It was the day before the family were due to fly to Portugal to go on holiday.
Rachel and Mel were taking the kids over to stay in an apartment over there.
Rachel was really looking forward to getting away, but at the minute she was just feeling a bit stressed with all the packing and things she still needed to do.
She also still wasn't on very good terms with Lucy. They'd had another argument this morning which had ended when Ivy came in sobbing her heart out.
Rachel was determined to get this sorted with Lucy before they went on holiday.
The night before Ivy's Birthday Rachel had felt her and Lucy were starting to get on again, but she'd been wrong.
That night Lucy had almost let Rachel see how vulnerable she still was after losing her Dad, but she still hadn't felt she could completely open up to her Mum.
At the minute Rachel knew that Lucy still wouldn't have calmed down from their argument, so Rachel carried on with her packing for a bit.
She'd nearly finished most of her own stuff when she heard Mel downstairs.
"Hiya Rach, we're here"
"Just coming"
Rachel went downstairs where Mel and Olivia had made their way into the kitchen.
"Where's Phil?" Rachel asked
"Out with his friends"
"Is it okay if I meet some of my friends for a bit later too please Auntie Rachel?"
"Of course it is love"
Mel was going away for the night with her boyfriend so Olivia and Phil were staying with Rachel.
Rachel had no idea why Mel had chosed to go away the night before they were going on holiday, but this was typical Mel. At least their flight wasn't until the afternoon.
Mel stayed for a cup of tea but then she decided to shoot off.
"What time are you meeting your friends?"
"Probably after lunch, I think we're going to go into town and do some shopping"
"That will be nice love, do you need any more stuff for going on holiday?"
"Yeah a few bits, I want to get another bikini"
"Well I'm going to get back to packing, but Lucy's in her room if you want to go up"
Lucy and Olivia got on really well. You wouldn't think they were two years apart, most people thought they looked about the same age as Lucy looked quite old for her age and Olivia looked quite young.
Rachel went into Ivy's bedroom and made a start on her packing.
"Can I help you Mummy?" Ivy asked
Rachel sighed, really she would have preferred to just do it on her own as she would be able to get it done s lot quicker
"Yeah if you want to love, I don't mind doing it though if you want to do something else
"I want to help you"
"Okay well start by getting some knickers out of your drawer love"
"How many?"
"About 9 or 10 pairs should be plenty"
"But we're only going for a week"
"We'll just in case you have an accident or something love"
Ivy spent a while choosing her favourite knickers
"What shall I do now Mummy?"
"Get out the swimsuits you want to bring"
After a while Ivy was all packed so Rachel braced herself before going to get Lucy sorted.
"Right Lucy let's finish your packing"
"I've already finished"
"Well are you sure that you've got everything?"
"Yep"
Rachel went over to her suitcase and started looking through what Lucy had packed
"For gods sake Mum, I just told you I've packed everything"
"Fine don't blame me though when you don't have everything you need"
"I think I'm old enough to pack for myself now Mum"
Olivia didn't like it when her Auntie and Lucy argued.
"Auntie Rachel is it okay if I go and meet my friends now?"
"Yeah of course it is, you haven't had any lunch yet though"
"I think we're going to grab some food when we're out now"
"Okay love, have you got money?"
"Yeah Mum gave me some before she dropped me off too"
"Okay, well have a good time text me when you know what time you're coming home"
"Will do"
Olivia left so it was just Rachel and Lucy.
Rachel was going to try and have a talk with Lucy but suddenly Ivy came running in.
"Mummy I'm hungry"
"I'll go and make some lunch now"
Rachel made some sandwiches and then called the girls down.
Lucy wasn't exactly unpleasant to her Mum but she was only really talking to her when she had to. She was fine with Ivy though.
Rachel spent the afternoon packing and cleaning. In the afternoon she had to nip to Boots to get a few more toiletries.
Ivy went with Rachel but Lucy stayed at home.
When they got there Rachel picked up everything that they needed and managed to spend a small fortune.
When they got back there was a note from Lucy saying she'd gone out to meet some friends. Rachel sighed, she hoped she wouldn't be back too late.
The rest of the afternoon passed quickly.
Rachel was sat in the garden with Ivy when Olivia got home.
"Hiya love, did you have a good day?" Rachel asked when she saw her niece come out to the garden
"Yeah good thanks, I'm going to go and put my stuff away"
Olivia then dashed off before Rachel had the chance to say anything else.
This was unlike Olivia to not stay and chat for a bit longer so Rachel decided to go and check on her.
Olivia was going to sleep in Lucy's room tonight so Rachel went up there.
When she got up there Olivia wasn't in there, but the door to Lucy's en suite was closed so Rachel guessed that she was in there.
Whilst Rachel waited for Olivia to come out she had a quick look through the bags of stuff that Olivia had bought.
She saw a pretty dress in the first bag she looked in and then she saw another with a bikini and a couple of bras in.
Rachel realised they were going to be way too big for Olivia as even though Olivia wasn't flat chested she hadn't developed much of a chest yet.
When Rachel heard Olivia coming out she quickly put the stuff in the bag knowing that it would embarrass Olivia.
"Oh hi Auntie Rach"
"I just came upstairs to check you were alright"
"Yeah I'm fine"
"Are you going to show me what you bought?"
"Urmm yeah okay" Olivia said but she immediately started to panic as she didn't want Rachel seeing the underwear that she's bought
Olivia picked up the bag with the dress in and took it out to show Rachel.
"That's pretty love, it will be really nice to wear for one of the evenings on holiday"
Rachel then picked up the other bag and took out the underwear as she knew Olivia wouldn't want to show her.
"This is all very nice Liv, but don't you think it's going to be a little big?"
Much to Rachel's surprise Olivia burst into tears.
Rachel instinctively wrapped her arm around Olivia and say her down on the bed.
"What's wrong sweetheart?"
"I'm just fed up of having a body like a little girl"
"Hey that's not true, you're starting to get a nice little figure"
"Hardly, my boobs are so much smaller than all my friends"
"Everyone's a different size love, but I think you're just a bit later developing than them, you'll catch them up soon"
"Probably not knowing my luck, even Lucy has bigger boobs than I do now" Olivia said through tears
"Not by much"
"But she's two years younger than I am"
"Sweetheart it really doesn't matter, like I've told you before everyone grows at different rates. Now how come you bought bras and a bikini top that aren't going to fit you?"
"Because I thought I could stuff it with tissue or something to make my boobs look bigger, it was Lucy's idea"
Rachel rolled her eyes. Lucy was starting to develop quite a lot now and had become quite hormonal, but she wasn't letting Rachel help her with it at all. She hadn't even let Rachel take her to get her first bra, she'd gone with friends.
"I should've known my daughter would be behind all of this. You shouldn't be worrying about what you look like, especially not when you're on holiday with your family. Besides that's only going to make you feel more self-conscious because you'll be paranoid someone will notice the tissue the whole time"
"I suppose"
"Liv you really are beautiful and one day when you've got boobs bigger than mine you're going to look back and wonder why you ever cared that your boobs were too small" Rachel said making Olivia smile a bit
Olivia wiped away her tears as she was feeling a bit better after speaking to her Auntie, she always did know how to make her feel better.
"Now how about tomorrow we nip to the shops, return what you bought and then I'll help you find a bikini you feel comfortable in. How does that sound?"
"What about Lucy and Ivy?"
"They can either come and go off for a bit on their own or they can stay here with Phil"
"Thanks Auntie Rachel" Olivia said giving her Aunt a big hug
"Do you fancy coming and sitting in the garden for a bit with me and Ivy, and then I'll make a start on tea?"
"Yep sounds good"
Rachel poured herself a glass of white wine before joining the girls in the garden.
She enjoyed sitting with them for a while but then realised she really did need to get on with tea, but in the end decided to just order a Chinese takeaway.
After she'd ordered the Chinese she was about to ring Lucy to see when she'd be back, however she heard the door slam and someone run upstairs so presumed it was Lucy.
"Lucy is that you?" Rachel called but she got no reply
Rachel went upstairs to check on her daughter.
She knocked on Lucy's door.
"Leave me alone" Lucy shouted however Rachel went in anyway
When Rachel went in she noticed at once that Lucy had been crying.
"Why bother knocking if you're just going to come in anyway"
"I just wanted to check you were okay"
"Well you've checked so now you can go"
"Lucy, please don't be like this with me"
"Like what?"
"Acting as though I'm the most horrible women in the world"
"Just piss off Mum"
"Don"t you dare speak to me like that" Rachel said starting to feel angry and also horrified that her daughter had just spoken to her like that.
"Fine I don't know why I even bothered trying. We're having Chinese for tea, it will be here at 7. If you want some you can come down to eat and then you just as well stay in your room for the rest of the night"
Rachel then left as tears formed in her eyes. She hated how things were between her and Lucy and she didn't know how to handle it. She was already feeling bad for what she'd just said to Lucy.
Lucy came down to eat but spent the rest of the night in her bedroom.
Usually Olivia and Lucy would be together, but tonight Olivia was sticking with Rachel so she guessed she was being moody with Olivia too.
Rachel had been in bed for about an hour but hadn't been to sleep yet. Suddenly she heard a knock at her door.
"Come in"
The door opened and she saw Olivia stood there.
"Hey love, come in"
"I just thought you might like to know that Lucy's been crying for ages"
"Okay love thanks for letting me know. Do you want to sleep in the spare room, you might get a better nights sleep in there"
"Okay, will Lucy be okay?"
"I hope so, I'll go and talk to her now"
Rachel went to Lucy's bedroom. She stood there for a few moments listening to her daughter cry, it was making her heart melt.
Rachel went over and sat on the bed next to Lucy waiting for her to push her away at any moment.
Much to Rachel's surprise though she didn't. Instead she turned around to face her Mum.
"Mum I really don't want to argue with you anymore"
Rachel didn't know what had caused this suddenly but she certainly wasn't complaining
She didn't say anything but wrapped her arms around Lucy, and for the first time in ages Lucy let her Mum hold her whilst she cried
After a while Lucy pulled away.
"Mum I'm so so sorry, I can't stop thinking about how horrible I've been to you"
"I'm sorry too, I know I haven't handled things very well and I've said things that I really shouldn't have"
"It's not your fault, it's mine for being such a bitch"
"Hey I don't want to hear that kind of language"
"Sorry. From now on I'm going to be nice to you I promise"
"What do you think was making you act the way you were hmm?"
Lucy shrugged
"Ever since... ever since your Dad died we haven't had the best relationship have we?"
"I know we used to be so close, but after Dad died I got fed up of being upset all the time and it became easier to get mad with you than let you see that I was upset"
"I wanted to help you love. I know I was a bit of a mess but your my daughter, I still wanted to be there for you"
"But what about on Ivy's Birthday's, you basically treated it like any other day for the first two years after Dad"
"I know it was wrong of me and I feel so bad, but I just couldn't cope with all the happy memories we had on that day before Dad, but I tried so hard for her this year" Rachel said as she let a few tears fall from her eyes as she felt so guilty
"I know you did"
"This is a new start for us Luc. From now on we talk to each other about how we're feeling and we try to remember the good things about Dad, rather than always being so negative about it, yes?"
"Yes, and Mum I really am sorry you know"
"I know you are, we'll put it all behind us though"
"I love you Mum"
"I love you too darling"
Sorry for not updating in ages, been on holiday for three weeks so haven't had much time xxxx