"Jody!" Floss yelled through the door, her voice shrill. "Hurry up or I'll miss the wedding!"
"You should've got up earlier, then!" Jody called back, dipping her gumshield into a solution she'd spent a good half an hour of the morning making.
The annoying banging on the door persisted but she paid no heed, proceeding to brush her teeth. Why was the wedding of two people none of them knew such a big deal anyway? Ordinary people got married all the time and most of them ended up divorced at one point. The groom, in this case, was the child of a failed marriage and so was the bride in addition to being a divorcee herself. It was hardly a promising prospect. She felt sorry for the innocent children who'd be born into the marriage and end up being cast aside by one or both parents when a divorce eventually took place. Unfortunately, no one else in this house seemed to see the imminent disaster; they all thought the wedding was some great event they all ought to watch for an entire two hours.
"Jody! I really need to go!" Floss wailed. "Get out!"
"Use the spare!" Jody shouted in return, rinsing her toothbrush and putting it back in its place. Floss was just being difficult on purpose.
"Finn's hogging the spare!" the younger girl whined in a high pitched voice. "Pleeeeeeaaaaaasssssseeeee!"
Jody raised an eyebrow. Floss Guppy never said please to anyone who wasn't Mike or May-Li. Pitying the girl she'd seen grow up right in front of her eyes, she unlocked the door, exchanging places with said girl. As she waited in the hallway, she witnessed all manner of madness as various residents ran amok, preparing for and chattering excitedly about the upcoming nuptials. Honestly, it was as if Mike or someone else they actually knew was getting married.
"What. Is. Going. On?" She turned her head to see Tyler walking towards her from his room, yawning rather audibly. "Joseph's playing music in his room. It woke me up."
"It's Prince Harry's wedding," she replied flatly, crossing her arms. "Some of this lot are dying to see Meghan Markle's dress and the others are equally dying to see if anyone from Ella's family shows up."
To her utter surprise and dismay, his eyes lit up in exuberance. "That's today?!" he exclaimed, grabbing her by the shoulders. "I'm going to miss it!"
"Since when were you such a huge fan of the royals?" she asked, flustered. She'd thought that they'd be able to sneer at the others together but he seemed to have a very different idea.
"I'm not," he answered, letting his hands drop. The light in his eyes instantly waned, worrying her. "But I'm skint so it's probably the best entertainment I'm going to get today."
"How?" she questioned, flabbergasted, "You haven't been skint since we were, like, twelve. Besides, we get thirty quid each from Mike today."
"I owe Jay; I borrowed some money off him last week when I was really skint," he explained, scratching his head. She frowned. Why had he gone to Jay and not to her? Did he think she'd be no use in that department, given the fact that she was often broke? "I spent that money on a new blazer. I've been wearing the same ones to work for ages."
"Do you want to borrow some from me?" she offered, wanting to go out on the town with him while the others stayed at home and watched live coverage of the royal wedding. She had zero interest in joining them.
He laughed. "Nah, it's okay. I wouldn't want to take money from you when you're not broke for once." She straightened her back, bristling at his words. Although she knew that he hadn't meant any offence by them, they stung.
Floss unlocked and opened the bathroom door just then, strutting out with a relieved look on her face, and Jody watched her disappear down the hallway before turning back to Tyler. "Yeah, well, you've really disappointed me today," she sniped before slipping into the bathroom and slamming the door behind her.
Why had she done that? What was wrong with her? She shook her head. Whatever. Maybe she was PMSing. Remembering what she'd been up to before she let Floss into the bathroom, she stormed over to the basin where she'd left her gumshield to find that it was melting. Panicking, she hastily picked them up to salvage them but it was too late. They were damaged beyond repair. She groaned, dropping down on the edge of the bathtub. She should've just asked Joseph to help her make the cleaning solution...
.:. QK .:.
After having breakfast and getting dressed, Jody headed for the front door, intent on going on a long walk. Her first choice had been to visit Sash and Dex but to her horror, the former had informed her that, like nearly everyone else in the nation, they were going to be watching the royal wedding with their entire family and that she was welcome to go and watch it with them. When she'd declined, citing that the marriage was doomed to fail, her small friend had shocked her by telling her to stop being so negative. Put out by Sasha's attitude, she'd then contacted some of her school friends but received the same sort of response. In fact, the only person who seemed to be as uninterested in the wedding as her was Brandon but his parents had expressly forbidden him from leaving the house until the wedding was over. To top it all off, the Pottiswood Boxing Club's owner wasn't opening up until after two o'clock, so there really was nowhere else to go.
"Err, where do you think you're off to?" Mike asked, his voice coming from the lounge doorway. Jody stopped in her tracks, turning to face him.
"Err, outside for a walk," she replied, shaking her head as if to say 'duh'. "I'm not staying here to watch some stupid wedding with those lot."
"You're going to have to. I haven't given you the permission to go out," he said, matter-of-factly.
She sighed, her eyes shifting around the lobby and centring in on May-Li who was in the kitchen. "I'll ask May-Li, then."
"Ask me what?" May-Li questioned, shocking Jody with her impressive hearing range. She hadn't even been speaking that loud.
"If I can go out."
"I'm afraid you can't," the carer responded, coming up to the doorway of the kitchen. "You're barely home these days; you've asked me to take you to the gym practically every day this week."
Jody crossed her arms, trying not to let her resolve break under Mike's and May-Li's brutal gazes. "You can't make me stay."
"I think you'll find that we can," Mike stated, crossing his arms as well, "and we will."
"But—" she spluttered, cutting herself off when she realised that a mere walk wasn't worth a potential grounding, even if it meant she had to stare at her bedroom wall for two whole hours. "Fine," she begrudgingly acquiesced, stomping towards the foot of the staircase.
Not surprisingly, Mike cleared his throat rather loudly, jerking his thumb towards the lounge. She pressed her lips together in a thin line, forcing herself to walk into the lounge. Rolling her eyes at the twelve kids sitting on and around the sofas, she sat down on the floor next to Ryan who gave her a smug look.
"Finally here to witness the only wedding you'll ever see?" he taunted quietly, smirking.
"Who says it's the only one I'll ever see?" she questioned through gritted teeth, keeping her eyes trained on the TV in front of her. Various guests were shown walking down a path to the abbey, lined with hordes of screaming royal fans. Who the f*** was crazy enough to stand out there in the sweltering heat for hours on end?
"Come on, who would invite you to their wedding?" he implored demeaningly, his voice low enough so that no one else would hear him. "Your criminal brothers won't get married and I doubt any of your mates would want you spoiling the mood at their weddings."
"Look, it's Posh and Becks!" Candi-Rose squealed.
"She looks as stroppy as Jody!" Jay commented, drawing a few sniggers from the others. Jody glared daggers at him but he just smiled in response.
"See what I mean?" Ryan inquired smugly. "But don't worry. If Tyler's stupid enough to marry you, and I'm sure he will be if he isn't already, you'll at least get to be a bride."
"Well, at least someone'll marry me," she countered, looking around and realising that Tyler was sitting on the sofa behind them. She hoped against hope that he was too engrossed in the wedding to hear them. "Who'd marry you?" She looked at Ryan to see that he was smiling, unfazed by her words, before spying Chloe sitting next to the other sofa. "I don't know about me and my brothers but Chloe definitely wouldn't want you at her wedding. She knows you're no good. You'd probably try to ruin her big day an' all."
She watched as his smile faltered, drawing satisfaction from his discomfort. "Yeah, well, we'll see," he bit back lamely, plastering on a neutral expression. She rolled her eyes, returning her gaze to the TV.
Over the next half hour, she watched on in boredom as the camera focussed on different celebrities taking their seats in the abbey and chatting to other high profile guests, and members of the royal family, including the Queen, arrived. However, when Meghan Markle appeared on-screen, Jody surprised even herself by leaning forward and actually paying attention. Candi-Rose proceeded to swoon over the wedding dress, saying how she'd love a pink version of it, but Jody was more interested in the fact that the bride's father wasn't anywhere to be seen. It was sad that even a princess' dad couldn't be there for her on her big day.
"That's Ella's brother!" Floss exclaimed, and all fourteen pairs of eyes flew to her. "What? I looked her family up."
Several of the others went on to call her creepy and weird but Jody knew that they'd all done the same at some point.
"Which one's her brother?" Chloe inquired. There were at least five boys walking with Meghan.
"The page boy at the back," Floss answered, "The one walking with Prince George. His name's the hon William Cavendish or something."
"Do you mean The Honourable?" Jody asked, recalling the time she'd looked into Ella's family herself, and Floss made a noise of agreement.
"What's so honourable about him?" Alex scoffed, pulling a face. "The fact that he was born with everything?"
"It's just a title because he's the younger son of an earl," she informed, ignoring the astonished looks the others were giving her. What? Wasn't she allowed to know (non-boxing related) stuff that they didn't?
"That's right," Mike spoke up for the first time, appearing to be amused. "He's got an older brother called Henry, Viscount Mansfield. Their father used to use that title before he became the earl."
Taz smiled. "Is that why Ella's surname is Mansfield?"
"Maybe."
Blocking the background conversation out, Jody once again looked at the TV. She observed with rapt attention as Prince Charles walked his daughter in law down the aisle and the bride's mother dabbed away tears while witnessing her daughter marry. Her heart sunk a little. Her mother would never see her marry—if she ever married—and her father would never walk her down the aisle. She'd never been one to daydream about a fairy-tale wedding and a happy ever after—she didn't even believe in relationships let alone marriage—but she'd always thought that if she somehow did find herself getting married, she'd be surrounded by family members who'd share in her joy. But she had no one. Her father had forgotten her, her mother was dead, her brother was in jail and her other brother was walking on thin ice with her.
As soon as the wedding was over, Jody bolted out of the lounge and ran upstairs. The newly minted Duke and Duchess of Sussex had looked so happy to be starting their new lives together. How was it possible when they came from such horrid family backgrounds? How?
.:. QK .:.
Yawning horrendously loud and vigorously rubbing her eyes, Jody forced herself to stay awake as she surfed the internet for boxing videos, her one and only vice nowadays. She'd spent a good portion of the evening listening to some of the girls go on and on about Prince Harry's fairy-tale wedding and how much they wished they could have weddings just like that, leaving her feeling bereft and empty for not sharing their enthusiasm. She didn't understand how they could be so optimistic about their own futures when they'd had such shitty lives up until now.
Maybe once, when she was about eight or nine, she'd harboured such foolish fancies but that girl was long gone, had been nearly as long as she'd been in care. She didn't believe in silly, unrealistic things like that anymore, not since she'd begun to hate girly clothes because of the dresses Kingsley had forced her to wear and not since she'd started to force herself to always appear tough, even though she sometimes felt like weeping and sobbing until her tear ducts became dry.
Her eyes burnt, serving as a natural indicator of her excessive screen time. Lightly pressing the power button on her phone to lock it, she heard the door handle turn and the door click open. Tyler stepped into the room, hesitantly approaching her bed and sitting down on the edge.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked, clearly concerned. She regarded him with tired eyes, wondering if her hurt and confusion was written all over her face. "I heard what Ryan said to you." She looked down at her hands, trying to find the right words to respond with. As ever, she had the option of saying she was fine but this was Tyler and she didn't feel like lying, even though she didn't quite feel like telling the truth either. "Why do you listen to him? What does he know about your friends and their weddings?"
"He's not all wrong, though, is he?" she questioned, licking her lips. "I would ruin the mood at my mates' weddings"—she looked him right in the eyes—"and you know why."
He didn't respond, making the corners of her lips twitch. Even he couldn't convince her, or himself, that she was anything but seriously messed up and emotionally damaged. "I don't care," he finally replied, tentatively taking one of her hands in his own. "I'd invite you to my wedding a hundred times over."
"You'd get married a hundred times?" she implored, raising an eyebrow. She wondered if he'd heard Ryan talk about the two of them marrying but quickly shot the idea down; he always ran away from her when it came to the feelings between them, not towards her. "What would I be? Your best man?"
"My best friend," he answered instantly, "and anything else you want to be." She gulped, staring at him as he suddenly found their entwined hands very interesting, lending credence to her initial suspicion that he had heard everything Ryan had said to her in the lounge. Anything else she wanted to be. Was he finally admitting to this thing that was going on between them, the thing that had been going on for months on end now? Was it finally time for her to confront him about it?
What was she supposed to say? The subtle 'what do you want me to be?' or the direct 'I like you too'? Instead, she ended up blurting out a completely different set of words: "Have you ever wondered how life would've turned out if your parents had got married?" She sighed inwardly, mentally berating herself for her utter inability to talk. Here she was, holding his damn hand but not knowing what to say. She never knew what to say.
"I don't know," he responded with a shrug of the shoulders. "I've never known my dad so I guess I've never thought about it."
"I guess it wouldn't have changed anything in my life; he still would've cheated on her and walked out on us," she said bitterly, lightly squeezing his hand and drawing a sense of comfort from doing so. He blinked rapidly, staring at her. "What?" she asked, her heart thundering away in her chest. Had she gone too far in squeezing his hand? She started to pull her hand away but his grip tightened with considerable force, shocking her (in a good way) and hurting her in equal measure.
Seemingly realising that he was hurting her, he loosened his grip but didn't let go to her secret delight. "In all the years I've known you, you've never mentioned your dad."
"Well, there's a first for everything," she stated, smiling weakly. There was going to have to be a first time for her to admit her feelings for him too. Next time. Next time she had the chance, she'd bring up both his feelings and hers and wouldn't let him run away, even if it meant she had to put her heart on the line.
A/N: Thanks to CharlieSMarts12 for the review. I don't know if I'm ever going to get round to revealing what happened with the pregnancy test because I don't see why Ryan would ever admit to any wrongdoing.