"So let me get this straight. You've known this guy for a long time…and you're just having a little catch up?"

I looked left and right down the road. "Something like that."

"So why am I coming?"

I sighed. "I met up with him when I…y'know. Ran away."

"Ohhh," he said, nodding.

We crossed the road quickly. I had told Sean a massive lie that I told everybody else – that I couldn't cope with Martina's death at the time and had to get away. That was something I was never going to do again, no matter what Peter needed. I wasn't going to Neverland ever again…so why would he want to meet up? I cursed him under my breath as we passed the jeweller's shop window, all done up for Halloween with plastic pumpkins and fake cobwebs.
I didn't really like Halloween – the whole effort of it was kind of pointless in my opinion. I was much more of a 's Day fan really.

"Where is he then?"

We had reached Victoria Square in the middle of the town – darkness had just begun to set in. The glass panes of the two joint Eircom phoneboxes shone in the light of the old black street lights, giving perfect view of empty takeaway cartons from the chippers across the road inside. It was quiet enough, apart from the singing drunks up the town, who could put on a show when they wanted.

"He'll be here soon," I assured him. "I'll wait on the benches on the square, but I need you to wait inside the café for me. He might not come if he sees you."

"Probably won't come anyways," he grumbled. "But fine. But I'm waiting in the window seats, alright?"

"Okay."

"And if he starts trying it on, you know I won't be able to stop myself –"

"I know. And he won't, don't worry."

He didn't seem satisfied, but grunted. He headed towards the café on the right of the square, shooting me a dirty look before entering and quickly claiming one of the two window seats for himself. A waitress came over to him, and I jogged over to the benches and sat down. They were wooden, and really cold. Even for October in Ireland, it was too cold. I clenched my hands into fists in an attempt to stop them going numb.
I looked at the café window. Sean was keeping his eyes on me, his body rigid. He seemed ready to pounce if anything was to happen – which it wouldn't. And if Peter did try it on, I'd be the one kicking where you aren't supposed to kick first. I giggled at the thought of Sean's face.

I stopped a millisecond afterward. I wasn't there to laugh or to joke. I was there to set things straight before getting things on with the rest of my life. I regretted immensely everything I had done those two years before. I was stupid, and naïve. I thought I knew it all – the whole shebang of being in 'love' or whatever. Really I was just kidding myself the whole way through. I was glad that I finally had some sense in me…I wouldn't be pressured into going back to Neverland. Never gonna happen.

I looked left and right. Nobody was about – it was just me looking like a stupid kid sitting in the square by herself. I was sure people would think I looked like a loner – then again, there was nobody there to approve that suggestion.

I sighed and took my phone out of my pocket. My Blackberry was a distant memory, and it was kind of weird to think that it was somewhere in the woodlands of another world.

Joseph bought me an iPhone as my thirteenth birthday present, for which I was very grateful, seeing as they're around five hundred euros. A little too expensive, in my opinion. But I wasn't going to complain.

The family grew closer after I came back. I guessed we realized it was too easy to lose each other, and it brought us together. It sounded cheesy, but it was true.

I opened up my messages and texted Sean.

Haha you should see ur face

My phone beeped a second later.

Not funny :P

I looked at the window and gave him a thumbs-up. He nodded, rolling his eyes and taking his coke off the table, holding it in his hands. He looked as if he was trying to make up his mind about something. I turned away. I was never good at the whole awkward meeting – eyes thing. I learned that from too much experience.

I was starting to get frustrated. Where was he? He was certainly taking his time. Possibly practising to try and persuade to go back.

If he was, it was going to be a waste of time.

I couldn't do that to my family again, and not to Seanie either. I wondered if I could just rub my family's pain into Peter's face and see what he thought then.

The day I came back was…..mental. I arrived at the playschool again in the Indian gear. I looked like a twat but I didn't care. I hurried to my house and flung myself through the doorway.

"Mam?," I had called. "Joseph?"

Some of the Gardaí bursted out of the sitting room into the hall.

"Remy Kingsley?," a female one said, her eyes wide.

I nodded.

"MY REMY!" My mam also burst out of the sitting room and took me in as if she couldn't quite believe I was really there. Like a figment of her imagination.

She looked so tired. And weak. And thin….much too thin. Her jeans hung off of her, barely holding onto her bony hips.

"Hi ma," I whispered.

She ran towards me and folded me into her arms, stroking my hair.

"I'm sorry," I whispered again. "I'm so sorry."

I peeked at the Gardaí's emotions over her shoulder. For some of them, it was a face of relief. For others, they were still stunned.

I found out later that the Gardaí thought I might have ran away and taken my own life, seeing as I had disappeared off the face of the earth. Which I had, but I didn't add that part in. There had been a 50,000 euros reward for anybody who found me, dead or alive. As for the Indian clothes, I fobbed them off with the lie of me wanting to look different so people wouldn't know who I was. I told them I got the clothes in some charity shop in town.

And they believed every last word of it. It added up, in their opinions. But in my head it was lie after lie. I felt horrified when I had seen what I had done.

My mother was a bag of bones, Joseph had been out with search parties twenty-four seven, and my picture and details had been plastered everywhere in five counties. My face was on the front of Irish newspapers and on billboards in Dublin.

I registered how much damage I had done to my family and others, and I came up with a decision.

I was never going back.

I realised my hands were gripping the edge of the bench and I was staring at the ground, my teeth clenched.

I looked up to see Sean staring at me worriedly. I smiled at him reassuringly and looked left and right. Nobody seemed to be around. Peter knew this was his last chance, but he decided to put on a no show? It was fine by me.

Wait, my conscience pleaded. He just might be running late. It hasn't been that long anyways.

"It's been long enough," I muttered. I jumped up from the bench, despite my screaming conscience protesting. I quickly walked to the café and let myself inside, sliding onto the leather seat in the window beside Sean.

"He's not coming then?," he asked happily.

"No, not today," I said, smiling a little at his enthusiasm. "I should have known. Sorry for dragging you with me."

"It's ok. Besides, I got Coke. Want any?"

"No, it's ok." I folded my arms. I was well pissed off with Peter. No logical explanations could come to mind as to why he didn't come. Something he was scared to tell me?
But that just didn't sound right. Peter doesn't get scared, right? Then again, a lot of things had changed about him. For instance, he grew. He got older, like he said he wouldn't. He was back here. And how did he find me anyways?

"Remy?"

"Oh. Yeah?"

"You ok?"

"Never better."

He didn't look satisfied. "Is this guy…" – he made waving gestures –"…dodgy?"

"Oh." I considered. "Sort of. But he would never hurt me."

"How do you know? You met him on the…streets, remember?"

I bit my lip. "I know, but you have to trust me."

Trust me? How can he when I'm lying to him about where I even met Peter?

"I do trust you. I just don't trust this guy."

"Okay. I understand."

He nodded. "D'you wanna go back home? You look worn out."

I sighed. "Grand. Go pay for your Coke. I'll wait outside."

I slid off the seat and wrenched the door open, passing from inside to outside. It was still cold. No surprises there.

Leaves of one of the trees in the square started to rustle. I blamed the wind, but there wasn't any. Especially not wind that hard to rustle them the way they were rustling. I stared at the tree curiously, searching for any sudden movements.
I caught sight of something white out of the corner of my eye. I immediately focused on that. At first I thought it might have been a bird of some sort. But they were all sleeping…

Is it you, Remy?

"Yes," I answered back almost instantly. "Did Peter send you?"

Yes. He apologises for not coming. He sent me to give you a message.

"Okay, what's his message?"

Come to our bench at three o'clock tomorrow. Be alone.

I nodded. "Okay. Thank you."

Goodbye now.

I watched it flutter away, above the library rooftop at the bottom at the square until it was out of sight. Sean bounded out of the door behind me, making me jump.

"Sorry, serious confusion over change," he said tiredly. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah," I heard myself say. "Yeah. Let's go."

"D'you want me to walk you home?," he asked, peering at me. "You've gone a little white."

I nodded.

He sighed. "Come on so."

I walked beside him all the way home, smiling slightly or nodding every time he said something. I was piecing everything together in my head…or at least making the odd pieces squish in somehow to make sense. I thought over Peter's brief words echoed by the fairy.

Come alone.

That was why he didn't show up. He must've have seen me with Sean…but was whatever he had to tell me really that important?

Sean left me at the front gate.

"Bye Remy," he called.

"Bye. See you later."

He nodded and turned left down the path, and disappeared around the corner out of sight. I trudged up the path and let myself in quietly.

"Hi, love!," mam called as soon as I had a foot in the door.

"Hi," I mumbled. "I'm going to bed, ma. I'm really tired."

"Okay, night love."

She didn't sound all that concerned, but that was a good thing. The over protectiveness had faded away eventually.

I dragged myself up the stairs and flopped onto my bed when I got into my room. Joseph was already in bed. I could hear his soft snores.

I rolled over on the bed on my back and closed my eyes.

"Peter," I muttered. "If you don't show up tomorrow, I am personally going to make sure Sean beats you up."

I sighed in exhaustion and cleared my mind, preparing for the blackness to fall.