Pulling Me Through Part Three

Okay, so this chapter is centred on Andy and Riley and it's the one where James and Laura come back into the story, so I hope you all enjoy and please leave a review!

Lyrics: Welcome to hell, bitch you can't do nothing about it

Chapter Three

Andy's POV

It was almost time for Laura and James to come round and Riley was fluttering around the living room in an effort to make it presentable.

"Riley, they're old friends from school" I reminded "They're not inspecting out house" She stopped cleaning for just one moment and that was only to glare at me before she started up again.

"Andy, we haven't seen each other in a few years" She sighed. "We're not going to look like good parents if they come in to see that our home is scruffy." I rolled my eyes at her back as I pulled Zane closer to me.

"Okay, whatever" I laughed just as the doorbell rang and Riley dropped the duster she had been holding. "Are you going to answer the door or should I?"

"Don't be so sarcastic" She snapped. "Come on, they'll be looking forward to seeing you." She grabbed my hand and Savannah's and led us to the door before opening in it. The couple looked completely different to how they used to. James was no longer a scrawny teenager. His thin arms had been replaced with arms that only contained muscle. His hair was cut short and his jawline was tight. His eyes had grown a darker green than they had been since the last time I had seen him. Laura was a completely different story. Her long, brown hair had now been dyed to a dirty blonde and it was cut to her shoulder and curled. Her face had matured and her figure more curvy. Her dress sense had changed too. She wore a white blouse and a pair of black trousers as she had obviously just come from work.

"Oh my God" I breathed as I took them in. The group hadn't changed a bit since high school, but Laura and James were a picture perfect family. What the hell had happened to the two punks that I was friends with in high school? "You two have changed so much."

"You two have as well" Laura mused as she looked closely at Riley. "You used to have red hair and now it's black. Andy, your hair is super long."

"And now you guys have two children" James laughed as he peered at Savannah. "Can we come in?"

In midst of laughing, Riley managed to get out, "Sure, come on in." They followed us through the narrow hallway and into the living room where they took a seat on the sofa. Laura perched on the edge and James sat sprawled over half of it. His manners hadn't changed at all.

"So, how have you guys been?" Laura asked as she clasped her hands together over her knees. The change in her had shocked me so much. She used to be incredibly similar to how Riley was, but now she was a professional girl who was intent on making a life for herself.

"We've been good" I answered, anxious to ask her questions about what she had been doing for the past two years. "So, where do you work?"

"A clothing firm" She answered. "I'm mainly getting coffee, at the minute, but I'm going to work my way to the top." Wow, she sounded as though she really had come up with a plan for the rest of her life.

"Hey, I admire you, Laura" I sighed as I leaned back in my chair, pulling Zane up to my chest a little. "It takes guts to work from the bottom to the top."

"Hell, what I'm doing is nothing compared to what you guys are doing" She shrugged. "You're in a band and you are making it big and then you're at home looking after the children and hopefully still playing the piano."

"Yeah, I'm still playing" Riley laughed before suddenly turning serious and staring morosely at the floor. "What you're doing is way more than me. I don't even have a job and I'm in my twenties."

"Hey, don't get yourself down about it" James assured leaning over slightly to give Riley a pat on the back as a way to make her feel better about herself. "You've gotten engaged and you've had two beautiful children. Surely that means that you've achieved more than any of us here and I'm only working in a coffee shop."

"Ah, James, I've missed our conversations" Riley sighed. "You're a great person, you know. So, when did you guys start dating?"

"Well, we kept in touch after high school and then about a year later we went to a part and things happened which led to this" Laura explained, her cheeks blazing at the fact that she was discussing this with us. She had never been the kind of girl who liked to share her feelings with people no matter who it was.

"Now that we answered that, what was the engagement like?" James asked. I knew that Riley would have no trouble with explaining her feelings here. She loved talking about them.

"Oh, it was amazing." She squeaked. "He done the whole get down on one knee thing and then gave me a little speech about how he loved me and why he was with me and then I done the same thing and said yes." She was getting pretty excited over the whole thing, so I stepped in.

"It was on Savannah's birthday, so it made the day even more special" I said. "We're planning it now, but it's pretty tough work."

"Well, you are planning a wedding" Laura reminded. "It's not supposed to be easy. When are you going shopping for the dresses?" It would be Laura who would think of the clothes before anything else that had to be sorted before the wedding could commence.

Riley's POV

"Honestly, I don't have a clue when" I sighed. The stress of planning had been getting to me and that was the part that I had been really looking forward to, but it didn't look as though I was going to get round to doing that anytime soon. "I don't think it's going to be for a while."

"Well, you better hit me up when you're going because I have got to be there" Laura laughed. "Weddings are brilliant, right?"

"Yeah, they're brilliant" I agreed. "When you're not the one planning them." Sammi had already been showing me photos of dresses and veils and telling me what angle she'd take photos from when I hadn't even thought of what food we would be having or the rings we would have.

"Hey, we'll help out as much as we can" James commented. "We'll babysit too if you want us to. These kids of yours seem pretty fun." He looked down at the floor where Savannah was sitting, dolls in her hands and a pair of safety scissors lying next to her and hair strewn across the rug. She always wanted to style their hair even though I had told her no. "And a little violent."

"Savannah, I thought I told you not to cut their hair" I scolded, taking the scissors from her and placing them on the mantelpiece, so she couldn't reach them. "Can't you just play with them in a friendly way instead of hacking the hair of them?"

"Riley, it's fine" Andy laughed. "She's just a kid."

"Yeah, you're right" I sighed as I picked Savannah up from the floor and held her at my hip. "She's a kid who needs to go for their nap. Say bye to Laura and James."

"Bye-bye" She gurgled as I hurried upstairs.

"Bye, Savannah" I heard James call.

James' POV

Savannah was just the cutest little girl that I had ever seen! To tell the truth, it was weird being back here. The last time I was here, I was a younger teenage boy and I was rehearsing for a music performance with Andy, Riley and Laura and now I was here to visit them and spend time with their children. How the hell did that even happen? I believed that Laura was feeling the same way as she was sitting with her lips pursed, her legs crossed and her hands clasped tightly. She didn't know what to say in this situation even though it was normally a pretty hard task to get her to shut up most of the time. Right now, she was absolutely stumped.

"Are you guys okay?" Andy asked, taking in our worried and awkward glances. What were we supposed to say? "You're so quiet. The last few years must have really changed you guys."

"This is all just so weird and surreal" Laura whispered. "I had thought that I had been done with everything from high school. I was away from that hellhole and everyone there and now I'm back with you guys and it just feels pretty weird"

"I know how you feel" Andy sighed. "Seeing you guys made me feel pretty humble. You guys have changed so much, yet you're familiar."

"God, you two sound depressing" I laughed. "Why don't we just get back to talking about shit that we used to talk about?" Yeah, I was always the kind of guy who would try to make a situation more comfortable and casual no matter how awkward I found it. "Do you two have any idea when you're going to have the wedding?"

"Well, Riley wants a garden wedding and I think that it's a pretty good idea, so it should be in the summer, but I don't know if we're going to get everything planned for this summer. It'll probably be the one after that." Andy explained. Ah, the small talk was never anything that I was a big fan of.

Laura's POV

I had hated high school when I was there. Most of the people there had hated me and the only thing that got me through my time there was knowing that there would be a point in my life where I could leave it all and get on with my own life and do what I wanted to do and James also got me through. Yes, I had a crush on him for a long time before we got together. He was the only one who knew about how bad my high school experience had been and I intended to keep it that way. You see, Riley and Andy were constant reminders of it all. Just sitting with them made me feel as though I was back in the classroom with people glaring at the back of my head. They made me feel as though I was being sucked back into it all, but it wasn't their fault and I couldn't be distant with them over the fact that they reminded me of something that had happened two years ago. I should be at their wedding and I should be there to babysit for them and help them plan. It doesn't matter how I feel right now and James will want to be there for him too. My feelings are irrelevant, at the minute.

Okay, so that's all the new characters introduced and old characters have now been brought back, so you could say that the next chapter is when it really starts and I think that that's the chapter where a lot of important stuff is going to take place, so I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and I hope that you guys enjoy the next chapter just as much. Please leave a review, put it on story alert and favourites. Thank you ;) Oh, and I'd also like to apologise for this being a late update, but hopefully it was well worth the wait!