My heart raced in the car. The journey seemed to take forever , making the pressure build up in my head. I just wanted the ground to swallow me whole. But most of all I wanted Liam sitting beside me , holding my hand and telling my everything would be alright, but he wasn't. He was on the run and leaving me to face my nightmares. Instead it was Sapphire holding my hand and telling me it would be ok , just like a best friend should. We were approaching the wrought iron gates, it had begun to rain and the skies were darkening making Burnywood look like a haunted house. The car came to a halt and I got out of the car with Sapphire and saw Harry and Carmen getting out of a car next to us, both with the same scared look on their faces. Our care workers led us up to the door, I could hardly breathe , I was almost frozen , I couldn't go in there . Sapphire had to physically drag me into the building. It was like a prison in there I'd almost forgotten what it was like, but it all stood just the same as it had when Liam and I were here. The walls were white and plain , there was not much furniture , the cupboards locked , no carpet, decoration, hardly any light, no happy faces to greet us when we came in , just an angry scary looking man. He eyed us all ,as if we were wanted criminals ,he then looked down at the files our social workers had given him. After a quick flick through them , he threw them on the floor behind him "Right you" he pointed at me "As you've been here before you'll know how this place works , for the others here's a little introduction , you stay in your own rooms apart from the one hour the living room is open and when you have meals, you are not allowed to be loud, messy, start fights, steal or be a general nuisance, understand?" He almost shouted and then looked back at us for any signs of retaliation, none of us gave any. "Right then follow me" he said and began a brisk walk up the stairs. We grabbed our bags and followed him ,we arrived on the landing , "You three will be in there" he said pointing to the door to our right "and you , in there" he said to Harry. We gave Harry a quick goodbye and then went into our room. Well you could hardly call it a room , it was tiny "I think I'm going to go to the bathroom" Sapphire said
"Watch where you're walking, put something by the bathroom door the people here don't really respect your privacy" I said
"Thanks" she said and left me and Carmen to unpack our stuff. As I was setting up my bed , I heard a sniffle behind me , I turned to see Carmen crying "Hey what's wrong?" I asked and made my way over to her
"I'm scared" she whispered "I'm scared that what happened to you , will happen to me." I was scared of that too , I knew it never would happen ,I was just always looking over my shoulder, just in case they came back ."It won't happen I promise you Carmen, me and Sapphire will look out for you, we'll all look out for each other, ok? We have to stick together , because if your own you're not going to survive this place, but lucky for us , I have 3 years experience here so I know what I'm talking about and I'm sure we'll be home in a few weeks" I said reassuringly and hugging her. Sapphire came back and we just stayed in our room until it was time for dinner. We made our way down with Harry , who looked so scared , I hated seeing anyone , especially a little boy like Harry frightened of where they were living. Dinner was a hard and tiring task , we got stared and yelled at, we wolfed down our small portion of food for fear of it being stolen and then went up stairs. As I was going to brush my teeth , I went past a door, that I instantly recognised , my heart began to race and tears burst from my eyes. I ran straight back to my room and threw my self on my bed, Sapphire and Carmen rushed over "What happened?" Sapphire asked comfortingly
"I ..I.. I went past it.. The room where .. It happened" I said through my hysteria , Sapphire and Carmen immediately hugged me and just held me while I cried, knowing no words could help now. The only thing that would help would be Liam , hugging me close and telling me everything would be ok and that he'd protect me. I cried the whole night , my nightmares prevented me from sleep.
My nightmares became real the next couple of days as we were subjected to bulling and Carmen having her stuff nicked and hiding ourselves in our room to avoid being jeered at. I had to walk past my old room at least twice a day and my heart almost stopped each time, I wondered who was living in it now and if they would like it if they knew what happened in there. I was missing Liam more than anything , I hoped he was ok I knew he could look after himself I was just so scared that I would lose him. But thankfully the time came for us to leave and I couldn't be happier . I packed my stuff so quickly and raced down the stairs to meet my social worker Erin. She was like an aunty to me and always tired to put me in the same place as Liam as she understood how close I was with Liam , she did not know however what had happened here as it was never put on my file as the care workers never took it seriously. That was the time I had seen Liam at his angriest , he was furious , he threw things , hit anyone but me who got in his way , he shouted and kicked and screamed , he was fed up of them not giving a damn about us. Erin took my bags and led me to the car where Harry was already waiting , I gave his hand a squeeze and asked "Are you and Jeff ready to go home?"
"We can't wait" he said and then began playing with Jeff. As we approached Elm tree my excitement was building , I was going to see Liam , my Liam. I jumped out of the car the minute we got back and ran to the door with Harry , we were welcomed by Gina who gave Harry a hug and then asked me "How was it are you alright?"
"I'm ok , happy to be back." She turned to Carmen and Sapphire and examined Carmen's eye "Carmen what's happened to your eye?"
"Nothing I'm fine" she said in an unCarmen like manner and Sapphire led her away upstairs. I followed them practically bounding up the stairs, where we met Tee "Hey what happened?" she asked as she saw Carmen's eye
"Put us in Burnywood" Sapphire said , as I heard some come down the stairs , I looked up to see Liam , I ran to him and he picked me up and hugged me tight. He let me go reluctantly but held onto my waist "Ouch I thought my week on the run was rough" I looked up at him and he stared back as if to ask "Did anything happen?". I shook my head and he kissed me on the lips , which made me feel safe , I knew I was back home. Tee took Carmen to go get some more clothes and me and Liam went over to Sapphire who asked "Heard about what's happened to lily?"
"Coming out of hospital today, two storey drop only a couple of broken bones" he told us. "Yeah well she'll have a couple more when I get hold of her" Sapphire said angrily
"Ooh harsh"
"Well I'm sorry but its her fault we ended up in Burnyhell" she said and walked away, this made Liam change his mind and he had a glare on his face. "That's not the nicest way to welcome me back is it?" I joked
"Sorry , I just hadn't thought of it like that, you had to be there because of her, I'm going to kill her when I see her" he said angrily
"No you're not" I said sternly "I am angry with her as well for her stupid act that made me have to go back there , but killing her won't solve anything and I kind of don't want you to go to jail because I do love you" I hugged him close and he kissed my head and whispered "Love you too." I picked up one of my bags and asked Liam to take the other one. We brought them to my room and I began unpacking when I felt a pair of strong arms go around my waist and a head rest on my shoulder. "How bad was it?" Liam asked me
"Do you want the truth?"
"Course I do"
"Well I had to walk past my old room everyday , I didn't sleep because my nightmares came back and I cried and cried"
"I'm sorry I didn't come with you"
"Its ok"
"I'm sorry I couldn't stop it"
"Liam we were what 8 years old? , how on earth were you supposed to have stopped it?"
"I could have done something , anything instead I just stood outside the door listening to you cry and scream, I'm such a coward." I looked at him directly in the eyes and said to him "You are not a coward , you did everything you could of and you're forgetting that you did do something , when they left you came into my room and held me as I cried and since the day I met you , you have always tried to protect me, so don't you ever say you're a coward Liam." He just nodded and helped me with the rest of my stuff. Liam wanted to go outside and play football so I went with him but I brought a book with me as I could never understand what was so amazing about football. I sat by a tree while he played with the ball , he was just trying to impress me while laughed at him and then said "Liam I am trying to read"
"Yeah but reading is boring"
"No its not"
"What's that book even about anyway?" he said pointing to the book in my hand that read 'Great Expectations'. "Its about a poor boy and his life and how he stupidly falls in love with a cold hearted girl"
"Well its not his fault he fell in love with her"
"I know its not his fault , that's how she was designed ; to break men's hearts"
"Who would do that?"
"Someone who had their heart broken by a man on their wedding day, can you promise me something?" I asked him quietly
"Of course" he said without hesitation
"You don't know what it is yet"
"Doesn't matter , I'll do anything for you"
"Ok , promise me that if you ever marry me , you won't ever leave me, promise you'll always be there"
"I promise" he said and kissed me , I pulled him closer to me deepening the kiss ,he sat down and pulled me onto his lap tangling his fingers in my hair and kissing my neck. I giggled and laid my head on his shoulder , he put his arms around my waist and pulled me close and said into my golden locks "I will never , ever leave you." We spent most of the afternoon in the garden just lying there and talking about our future. We decided to go inside as I was getting cold , Liam offered me his hand and I gladly took it as we made our way into the kitchen were Tracy was there "Liam , Alice we've got to do something or Mike's going to lose his job tomorrow," I wanted to help but she always got herself into these situations and she would have to learn to get out of them with out everyone else's help , but before I could say anything Liam answered for us, "There ain't no we , you got him into this mess , you get him out"
"Why you being like this?" she asked definitively. I knew why he was being like this , he was angry that Mike hadn't stopped me from going to Burnywood, Mike had known what had happened but hadn't thought about what would happen if I was sent back. "I know loads of Mikes you get used to them , they leave you get used to someone else, come on" he said , saying the last part to me and taking my hand and tried to led me out of the kitchen when Tracy stopped us "You know if it was the other way around he'd fight for you". I suddenly became very defensive , how dare she say that to Liam and point her finger at him like that "Oh like he did when they closed us down , or when Alice was sent back to the place where she was , she was" he couldn't even finish the sentence he was so angry . He stormed out and I shot a glare at Tracy and ran after Liam. "Liam , Liam you've got to calm down" I said as he went into his room, slamming the door just as I darted through it "Why should I ? No one cares , no one cares that you were sent back there , why should I care about what happens to Mike?" he shouted at me. "Could you please stop shouting at me" I said calmly,
"Sorry" he said sitting down on his bed , I went and sat beside him and took his hand and then said "Someone does care about me, someone very special" he just stayed quiet "And I love that person more than anything else in the whole world and love that they care about me as much as I care about them, and Liam you've made what happened to me , seem not as painful and I feel like my life can go on now and that's all down to you." I hugged him and he hugged back. I heard a car come up the drive and I ran over to the window and then smiled and said "I think someone who cares about you just arrived" he kissed me on the head and said "You coming?"
"No I think I'm going to find out what happens to Pip , go have fun" I said to him and made my way to my room. I spent the whole evening reading and when it came to going to bed I put on my pyjamas went to the bathroom and decided to sleep in Liam's room . I made my way to his room to discover he was missing , I didn't panic I knew he'd be back so I went into his bed and buried myself under the covers. I was just about to go to sleep when I felt very cold I opened my eyes to see Liam holding the quilt , I yanked the quilt out of his hands as he laughed and asked "What ya doing in here, not that I'm complaining"
"I was lonely" I said and snuggled up to Liam. "Where were you?"
"Oh I was talking to Frank , we're going down to the courts tomorrow to try and persuade them not to sack Mike"
"Ok , I won't anyone where you've gone" I said as I drifted off to sleep. When I woke up the next morning I found the bed empty, I looked around and saw a note on the pillow that said
Morning Gorgeous , gone to the town hall , be back soon , love you xx
I smiled at the note, he was so sweet. I got up and showered and got dressed and put one of Liam's hoodies on as well and went down to breakfast. Gus let out the secret of where the boys were and they returned home looking angry and disappointed "I'm guessing it didn't go well" I asked Liam , he just nodded and kissed me. When it came to lunch I sat in between Liam and Harry and when it was announced that Lily was staying for lunch I could see Liam's anger rise, and it rose even more when the woman from the council and mike arrived "What's she doing here?" he spat, I grabbed his hand under the table to tell him to calm down and it came to a great shock to all of us to see Harry throw a tomato at Leanne sadly though it hit Mike instead. "Come to say goodbye?" Sapphire asked
"Actually no" We all looked round in surprise , "Thanks to Leanne's report the disciplinary panel found in my favour" we all cheered and then heard Leanne say "I just told the truth I found a sensitive man who's firm when he needs to be and always as the welfare of those in his care at heart" and she was right , Mike did care about all of us. But not as much as Liam cared about me or I him and now we were all back , safe and sound. But the thing is I'm always safe whenever Liam's around.