Chapter 17

September 2002

Seventeen-year-old Steve was headed upstairs to his bedroom one evening when a sound caught his attention. It was crying coming from the bathroom. Not just anyone crying, it was Lottie. He knew her cry so well he could tell without seeing her that she was trying to keep quiet but couldn't keep the tears in.

"Lottie?" he asked quietly, just outside the door. "Can I come in?" he asked. He just heard a sniff as a reply. He opened the door and sat on the floor was Lottie with her back against the edge of the bath, her knees up to her chest. She was in her pjs and her fluffy lilac dressing gown which she liked to wear all the time as it made her feel comfortable. Her wild curly hair and child sized glasses combined with her outfit, many would see as so cute, but right now it made Steve feel concerned. Usually Lottie couldn't sit still and was a ball of energy, always singing and talking or dancing around the house. She was that way this morning, excited for school as always. She was petit from day dot but the way she sat on the floor she looked even smaller.

"Hey, what's the matter?" he asked and came to sit next to her. She looked up and him, her lip wobbling.

"Steve, am I stupid?"

"Stupid? No! Whoever told you that?"

"Billy Radcliffe. He was mean to me today."

"Who's Billy?"

"He's in my class. He doesn't like me."

"What makes you say that?" Steve asked.

"He told me so and then pushed me over." She lifted up one of her pj legs to show a serious of cuts on her legs and knees which looked sore.

"Did you show mum and dad this or your teacher?" he asked and she shook her head. "Why not?"

"He said that if I told anyone he was going to get me and break my glasses. Said I was stupid because I didn't know how the answer to a riddle he said and because my hair is curly. I don't want him to get me or touch my glasses, I like them. I didn't do anything to upset him so why did he pick on me?" She broke down in more tears and Steve pulled her into his side wrapping his long arm around her small frame.

"Because Billy is an insecure little boy who thinks picking on someone smaller than him makes him the best person in the world."

"What's insecure?" she asked confused.

"Someone who isn't confident. Bullies pick on people they see as weak because they feel weak. So really a bully is someone who needs a big hug."

"So I should go hug Billy?" she asked confused.

"Not if he doesn't want you to. What I am trying to say is that showing Billy you are confident will make him leave you alone. He'll definitely stop picking on you if you become his friend. I think he actually likes you. It might take a bit of time but I think you could make him your friend, you're always good at that."

"How?" she asked.

"Well, you could ask him to join in on your games, or when you share things with your friends you share with him too" Steve suggested.

"I could share my packed lunch. He doesn't bring any with him."

Steve could now see that perhaps Billy didn't have a good home life and was lashing out like a wounded animal. He had at first wanted to beat up this five-year-old kid and now he wanted to help him.

"Tell you what, I won't tell mum and dad about what happened if you let me clean up your cuts and I take you to school tomorrow."

"You'll take me to school?" she asked suddenly full of excitement. He hadn't seen her school yet as he had to go to his own each weekday morning but he didn't mind risking detention to deal with this matter.

"There is one condition. If this Billy kid continues to be mean you have to tell your teacher, mum and dad. If not then I will go downstairs right now and tell them."

"Ok" she agreed quickly and smiled.

"Now there's the face that I like to see. You are really beautiful when you smile Lottie. It's like the sunshine. It makes everyone happy. I think Billy would like to be smiled at too."

"I will smile at him tomorrow."

"Good girl." Steve had Lottie sit on the toilet, the lid closed beneath her, as he cleaned her scrapped knees, him sitting on the floor as he did. She had begun playing with the sleeve of her dressing gown like she always did when she was scared or worried. He knew she was concerned about the morning and an idea came into his mind. "Lottie, do you believe in magic?"

"Yes, why?" she asked confused. Steve put down the cotton ball he was pressing against one of her knees and focussed on her.

"What if I told you that I can do magic that will take away all your worry and fear about Billy?"

"What kind of magic is that?" she asked. Steve smiled and held up an index finger close to her making her look disgusted. "You aren't going to make me pull that are you?"

"No! Don't tell anyone but I have magic powers."

"No you don't" she giggled and she stopped playing with her sleeve.

"Yes I do, I promise and it is all in my finger. You can't tell anyone Lottie else someone might want to steal it. Not even mum and dad know. It's just between us. You believe me don't you?" Lottie nodded with slightly wide eyes. He knew he had her believing every word. "Ok, so my magic power is that I can make all the bad feelings inside you go away."

"Can you make Billy go away?" she asked slightly confused.

"No, like I said Billy is someone who wants to be your friend and you aren't going to turn a friend away are you?" She shook her head. "Good girl. Now how it works is that I can suck out all the bad feelings inside you so you are only left with the good stuff. All it takes is a simple touch. You want to try it?" she nodded.

"Just a finger?" she asked confused holding up one of her own index fingers.

"As little as that but it can be a whole hand or a hug or anything you like and as often as you like."

"Why have you never done that before?"

"Like I said, you don't want someone coming in and stealing it from me do you? Besides, I have the safety lock on usually and I only use it when I need to like right now. Shall we try it?" Lottie nodded and gingerly brought her finger to Steve's. As soon as the tip of her finger touched his he pretended to slurp loudly and then burp. This made her giggle loudly and break their touch and Steve pretended to softly punch his chest following his burp.

"Pardon me! That was a big load of worry there. All gone now. How do you feel?"

"Better" she smiled.

"See, I told you I had magic. If you want, tomorrow we can walk all the way to school holding hands and I'll take away the worry with no one knowing. On days that I can't take you to school, we can hold hands or have a hug before you leave the house. How about that?" she nodded enthusiastically.

"Can I have a happy hug now?" she asked.

"Of course you can. Always" She reached out and wrapped her short skinny arms around his neck and he held her close to him. "You give the best hugs too, you know that?"

"No, you do. Yours are magic."

Eleven years later

Lottie paced her room nervously. It was her first date and she was ready to go but no sign of Alex yet. He wasn't running late, far from it she was mega early. She was just trying to fill the time but she was getting more and more nervous by the minute. When Steve entered the flat after his long day in Manchester she was so distracted he made her jump.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine" she said beginning to pace the kitchen.

"You sure? I think you are going to pace a hole into the kitchen floor."

"Yes, I'm just … nervous. I know, it's sad and pathetic but it feels like a big step you know?" she asked continuing to pace. Steve walked up to her and stopped her pacing by standing in front of her and putting his hands on her shoulders.

"It's not sad because it is a big deal. Just be you Lottie. It's why he asked you out. It isn't like you don't know anything about each other; you've spent loads of time with him. Just go with the flow and see what happens."

"You got a way for me to get rid of my nerves?" she asked biting her bottom lip.

"Well" he held up his index finger and she rolled her eyes.

"I'm not five Steve. You don't have magic powers." He looked a bit deflated hearing those words so he lowered his hand.

"Ok, how about this? I have to come to your college tomorrow."

Her eyes widened and instantly the nerves were gone. "I beg your pardon?" Right at that moment the outside door bell buzzed through the flat. Lottie walked over and buzzed Alex in after seeing him on the camera before turning back to face Steve.

"You have two minutes before Alex gets here. Tell me everything" she demanded.

"It's to do with Christopher's case. A colleague of his works at the college and I have to interview them."

"Who are they? They better not be one of my teachers."

"I can't tell you who they are but I can tell you they don't teach."

"Do you have to do it? College was the one place that was just mine" Lottie moaned.

"Well there is nothing I can do about it. You most likely won't even see me tomorrow."

"I better not." Right then a knock came at the door. "Jesus!" Lottie in a panic began to play with her hair. "How do I look?" she asked.

"Beautiful" Steve said honestly. She smiled softly and then opened the door. There Alex stood wearing a long brown tweed coat over a pair of jeans and a smart top. He smiled seeing her.

"Hi, wow you look amazing" he said making her blush.

"Thank you. I would ask you to come in but there is a no boys rule on the flat."

"No problem. You ready to go?" he asked.

"Sure, just give me one second to grab by coat." She crossed the room to grab her coat from the sofa and as she headed back to the door she quickly stopped and pressed her index finger against Steve's making him smile.

"Sunshine on Leith?! Really?!" Lottie asked full of excitement.

"You said you haven't seen it yet and you like The Proclaimers so I thought why not. Plus, I had a look online and we are alone in the screening."

"I love it when that happens. So are you a popcorn or sweets kind of a guy in the cinema."

"Both but prefer popcorn."

"Ditto."

The two went inside the cinema and Lottie was stunned. This wasn't a standard cinema, it was a luxury one. It was designed like an art deco theatre with a full beautiful restaurant and bar. Each of the screenings was full of comfy sofas and chairs resulting in each screening only having half a dozen rows. It was intimate and comforting. Each seat/ sofa had its own table and lamps and food, hot and cold, as well as drinks were served to you in the screening.

"This place is stunning. How did you find it?" she asked once they sat down on their shared sofa seats.

"One of the city's best kept secrets. There are loads of hidden gems around the city. You just need to know where to find them. Wait and see where I take you next date."

She smiled at that. "So there is going to be a second date?" she asked and he leant in close to her and kissed her softly.

"What do you think?" he asked when he pulled back a few millimetres. Now she was fully relaxed. They continued to kiss each other sweetly and only stopped when interrupted by a staff member with a tray of their drinks and snacks making Lottie chuckle.

"I forgot to give you this," Alex said after the staff member had left the screen. He took off his coat and pulled out an envelope from his inside pocket.

"What is this?" Lottie asked when he handed it over.

"I know you aren't a flowers and chocolates kind of a girl so I hope this makes up for the lack of that."

She opened the envelope and her mouth fell open. Inside was an internal staff concert listing for the venue they saw Coldplay in of all the acts that would be appearing in the following year and highlighted near the bottom of the page was Fleetwood Mac.

"Fleetwood Mac are coming to Manchester?! Is this real?!" she asked.

"Yep. Told you I have connections. You want to go with me?"

"Faster than a heartbeat" she beamed.

"Good, because I already got the tickets." Lottie felt like she could cry. Instead she leant in to him and kissed him passionately. She felt him support her neck with a hand and she lost herself in the kiss for a moment. The lights went down as they kissed and only the boom of the adverts beginning pulled them apart.

"We had better focus on the film." Alex said with a smile.

"Film hasn't started yet" Lottie corrected him.

When the film did start she was hooked to it. Having lived many years as a Proclaimers fan, the movie was her full focus. She softly sung along, she pointed out when songs had been adjusted somehow and she cried softly when Make My Heart Fly and Sunshine On Leith were sung. She was completely her authentic self and Alex spent a lot of time looking at Lottie rather than the film happy to see her excitement and her being totally unaware he was watching made it all the better.

Following the film they went out to dinner at an independent pizzeria which had a long queue out the door for the take away and all the tables were occupied. Luckily Alex had booked ahead at another city gem location. Their conversation was relaxed and they got to know each other more. They talked about their childhoods in different parts of the country, life experiences and Lottie was very interested to learn about Alex's university course in music production. Time flew by and before they knew it Alex and Lottie arrived at Lottie's building.

"What time is it?" Lottie asked as she swiped the two into the building.

"9:54pm" Alex replied looking at the clock on his phone screen.

"Six minutes to spare … what could we do in six minutes?" she asked heading for the lift. He took her hand stopping her from pressing the button.

"We could walk upstairs instead. May be slower but we can spend longer together."

She nodded and let him lead her up the stairs to her floor. Finally they got to the long corridor where Lottie and Steve lived at the far end. Alex went to walk down the corridor to her door but Lottie stopped him.

"Sweet to take me to the door but Steve is in there and you know what he is like." Alex couldn't disagree with what Lottie said.

"Good point. Guess I leave you here then. I had a great time."

"Me too. Thank you for … everything" Lottie smiled. Alex once again leaned in, supporting her neck and the two kissed up again the corridor wall. After a moment they parted and she headed for her door whilst Alex stayed where he was. The two held hands as long as possible but eventually had to break their grasp. As she walked away she heard Alex whistling Make My Heart Fly which made her blush.

"Call me" she instructed. He watched her enter the flat before walking back down the stairs.

Technically she was a few minutes late and was expecting Steve to be standing by the door ready to ground her. Not today however. Instead she found Steve had fallen asleep on the sofa with the tv on and the blanket that usually sat on the sofa was softly draped over his legs. Knowing the sofa would hurt his back she softly shook his shoulders waking him up.

"What time is it?" he asked groggily looking around the room.

"Just gone 10pm, you must be tired to crash out so early. I'm home in time for curfew."

He sat up and smiled. "Good time?" he asked.

"Yeah, really good time. Second date on the table."

"Happy for you." Steve then yawned. "Sorry, busy week hitting me clearly."

"Guess I'm playing adult tonight. Off to bed" Lottie instructed.

"Yes mum" he muttered and headed for his room.