Girl On The Move

Chapter Twelve

'Disappointment is the theme for today's blog! Oh, how you will never believe what has been happening to me since we last spoke, dear readers. My life has turned into a living hell!'

Week after week I would continuously go get the mail every day in hope of a reply from my father. Nothing. After I sent him the letter I never got a reply. Four weeks passed by of me waiting each and every day for that letter to show up. It never did. At first I thought my mother had started hiding them away again, but I know that she didn't. I know that I just never got the weekly letters anymore because I had replied back. I blamed it all on myself.

Of course, during these agonizing weeks, mom and Matt continued to date. They were madly in love and it had only been five weeks! It was crazy watching them stuck in the honeymoon phase. I hated the honeymoon phase in relationships. Well, I had never been in one myself, but I had seen so many people going through it.

'For anyone who doesn't know, the honeymoon phase is that time just after you first get in a relationship with someone and everything around you is picture perfect. Nothing can go wrong and you're both madly in love with each other. All you ever want to do is spend time together and eventually everyone around you gets so sick of it that they try to kill themselves every time they're around people in the honeymoon phase.'

"Hey, baby," Matt's voice came down the phone line. Mom had to put him on speaker because she had her hands full in the kitchen. "What you up to right now?"

"Not a lot," Mom replied, her voice smitten with romance. "Just finishing the dishes and then going to start some dinner for the girls."

"Don't worry about that, darling!" Matt, no doubtedly smiling on the other end, shouted in reply. "I'm taking us all out tonight! My treat." Mom dropped a glass on the floor. Smash. Glass everywhere and I was the one who had to clean it up before Casey came stumbling barefoot out of her room.

"No! Matt, I can't let you do that!" Mom was in denial that a man could actually want to take us all out to eat at a fancy restaurant. Yes, Matt was definitely going to take us to a fancy restaurant because he wasn't exactly the sort of person who took his 'family' out to eat at McDonalds. No matter how much my little sister begged.

"No buts, Sharla Rees!" Mom smiled, "I'll be around in about an hour, be ready and dress fancy." And without even a goodbye, Matt hung up. But that did mean we had an hour to get ready. Three girls, one bathroom, one hour. Disaster only struck next.

'I'll spare you all the details of how we each showered and then did our hair and then did our make-up and then got dressed. Because, let's face it, who wants to listen to that? All you need to know is that we managed to do it outside of our time budget, meaning Matt had to sit around for an extra fifteen minutes. But, after catching sight of mom-Or Casey, as she likes to tell the story-he knew it was worth it.'

I stared at Matt, grabbing his hand and forcing him to stand up straight for me. He was wearing a very smart tuxedo which I couldn't work out was his or rented. I pulled at his bow tie and I straightened my hands over the chest part of the jacket. If mom had put a lot of effort into her outfit, Matt was going to put a lot of effort into his. Or at least I was going to put a lot of effort in for him.

'I realized something as I was straightening him out; I knew very little about the man before me. His name was Matt, he was thirty-seven and he was a secretary at my mom's office. That was it. So, taking it as my opportunity, I asked him as many questions as I could.'

"Have you ever been married?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever been to jail?"

"No."

"What is your full name?"

"Is this an interrogation?"

"I'll ask the questions!"

"Matthew Timothy Rice."

"Rice?"

"That's what I said." Well, at least if he and mom ever got married that I would have the chance to keep my own surname and not be known as Courtney Rice. And it could be worse; at least there was no possibility of her marrying Kevin Bacon.

"Do you have any children?"

"Yes."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Tell me about them." I never knew that Matt had children, but I can tell you now that Matt had the goofiest smile on his face when he talked about them. He clearly loved them very much and I think that was why he got along so well with Casey.

"I have three. Two sons and my own little girl," Matt explained. "Craig, Mitchell and Olivia. Craig and Mitchell look nothing like me, but I have always loved going outside and rough housing with both of them. They're twelve and ten years old. And Olivia," his voice got stuck in his throat for a moment, "Olivia's my little Princess. She is the spitting image of me, which I'm glad about. She's only five. I only found out my wife was pregnant with her two weeks after we filed for divorced." I could see that Matt was hurt by those words. I wondered why, but I didn't ask. Instead, I let him pull out his wallet and show me a picture of his children. Every word he said was true about them.

Naturally, my mother was beautiful in her black satin dress and curled hair. I had tried my best to squeeze into one of my old dresses, but I had grown a bit since my eighth grade graduation, so I had to make do with a skirt and flowing white top. Casey, on the other hand, also looked very gorgeous in her flower girl dress from Aunt Cathy's wedding a year previously. It was a good thing that Casey was probably going to be that size for the rest of her life (she just never grew in my eyes).

Dinner was amazing. Matt took us to the fanciest restaurant he could find and, naturally, the food was over-priced and tasted delicious. I would have paid good money to eat there and Matt did pay a lot of money for us to all eat there. Mom offered to go half on the bill, or at least pay for mine and Casey's meals, but Matt refused to take any money from my mother. He insisted that this was his treat and he was not going to let her pay. In the end mom put her purse away, but she kept glancing at Matt as if she knew he was up to something.

If he was up to something, the best I could hope for was for it not to be an engagement proposal. That would have just been awkward for everyone.

"Well, ladies, the reason I have brought you out tonight is because I have some...news." I knew he hesitated on whether or not to say good. He didn't, thankfully. The three of us sat up straight, leaning in towards him slightly. "My parents have invited the three of you to dinner at their house on Friday."

'Matt's parents had invited us to dinner at their house in two days' time. Oh, how I wish it had been an engagement proposal now.

Peace and Love, Girl On The Move'

Days moved too fast.

'Preparing to meet Matt's parents was not something I enjoyed. Mom was pretty much in hysterics from the moment she woke up on Thursday moment right up to second we reach their doorstep. She was in full panic mode of what would happen. You see, none of mom's 'boyfriends' had ever invited me and Casey to meet their parents along with mom. Though, I guess since Matt had children of his own, they wouldn't mind either of us.'

Matt sat on the sofa, waiting for mom and Casey to finish getting ready. Mom wanted to make everything perfect this time around. Casey had to look immaculate and so did everything she did and said. Mom trusted me to be grown up in this situation, but Casey was only young.

"So, Matt..." I asked, sitting down beside him.

"So, Courtney," he replied, turning to face me. I studied his face for a moment, not sure what was going to happen. He looked quite scared himself. I guess he didn't really want us meeting his parents. We weren't his kids, why should we have met his parents? They weren't our family. With mom's track record, they weren't ever going to be either.

"When am I going to be able to meet your kids?" Okay, in my defense, I didn't really want to meet his children. Not that I had anything against meeting them, it just didn't seem very important to me. The moment that Matt proposed to mom and then they were going to become part of my family was the moment I wished to meet them. Naturally, we all knew that was never going to happen.

"Well, you may get to meet the boys today." Matt replied. Not the answer I had been hoping for. "And you'll definitely get to meet my niece, today." I could hardly contain my excitement.

"What about your daughter?" Silence. Matt turned his attention to the floor, biting down on his lip. I could see how upset he was about the subject of his daughter and I know I was wrong to push him, but I really wanted to know just in case I ever put my put in my mouth in later situations about it. And I was quite curious.

"I-It's okay-" I wanted to tell him that he didn't have to tell me if he didn't want to. I wanted to tell him that I didn't need to know and that I would shut my big mouth and never mention it again. But I couldn't.

"You'll never get to meet Olivia." His voice was forced, trembling with every word. "She died two years ago..." Olivia Rice was five years old. She was too young to die, far too young to be taken from the world. But the world is a cruel place. It took lives that didn't deserve it and gave ones that wasted it.

'I burst into spontaneous tears at that moment, as did Matt. Am I always this stupid, guys? Do I often say thing that I don't mean and get myself into trouble because of it? Of course I do. I just can't help it.'

"That's why me and my ex-wife don't speak on civil terms. We both blame me for what happened to her and we're both right. I was the one driving, I was the one who got distracted and I'm the one who killed her." I wrapped my arms around Matt, trying to protect him from something that had already happened. That was how strongly I felt towards him. I wanted to make him stop hurting, but I was never going to be able to do that. That was the reason why Matt got along so well with Casey, so well with me; he was missing out on all of it with his own daughter. But we weren't substitutes. No, Matt cared for us as individual people who he needed a father figure in their lives.

"Why are two crying?" My mother asked, standing in front of us now. I didn't reply, I simply jumped up and wrapped my arms around her neck. I was very lucky to have her, I realized that. My mother may have been my worst enemy at times and my best friend at others, but she was always doing what was best for me and what was best for Casey. I never gave her enough credit for doing it all on her own all of the time.

"It doesn't matter." Matt replied, taking my mother away from me and twirling her around. He obviously wasn't ready to tell her. She grabbed his face between her hands, wiping the remaining tears away with her thumbs. She cared about all of us, she really did.

"Okay." But she didn't sound convinced with our answer. At least she didn't push like I did.

'The drive to Matt's parents was fifteen minutes and thirty four seconds long. I took the liberty of counting to settle my stomach. I was nervous for no apparent reason yesterday. And it turned out that I had a reason to be, too.'

"UNCLE MATT!" A tiny and high-pitched voice screamed. A small girl came running towards us as we walked inside the brick-stoned house. So it turned out that Matt's parents were very rich and had a four story home on the better side of Manhattan. Who knew?

"Hey, fuss-pot," Matt smiled, scooping the little girl up into his arms. She must have only been about four with perfect brunette curls dangling down either side of her face in pigtails and wide blue eyes that lit up with excitement at the sight of her uncle.

"Ramona, this is my girlfriend Sharla and her daughters Courtney and Casey. Guys, this is my niece Ramona." I smiled at her as I was the one she was looking straight at, but she curled into a ball and hid her face into Matt's chest. She was four; we couldn't expect her not to be shy around strangers.

"Ramona!" A voice called from a far off room. Ramona struggled out of Matt's arms and fell to the floor with a thud, sprinting off through the room to the right. Matt followed and grabbed mom's hand too. I knew it was a bad idea not to go after them, so I did. Casey tagged along behind, looking very scared. She was probably frightened of getting lost in the place because it did honestly looked like they had moved into an old Ikea store. I would never have been able to find my way around if I was left to my own free will.

"Stop licking the spoon!" A friendly voice called out. I could just about make out an old man, the kindest of smiles on his face. "Some of us have to stir with that thing!"

"AH!" A boy's cried screamed. I moved past my mother to see the old man poking and prodding a boy who was sat on top of the counter, laughing as his grandfather continued to mess around. The boy was one of the ones from Matt's photograph, though I wasn't quite sure which.

"UNCLE MATT'S HERE!" Ramona cried as if she had been screaming it the whole time. The old man stopped and turned around to face us.

"Good eye there, fuss pot!" He cheered, scooping her up into his arms. Ramona giggled, kissing her grandfather on the cheek. This man did not have a bad bone in his body, and I had only just laid eyes on him.

"DAD!" The boy jumped off the counter, wrapping his arms around Matt's waist. Considering it was his son and Matt was past six foot, the boy was considerably short.

'I shouldn't bore you with details. Basically, the young boy was Mitchell. He was the ten year old. Craig, the other one, wasn't there because he simply didn't want to be, so he had stayed at home with his mother. Ramona lived with her grandparents because...Of reasons I won't go into online. Charlie, this very kind man that just so happened to be Matt's father, was the nicest person I think I ever met. I just wish the same could be said for his wife, Barbara.'

Barbara had frown lines and wrinkles covering every inch of her face, thought I had to hold my tongue when around her from saying so. She had a very strict look about from her expression to her clothes. She had been upstairs the whole time, obviously avoiding us. I didn't know how Charlie could stand to be married to her for so long. Forty-five years of marriage and I was wondering why.

She kept turning her nose up at my mother, which made me want to hurt her very badly. She did eye Casey up when she accidently burped at dinner. Everyone laughed and she did say 'pardon me', but Barbara didn't seem amused. And then it came to me. I wasn't sure what her thoughts were, but I had a feeling she passed me off for a typical teenager. The way her beady black eyes were constantly watching out for me to say or do something wrong made me feel like a caged animal; it was wrong.

'Long story short, it only resulted in an argument. Barbara started a fight with my mother and, my mother being the way she is, started to argue back. She wasn't going to sit back and let this woman criticize her or me and Casey, so she had a right go at her. Matt hurried the dinner along, hough siding with my mother on the argument, and took us out of there as soon as possible. I never wanted to go back.

And I never will have to go back. Why? Because I'm moving again.'

A/N: Holy cow bells!

THEY'RE MOVING AGAIN!

Know what that means?

One more chapter left :( And then the epilogue!

Wow...

I'm trying to work out if I had read Hunger Games before I wrote this, because if I did I think I subconsciously based Matt's parents of Mr and Mrs Mellark O.O I didn't realise that un til I was just going over it now XD

I hope ya'll are enjoying the drama!
Duncan will be back next chapter XD

Thank you to;

DxCfanlover: I know, those letters were just heartbreaking! I had to add the fluffiness in to make it better! haha! You can't not smile at Duncan :D Yes, Sharla! It was only just mentioned in this chapter! I knew I mentioned it somewhere XD haha! That's insane! I could never read so many books at once, I can barely keep up with all the fanfics! Thank you :D

xXDevil Of LoveXx: Oh, hey! I know you! haha! I'm glad you enjoy my stories :D Thanks :D

ThatSuperHotSexyBookWorm: Oh God, Twilight...STICK TO MORTAL INSTRUMENTS! SO MUCH BETTER! Yes, TMI then Gone then...You're free of series I need you to read XD haha, awesomeness XD Thank you :D

Coderrafan4: YES! INTERNET! We have all the Duncney feels right here XD ATTACK, DUNCNEY FEELS, ATTACK XD haha! Thanks :D

I love you guys!

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Love, ChloeRhiannonX