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“It’s still wet, Dad, don’t touch it!” I tell him hastily.
“It’s perfect.” He looks at me then before turning again to look at the feature wall I had created.
I got my love of mountains, hiking, hills, and the outdoors from Liam, so I did my best to incorporate it into his room.
I painted grey mountains, with darker ones behind it onto the wall. Instead of the sun, I drew the moon, and filled it with light grey, almost translucent pictures of us all from my childhood. Pictures of Dad, Liam, and some with me and Gray in too. The stars in the night sky were made from glow in the dark paint, and jewels that I had found in the pound store.
“This is incredible, he’s going to love it, Char.” My dad turns around to look at me again and grabs me in a monstrous hug before I have time to think about it any further. Before you know it, I’ve got my dad’s strong arms wrapped around me “Thank you, Char,” he whispers gruffly. You can hear the emotion in his voice, and I forget all about his scalding of me about the questions. I’m not sure if he’s saying thank you for the room or for letting him hug me but either way I take it.
I pull back suddenly, “Oh wait, you haven’t seen the best bit!” I squeal with excitement, and grab Crow’s arm and pull him towards the mountains painted on the wall.
“It just looks like a nice painting, right, Dad? Nothing peculiar about it?” I question with a raise of my brow.
My dads eyebrows knit together as he shakes his head “Just a normal wall,” he says carefully, and I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face.
“Crow, if you’d do the honours,” I say, bowing slightly and elongating my arms to show my dad the very normal wall once again.
Crow steps forwards and puts his hand up against the highest peak on the tallest mountain and then looking back at me and sighing in exasperation. He knew nothing would happen and yet I made him join the show anyway.
“Why are you smiling, Char?” my dad asks me as another laugh escape my lips and I skip merrily over to my dad, hold his hand and lead him towards the spot that Crow was just stood in.
“Put your hand on the top of the tallest mountain, Dad,” I instruct him.
He looks at me in confusion, but doesn’t hesitate other than that and does as I say before opening and closing his mouth a few times.
Crow and I made a small square hole in between the timbers of the wall. Only small, but large enough to conceal a few things within. Crow did the electric aspect of it all, I just came up with the idea but at the top of the mountain, where a small fake star lies, is a button behind the star that leads to the cubby hole opening.
After a few minutes of silence and my dad looking around the new space in awe, he comes back out to stare at me with what I can only describe as complete shock.
“Well, now I need one! What makes him so special?” my dads asks with a face of complete seriousness, making me laugh once again.
“Oh, you’ll get one, Dad, you will.” I sigh, taking his arm as we walk out of the room. I take Crow on my other arm, dragging him along with me.
Having two of my favourite men on my arms makes me happier than I’d like to admit. It’s so simple and yet it makes me feel more complete than I have in such a long time.
* * *
I’m laying across the sofa in the lounge next to Crow, with Dad in his corner chair nearest to the television. I have my head on Crow’s lap, watchingHide.
We’re waiting for our food delivery to arrive, andHideis my favourite thing to watch right now.
It’s about fifteen people that go on the run, with FBI agents, law enforcement, and many others searching for them. The people on the run have three hundred pounds, the clothes on their back, and a backpack with the basics to camp and then they run. The person or people that last the full amount of time without being caught win. The winner gets a significant sum of money.
I spend the whole time either telling Dad and Crow how cool they are for coming up with the best ideas to stay hidden or shouting at the television when the Hunters are close by. Then you have my dad and Crow who think they’re experts giving a running commentary on the show – why would they purposefully go home when that’s the one place everyone would look for them? Why would you stay in one place for more than a day or two unless you know it’s an underground, undetected area? It is constant with them two.
There’s an abrupt knock on the door, and as I look up, I realise that Dad is already up and heading towards the door.
Within minutes, our food is plated and in our laps as we continue to watch the programme that had been paused while we got comfy again.
These are the types of nights that I love. Relaxed, without trouble, peaceful and content.
We do this at least once a week, which alongside the amount of crap I eat day in and day out probably explains why I never seem to lose weight. I’m not fat by any means, but I do have more meat on me than most of the girls at the club that I look at and find myself wondering what it would be like to have a body so perfectly sculpted and beautiful.
They are all slim. No more than a size eight at their biggest, aside from Alice who might be closer to a sixteen, but she’s certainly not big. She has the most gorgeous curves.
I find myself curling into Crow a little more as I get lost in my thoughts but halt when I look down at how we’re now sat.
I ponder for a moment at how my connection to Crow looks. We’re both eating. Me sat on his lap with both of our plates of food on my lap as we continue watching television. No one ever says anything to us or about us in that way, but I realise that us holding hands when we’re shopping or me sitting in his lap eating food, sharing a bed, and so much more of our friendship looks like that of a couple. I wonder if Crow recognises that as well? Even before our kiss, we have always been pretty physically connected.
