on the table.

'Did anything ever happen between you and Joe?' My head snaps up and I look at her face to see whether she's joking or not. Unfortunately, she is serious. I gasp loudly and ask 'what?'

'Answer the question.'

'Nothing has ever happened between us,' she raises her eyebrows at me.

'Are you sure?'

'Of course I'm sure, why are you asking me that?' I ask curiously.

'It's not important,' she shrugs her shoulders. 'So how is it living with your grandma?' Hot tears roll down my cheeks and she sits next to me, wrapping her arms around my neck.

'Are you okay?' She asks softly as we pull apart.

'My grandma is dead.'

'What?' I hide my face in my hands because stupidly, I failed to prepare myself for this.

'She's dead,' I repeat but this time, my voice is barely above a whisper.

'So who are you living with now?'

'My Aunt.'

'Why didn't you come back here?' 

'Too many memories,' I shrug my shoulders. She gets up to switch the pan off and puts some pancakes and decorating them in two plates before sitting back down next to me.

'Eat up,' she smiles as she attempts to distract me. 'So what do you want to do today?' She asks, looking at me.

'Nothing to be honest, I just want to keep a low profile today. Is that okay?'

'Of course it is, I'll be happy doing whatever you want to do,' she replies.

'Thanks Lily.'

'You're welcome, now eat up.' I chuckle but happily oblige.

As Lily is washing our plates, the doorbell rings. 'Do you want me to get it?' I ask as she continues washing the plates.

'Please,' she replies and I walk out of the kitchen to open the door.

'Kiera!' James shouts as soon as I open the door and pulls me into a hug. When we pull apart, I realise Kara is standing by his side and Joe is standing on his other side.

'Hi James.' I reply as I push the door open further, so they can enter.

'When did you get here?'

'Yesterday.'

'And when were you planning on telling me?' He asks as they follow me into the kitchen. I smile as I say 'I'm telling you now,' and he pouts as he sits next to me on the stools.

'Hey.' Lily greets them and they all reply with the same thing.

'What are you doing here?' I ask.

'We came to see Lily as she would be home alone but apparently, she isn't home alone because you're here. Don't you have a home or something?'

'Firstly, I'm not exactly going to stop you from seeing Lily am I? Secondly, my home is none of your business so keep your sly remarks to yourself as I don't want to hear them and I also don't give a crap what you think,' I reply angrily to Kara's statement. She looks at James who says 'that was not cool Kiera.'

'Shut up James.'

'Apologise for what you just said to her,' he says sternly. I scoff and say 'apologise for what exactly? I have no idea so please enlighten me.'

'You disrespected my girlfriend Kiera and that is not acceptable. You offended her when she was stating her opinion-'

'Similarly, I was also stating my opinion,' I cut him off and he doesn't look pleased.

'Are you going to apologise?'

'Does my face look like I'm going to apologise? I retort and he shakes his head before leaving the house while holding Kara's hand.

'Kiera, now look what you've done' scolds Lily before going after them, leaving Joe and I in the kitchen.

'Why are you here Joe?' I ask curiously.

'James thought it would be great idea to come here so I decided to tag alone. Why? Is that a problem?' He asks sitting next to me.

'I didn't say it was.'

'You didn't have to, your attitude simply says it all,' I scoff offended and defend myself.

'I don't have an attitude.'

'You do.'

'Get lost Joe, no one asked for your opinion,' I sigh in frustration. He ignores me as he doesn't move so I say 'this morning Lily asked if there was something going on between us, why did she ask me that?' His reply isn't immediate and all I receive for an answer is a shrug. 'What is that supposed to mean?'

'It means "I don't know" Kiera.'

'I think you do know.'

'Well, I don't.' I give him a disbelieving look and he sighs.

'Katie and I are no loner together.'

'What? You were both happy with one another.' I say shocked that this is the first time I'm hearing about this.

'I wasn't happy,' he states.

'What happened?' I ask curiously. He takes a deep breath before saying 'I'm sorry Kiera.'

'For what?' I ask confused.

'I told Katie that we might have hooked up and she decided to break up with me,' he softly says.

'What?' I shriek, rising from my chair.

'Calm down,' he replies, noticing my reaction.

'Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down after you tell people things like that?'

'I'm sorry okay but I didn't think you were coming back. I didn't think this would affect your relationship with her because you wouldn't find out. I only did it because I didn't want to tell Katie that I no longer wanted to be with her. That would have broken her-'

'No Joe, she's already broken and it's because of this lie that you've told,' I cut him off and I only receive a sigh as a reply.  He sinks back in his chair as he knows I'm right.

‘Isn’t this cosy?’ Katie’s voice makes me turn around to face her. Joe turns around as well and says ‘Katie, what are you doing here?’

‘I don’t have to explain myself to you,’ she replies, causing me to scoff loudly at her rude tone. ‘What Kiera?’

‘Nothing,’ I reply.

‘I don’t think it is nothing Kiera, so come on and enlighten me with your opinion.’ I look at Joe and give him a look, telling him that his one lie caused all of this. ‘Don’t look at him, I'm the one talking to you,’ snaps Katie.

‘Why are you so rude?’

‘Why did you hook up with Joe?’ She retorts almost instantly.

‘Oh, so when I thought you were acting like this because I didn’t stay in contact, it was really about me hooking up with Joe?’ I tilt my head, waiting for her to answer.

‘I'm not going to deny that,’ she replies, causing me to scoff again. ‘But you kept in contact with everyone at least once except me. Now why didn’t you contact me? I'll tell you why, because you feel guilty about the fact that you hooked up Joe and it would be much easier to ignore me.’

‘Katie, that’s not true.’

‘Yes, it is, don’t you think it’s time to stop lying?’

‘I didn’t hook up with Joe,’ I tell her sincerely. She begins fake coughing muttering ‘sure’ in between them.

‘Katie, Kiera and I didn’t hook up I lied.' She folds her arms and looks at Joe, asking ‘what do you mean you lied?’

‘I made it up; we didn’t hook up so you can stop acting like that.'

'Why would you lie about that?’

‘I'm going to go upstairs.’ I say, walking out of the kitchen. I notice Lily standing outside chatting with Kara. I roll my eyes before going to my room.

All I wanted was to keep a low profile but obviously that is too much to ask.