A/N Hi folks! I have to say I'm absolutely amazed by all the positive reviews and the number of follows etc. I've gotten for this so much so I had to bother the boyfriend at 3:30(am!) just to tell him I'd hit over 100 views! I'm not one of those organised people who has a plan and chapters ready to go and all that – I write it by hand mostly around a toddler shouting at me to be a pony for the three hundredth time that day, then type it up once I feel like I have enough to constitute a chapter (I think I'm going to need a bigger notebook) Anyway here's the start of part two – let's see where it goes eh?
Hope you enjoy and as always I apologise for any spelling or grammar mistakes.
Elfin-rose x
Part Two – Out
Chapter One
The boys left long after it had gotten dark – we had eaten and talked for hours in that office and I'd gone to sleep lighter and full of hope. I woke at dawn when I heard noises coming from downstairs. I pulled on yesterday's jumper over the faded, oversize men's t-shirt I wore to bed and padded, barefoot downstairs. The wood was cold against my toes and there was a chill in the air that made me shiver despite the jumper. I could hear hushed voices and slight clinking noises coming from the kitchen and I smiled – my boys were back – but what were they up to?
As quietly as I could I edged into the kitchen, leaning partly on the door frame. I liked being able to watch them together when they didn't think they had an audience. Their movements seemed almost rehearsed, and they all seemed to have some kind of silent communication going on. It looked almost like well-choreographed ballet. Then the image of Murphy in a tutu popped into my head and I was unable to control the snort of laughter that erupted from my nose.
"Bumble Bea! You're up!" Aiden jumped on me and I staggered back a little from the force of it. He pulled back and scowled, pressing a finger to my nose "You're not supposed to be up yet, you need more sleep plus you've ruined the surprise." He admonished.
My heart sank "I…I ruined…I'm sorry Aiden" I mumbled "I heard noises so I came to investigate. I'm sorry."
"Aiden! Stop telling her off you'll upset her!" A voice floated through from the conservatory, Jason I thought. Aiden's sheepish grin snapped me out of my sudden gloominess.
"Sorry Bea, I didn't mean it like that – we wanted to surprise you with breakfast in bed is all." Breakfast in bed? A lump formed in my throat – these boys were making me food? I blinked back a few tears and looked around me. Murphy and Liam were cooking side by side – Henry was at the counter slicing fruit, Jasper appeared with a mug of tea and passed it to me. I took it, our fingers brushing a little, sending little jolts of something through me. I blushed and wrapped my fingers tighter around the mug – grateful of the warmth seeping through it into my hands.
"Can I help with anything?" I asked shyly.
"Certainly not" Henry spoke without turning "But…" I started – it wasn't right for them to be doing all this just for me. "Nope. Henry's right Bea – you go sit your pretty self in the conservatory." Liam broke in cheerfully. I sighed but did as I was told. Jason, Topher and Kellan had laid the table with ten spaces all squeezed in together – they'd even remembered to put proper napkins out, a vase of fresh cut flowers sat in the middle of the table.
"Thank you guys, it looks beautiful." I whispered. This time it was too much to hold the tears in and they rolled down my cheeks, leaving little trails in their wake. I was instantly surrounded by three concerned faces "What's wrong?" Topher demanded as I rubbed my face with the heel of my hand. I swallowed "Nothing, it's just that nobody has ever done anything this nice for me before." I mumbled, feeling suddenly embarrassed.
"Well get used to it" Kellan said, hugging me tightly. As he released me Jason handed me a small purple box decorated with a white bow. I looked at it confusedly – it wasn't my birthday, or Christmas (not that I celebrated either these days)
"Open it." He urged. I did as I was told and he continued "I noticed that you weren't wearing anything on your feet yesterday" Inside the box was a pair of beautifully soft socks in a soft duck egg blue colour. I noticed the tag said they were cashmere, they were undoubtedly the most expensive thing I'd ever owned. I slipped them on and wiggled my toes happily against the soft material. Unthinkingly I threw my arms around Jason "Thank you! They're perfect" Jason chuckled and hugged me back "You're very welcome sweetheart."
The rest of the boys came in then, arms laden with more food than I'd seen in years.
"Ah thank god I'm starving." Kellan exclaimed jumping into the nearest chair. The rest of them followed suit. Jasper patted the chair next to him and I sat down in front of an already full plate – fruit, pastries, crumpets, poached eggs, bacon – it looked as though they'd all made their favourites and wanted me to have a bit of everything. I nibbled the fruit and made sure to take a few bites of everything else. My stomach wasn't used to this much food. I'd barely put a dent in the mountain of food on my plate but I was stuffed. The boys however were digging in with gusto and I noticed that the dishes in the middle of the table were almost empty. Good I thought, at least things weren't going to waste. I sat back in my chair and tried to follow the conversations going on around me. Aiden, Kellan and Liam were arguing good-naturedly about a game of some kind, Murphy and Ben were speaking a totally different language, which as I listened closer I realised was French – though I wasn't sure what was being said exactly. Topher, Jason, Henry and Jasper were speaking in hushed tones, and looked serious, it sounded like they were organising something. I could make out most of what they said, but it made no sense – safe houses? Academy? Adoption? Favours? What did that all mean? I decided that if it concerned me they would tell me and turned my attention back to Ben and Murphy "I didn't know you spoke French" I said quietly, both of them looked up, matching surprised expressions on their faces. "You speak French?" Murphy asked. I shrugged
"I can read it, I've never really spoken it before though" Murphy looked at me with blatant disbelief on his face "How?" he asked. I fidgeted in my chair a little, feeling a bit self-conscious.
"I taught myself" Henry's head snapped up at this – making it clear that he'd been listening to our conversation and I felt the blush rise in my cheeks. Ben handed me a piece of paper with a short message written in slightly spidery handwriting. "Could you translate that for me?" he asked eagerly. By now the boys had all stopped their conversations and were watching me avidly. I drew in a shaky breath and looked at the paper.
Salut Bea! C'est agréable de prendre le petit déjeuner avec vous, nous devrions le faire tout le temps. Vous aimez ce que nous avons fait pour vous? Quel bit aimez-vous mieux?
(It's nice to have breakfast with you, we should do this all the time. Do you like what we made for you? Which bit do you like best?)
I looked up at Ben and smiled. "I think we should too, it was lovely. I think I like the croissants best – what about you?" Ben's answering smile was incredible and I felt the butterflies in my stomach take off again.
"Holy shit!" Aiden exclaimed – earning him a smack on the head from Murphy "I mean wow!" he amended "Bumble Bea you're so smart" I gave the boys a sheepish grin and popped a piece of melon in my mouth hoping to avoid the inevitable questions that would follow. Henry studied me for a moment before speaking "Bea, am I right in assuming you've not been to school since living here?" I swallowed the melon, with difficulty and shook my head "I went to school for about two years after I moved here – until the term before I was supposed to finish primary school. I stopped going after…" I trailed off, the lump in my throat suddenly too hard to speak around, I swallowed "I stopped going after my grandmother died." I finished. Henry nodded as if he already knew this, took a sip of his tea and cleared his throat quietly "Bea have you left this house since your grandmother passed away?" I sat frozen, I didn't want to tell them that I'd been kept here, shut away and treated as a kind of indentured servant for the last seven years. I shook my head slowly. The last time I set foot outside this house was the day of my grandmother's funeral.
"What?!" Liam and Murphy seemed to explode at once but Henry just ignored them.
"And how long ago was that?" he asked mildly as though he were asking about the weather.
"A…About seven years ago." I answered in a small, broken voice. The boys all started talking at once then but Jason put a hand up to silence them.
"Bea, I realise we're sort of overwhelming you but would you like to leave the house today? We could take you out for a few hours. Take you anywhere you want." I considered it – my heart was beating so fast I thought it would burst right out of my chest, my fingers had knotted themselves into the sleeve of my jumper. Did I want to leave the house? My immediate answer was yes, yes of course I did, but then I started thinking about my mother, and what would happen if my stepfather ever found out about it – what punishments would he devise this time?
Freedom though, even just a few short hours, was worth any punishment he could come up with I decided.
"I would like that very much." I said softly. The boys all looked ecstatic and started throwing out suggestions of where we should go faster than I could keep up with them.
"The beach" "The park" "She's a girl take her shopping" "The cinema" "My house" one of them suggested with a chuckle. "The museum"
"The woods" I perked up – Liam had suggested it and I smiled at him.
"The woods sound nice" I mumbled and Liam grinned at me. Something dawned on me, I didn't own a pair of shoes, just the pair of beautiful socks that Jason had given me.
"Um… I uh… There's a small problem… I don't…" this was embarrassing "I don't have any shoes." I said, nerves joining the words together so that it sounded more like
"Idonhaveanyshoes." A warm hand covered mine, Jasper's.
"Not a problem sweetheart, we'll buy some for you on the way." He said smoothly.
"But… I can't pay for them" I said dejectedly. Jasper frowned for a second.
"I didn't say you needed to pay for them. I said that we'll get them" He said gesturing towards himself and the rest of the boys. He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze then turned his attention back to Henry.
"Aiden, Ben, Kellan – stay behind and watch over Bea's mother, clear up the breakfast things as well." The three boys looked disappointed but not surprised at being told to stay behind. I wanted to say something – ask if they could come too – I wanted to go with all of them but Henry seemed to be the boss and no-one else was questioning him so what gave me the right? I didn't want to make waves or seem ungrateful – after all these boys had done more for me in the last two weeks than anyone else had done for me in seven years, so I kept my opinions to myself and excused myself so I could go get dressed.
Halfway through getting dressed the reality of leaving the house, and not to sneak out into the garden in the middle of the night – actually leaving, going out, hit me. My hands started shaking, I felt faintly nauseous, I tried to take a deep breath to calm myself but it seemed my throat had closed up. My breath was coming in short, wheezing gasps and I started feeling dizzy. I sat on the floor with a muffled thump and put my head between my knees – it didn't help. I tried to swallow back the rising tide of panic. It burned my throat and tasted hot and metallic on my tongue.
Suddenly I was lifted into someone's lap, a large hand rubbing my back in soothing circles.
"It's alright sweetheart, just breathe – that's it, nice deep breaths for me now. You're ok, I've got you, you're safe." A small part of my brain told me it was Topher saying these things. He repeated the words like a mantra until the panic started to subside and the grip it had on my lungs began to loosen. Topher had started stroking my hair with one hand, and was using the other to hold me close to him.
"There you are beautiful. What happened?" he asked quietly. I shrugged.
"I don't know, I was getting dressed and started thinking about going out then suddenly I couldn't breathe." I said in a shaky voice. It dawned on me – I'd been getting dressed, which meant that I hadn't finished, which meant I was sitting in Topher's lap in just my jeans and bra. I stiffened and tried to get up so I could make myself decent but Topher held me tight.
"Relax sweetheart, it's nothing I haven't seen before." He said and I blushed. He must think I was embarrassed about him seeing me in my bra – I was obviously – but I was more concerned with him seeing the scars. Especially the ones on my back – my stepfather had beaten me with his belt (buckle end of course) because I'd forgotten I wasn't allowed to speak to anyone – I'd made the mistake of answering the door to the postman about six months after my grandmother passed away. The cuts had taken weeks to heal properly.
Topher reached behind him and pulled my jumper off the bed – moss green with a chunky cable knit pattern – he slipped it over my head and let me push my arms through before pulling me up so I was standing – he wasn't the tallest or the biggest of the boys but I still felt dwarfed by him – I barely reached his shoulder.
"Better?" he asked, concern flashing in his green eyes. I nodded and gave him a small smile "Better." I replied. Except that now all I could think about was how close we were standing, and how natural it felt and how his glasses seemed to make his eyes the focal point of his ridiculously attractive face. The butterflies were doing the can-can and I felt all flustered.
"Go clean your teeth, I'll be downstairs with the others" he said quietly, pressing a soft kiss to the top of my head. I think my nerves were officially shot after that. I did as he said and brushed my teeth – surprisingly it helped get rid of the lingering taste of whatever it was that happened – panic attack – my brain supplied. I ran a brush through my hair and used a small clip to pull a few strands away from my face. I figured it would keep Aiden happy, and that made me happy so it seemed like a win-win.
If I were a normal girl, like the ones in my books or on the few TV shows I'd seen I would be wearing something cute and have make-up and jewellery on. As it was I was wearing ratty jeans and a baggy jumper that would've fit Murphy easily. I had one piece of jewellery, a ring my grandmother had given me on the last birthday I'd had before she died. It was old and any trace of the engravings she'd told me were on there had long since been worn away. It was a Claddagh, the two hands holding a crowned heart symbolised friendship, love and loyalty. I remember her telling me it had been given to her by her grandmother and her grandmother before that. I hadn't worn it since she'd died – it was too painful a reminder, plus I didn't want my stepfather to see it and take it away as punishment.
I slipped it on my finger, it felt smooth and cool against my skin – it was a little bit big and I turned it nervously. Taking a deep breath I went downstairs to join the others.
