The Promise - Episode 4

After Ben had left Kevin sat on his couch mulling over everything he had advised Ben to do – all things that he, himself, would never have the courage to say to anyone, least of all Barry. That was why he was still single and the reason he and Barry were having such an awkward time of it.
“You’re such a hypocrite.” He told himself. Well, at least the vacation was cancelled now and he could stop worrying about Barry; maybe he would never see him again, again.

He stood up and turned the radiator on to see if the central heating was fixed, nope.

He went into the bedroom to put on some warmer clothes. On the floor were his notes from his unfinished essay, and a pile of dirty clothes. He picked up the clothes and dumped them into a basket before pulling the wardrobe open and picking out an outfit.

Once in warmer clothes he contemplated on calling his mother, he hadn’t spoken to her in a long time and thought that perhaps she ought to know where he was in case there was an emergency. He shrugged it off and went to light the fire.

Ben went straight back across to his and Emilie’s apartment, she wasn’t back yet. Well, he would wait for her.
“And like it or not.” He told himself. “If she wants to get rid of it, I will accept it; I love her and it’s her body and her life.”

He heard the key scratching against the lock as the key turned, the door squeaked open and Emilie walked in.

She took one look at him, scrunched up her face and made a “hurrump” sound, before dumping her keys onto the kitchen counter and going into the bedroom.

“Emilie, wait.” Ben called after her and followed her into the bedroom. She looked up at him while she fluffed the pillows with her eyebrows raised.
“What?”

“I’m sorry, Emilie.” He saw her bottom lip tremble, by the looks of things she had been crying the whole morning. He had not wanted her to feel this way. “I was wrong to treat you the way I did – I should have told you I knew as soon as I found out.”
“Ben, I…”

“Emilie, will you let me finish? I know that this baby wasn’t planned or anything, I know that it could ruin your schoolwork, and I know that we are too young to be parents.” He took a breath. “But even so, I think we could do this.” He shook his head as she raised her eyebrows. “I’m not going to force you to do anything that you don’t want, it’s your body. I just want you to know that I want what you want.”

“Ben, it’s me who should be sorry – I should have told you that I was pregnant. It’s not something a couple should keep from one another. I want us to go back to normal; I want us to be happy again. Can you forgive me?”

Ben grinned. “Only if you can forgive me…” He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder to which she did not flinch or push him away. She was delicate.

Emilie lifted her chin up and looked into his eyes. “Kiss me, Ben.” And tears fell from her eyes as their lips met.

Ben pulled away. “I love you Emilie.”

Emilie pulled him back to her and they collapsed onto the bed sobbing and laughing and kissing.

Paige pushed open the door excitedly. “Mum, are you home?”
“Yes dear, we’re in the kitchen.”

“Ok, I’ll be down in a minute – I’m just going to get dressed, I have so much to tell you!” Paige dashed up the stairs and into her bedroom, pulled on some jeans and a t-shirt, pulled her hair up and dashed back down the stairs into the kitchen.

Paige’s mum, Liz, was stood over the cooker making pancakes for the little boy who was sat on the chair swinging his legs.

He caught sight of Paige and flew out of the chair to give her a hug.

“You’re home!” His eyes screwed up tight as if he didn’t want to let go.
“Alright little man, you can let go now.” She looked up at her mothers back and sat down.

“Mum can you make me some of those as well?”
“Sure darling, I have enough pancake mixture. Mitch requested I do a larger mix.” Her mother said not moving an inch.
“So, guess what?”
“What?” Mitch asked, his legs still swinging under the table.

“I have been invited to go on vacation for two weeks with some friends. We leave tomorrow.”

Mitch’s eyes fell and the smile dropped from his face. His legs even stopped swinging.

Liz turned around and dropped some pancakes onto his plate; he picked up his fork half-heartedly and began to eat.

Liz raised her eyebrows at her daughter and scolded her without saying a word.

“It’s Okay Mitch; it’ll only be two weeks. And, if you like, I’ll come home early.”

Mitch smiled and started swinging his legs again and began chomping on his pancakes while Liz shook her head, she knew her daughter would not come home early and would only disappoint him again.

Mitch was a good boy, but Paige was a liar when it came to him. She truly did not understand how to treat children. Giving them false hope would not make them any happier.

Emilie got out of bed and pulled some clothes on. Ben opened his eyes groggily and grinned at her.
“Where are you going?” He asked sleepily.

“Me and Leona had a fight, I’m going to apologise. It was stupid.”

Ben sat up. “D’you want me to come with you?”

“Don’t be silly Ben.” Emilie replied pulling on a shoe. “I can handle my sister, if I didn’t push her too far this time… anyway, be back a bit later.” She blew him a kiss and hurried out of the bedroom.

Leona had scrubbed her face furiously to get rid of her red eyes, and got dressed ready to go over to Kevin’s for a chat. She was furious with Emilie, how could she say those things to her after everything they had been through with each other?

Emilie knocked tentatively once on Leona’s door and then again much louder. The door was quickly pulled open. Leona gave her a sneer and went to slam the door in her face. Emilie instinctively put her hand out to stop the door.
“Leona, I’m sorry!”

“You think sorry is going to make everything better? I could have any guy I wanted if I made an effort. Men are not my life Emilie and you have known me long enough to know that! Everything you said to me earlier made me feel sick to my stomach. It showed me how different we are. I am not like you, and thank goodness for that, since you are pregnant and I’m not. No matter what you do about this baby, you’ll always have something that you’ll wish you had done differently to see how your life turned out!” Leona tried to close the door again, but Emilie stopped it again.

“You’re right Lee. You’re right.” Emilie said, pushing her way into the apartment.

“If I were more like you I wouldn’t be knocked up and considering abortion… if I were like you I would be doing really well on my chosen university course. But I’m not and that’s what makes us great sisters, don’t you think?” Emilie stepped forwards. “I nearly lost Ben today. But I almost nearly lost you… and that was worse. I need my sister more than anyone in the whole world. Everything you told me this morning has gone in, I am going to take this vacation to give us time to think about it.”

Emilie cocked her head to one side. “Please come with us.”

Paige was in her bedroom packing two weeks worth of clothes into a bag while Liz stood behind her trying to stop her from leaving.

“Paige, you can’t just go on vacation because you were invited, you have responsibilities! I cannot keep doing everything for you. If you leave to go on that vacation I would prefer it if you did not come back at all. You are breaking that poor boy’s heart with all of your antics.”

“Mum, listen.” Paige said, turning around. “I met this really amazing guy last night; I am just going on this vacation to get to know him better. When I come home that’ll be it. No more parties for me. I will spend time with Mitch. I promise.”

Liz shook her head. “Your promises don’t work with me like they work with him Paige. I’m your mother."

"If you take one step out of that front door, you won’t be coming back; you’ll never see him again.”

Paige scoffed. “I’d like to see you try and stop me.” She forcefully zipped up the bag.

“I’m going to stay at Barry’s tonight; I’ll be back in two weeks. I’m going to say goodbye to Mitch and then I’m leaving.”

Paige dumped the bag at the foot of her bed before heading over the hall where Mitch was playing with his toys in his room.

“Right, Mitch. Stop playing; I want you to listen to me okay? I’m going away for two weeks and I want you to be a very good boy alright? I’ll be home soon and I’ll phone every night. I love you.” Paige pulled him into a hug.

“I don’t want you to go.” Mitch sobbed into her shoulder. “Why can’t you stay?”
“I’m sorry Mitch, but this’ll be the last time okay.” Paige choked; her tears were stinging her eyes. “When I get home I will spend every day with you, I promise. Okay? I promise.”

“Okay, mummy.”

“Make sure you tell grandma to make you pancakes every morning until I come home.”
Mitch grinned.

Paige left his room and ran straight into her mother who held her bag. Paige took it from her.
“Thanks mum. See you in two weeks.”
She received a glare, a glare which, had she been a few years younger, she would have been terrified of.
“I warned you Paige, you take one step out of that door and you’ll…”

“Save it mum. He’s my son. You think you’ll be able to keep me away from him?” Paige rolled her eyes. “I’ll be home in two weeks, and I’ll be spending time with my son.”

Liz held her arms apart. “Why in two weeks? What will happen during these two weeks that will make you want to spend more time with your son? You never want to spend time with him. What will make things change?”

“Because… I promised him!”

“Oh, you promised him? You promise him a lot of things. Never do your promises mean anything – I will protect him from you Paige. You’ll break his heart. He’ll never trust anyone if you keep treating him this way.” Liz folded her arms as her daughter stepped menacingly forward.

“I’m his mother. I’ll get a lawyer… If you try to keep me from my son, I’ll get a lawyer.”

Paige turned her back on her mother and left the house.

Kevin looked away from his pc screen as Leona burst into his bedroom.
“Oh good, you’re not asleep. Come on, we’re all in the living room waiting for you. Emilie found a cottage.”

Kevin blinked. “How did you get in?”

“I opened the door and stepped inside. Now get off that darned computer and come and chat with us!” She pulled him up off the seat.
“We’re still going on this vacation?”

“Err, d’uh! Of course we are still going, what on earth would have made you think otherwise.”
Kevin knotted his eyebrows.

“Never mind.” He said while shaking his head.

“Right, so.” Emilie began when they were all sat down. “I’ve found a really nice cottage just by the sea…”
“Sorry to interrupt, Emilie.” Kevin said “But I have already booked a cottage. I know, it’s totally wrong of me and I should have asked you first.” He continued, hanging his head.

“Too right it was wrong of you! What if none of us like it?” Emilie spat angrily.

“Well, I couldn’t sleep last night so I got busy arranging things… and then, this morning when I found out you and Ben had had an argument… I assumed that the vacation was cancelled. So I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t have time to cancel the booking yet. I still can, only if you want to leave tomorrow it’s unlikely anyone will take a booking today. I was surprised I managed to book last night.” He finished looking warily around at everybody.

Leona patted him on the back. “Nice one Kevin.” She turned to Emilie and Ben smiling. “Look at it this way; we definitely have a place to stay. There’s no last minute rushing around and finding the best of the worst places at the last minute.”

“I guess, well we had better get packing the bags.” Ben said. “You gave Barry the list of drink didn’t you Leona?”

Leona rolled her eyes. “You know I did, but I’m not sure Barry can read.”
They all laughed.

Paige knocked loudly on the door. She had composed herself on the walk over. Her mother was not going to ruin her chances with Barry on this vacation.

Eve heard the knock on the door and waited for another member of the family to answer it. Lynn was upstairs with the tv blasting... watching LOST or some other show like that. James was sat in the living room with a book. And Barry was in his room doing... whatever it was 22 year old boys do. So when no-one came rushing she wasn't surprised and went to open it herself.

A beautiful young girl she had never seen before was stood there waiting, smiling. Eve shook her hand.

"Hello there, can I help you?"

Paige smiled wider. "Hi, I'm Paige. I'm sure Barry has told you all about me?" She asked.

"You're here for Barry?" Eve asked. "One second." She turned around and cupped her hands to her mouth. "BARRY! THERE'S A GIRL AT THE DOOR FOR YOU."

Paige winced.

"Sorry, Paige, Barry doesn't talk to us about his... well about anything really. I daren't ask him anything - too scared of what I might find."

Paige laughed politely.

Barry came out of his bedroom and looked down into the hall, his mum was chatting to Paige. Oh how embarrassing. He started down the stairs.

Paige looked up as he made his way down and smiled.

"Hi, Paige, I wasn't expecting you."

"I'm sorry I didn't call to let you know I was coming over..."

"Paige, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I thought I would stay over and get to know you a little bit better before we went on vacation together. I would feel awkward if I didn't know anybody. I haven't met any of your friends before."

Barry raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, wait, is this a bad time. It's Ok, I can go. I just didn't want to feel like a third wheel. Do they know I'm coming?"

"Who?"

"Your friends, you know, Emilie, Leona, Ben and what's-his-name?"

"...Kevin."

"Yeah, do they know?"

"Er, yeah... they know." Barry replied scratching the back of his neck nervously.

"Great!" Paige stood there awkwardly.

"Well, if you're staying you should meet the parents. They don't like me having people stay over if they don't know them."

Barry walked into the living room where his parents were stood. His father was quite red in the face and looked rather stern, as if he had been shouting.

"Hi dad, mum. This is Paige, she's staying over tonight so we can meet the others early tomorrow morning."

"Pleased to meet you Paige." James said gruffly.

"We've already met." Eve said smiling, after turning around. "You are very welcome to stay over. It's not often Barry brings girls home."

"Mum!"

"Well it isn't." Eve pulled a face at Paige, grinning. "Just don't disturb your sister, she's watching that show. LOST, or something."

"She has the next episode? Why didn't she tell me?" Barry asked. Eve shrugged. "Well, we'll be going upstairs now."

Barry and Paige were just about to go into his bedroom when Lynn came out of her room. The music that played during the ending credits burst forth until she closed the door behind her.

"Jesus Lynn! Do you have to have that on so loud?" Barry scolded. "I think I'm deaf."

Lynn caught sight of Paige. "So Barry, bringing girls home now? Who's your new girlfriend?"

Barry shot Paige a look and quickly ushered Paige into his room.

"Don't say anything." He said and shut the door behind him.