CHAPTER 3) A Ghost From The Past

When Amelia arrived at the rugby club where Tom’s birthday party was being held, she was amazed by the amount of people who had turned up for Tom’s party. She knew he was outgoing and rather popular, but this took her by surprise. Amelia smirked and grabbed Tom by the waist, “Happy birthday babe”.

The function room was kitted out with several 21 decorated balloons and each wall had a banner saying Happy 21^st Birthday. There was a buffet table with a selection of sandwiches, crisps, volauvents and sausage rolls. At the end of the table was a selection of jelly, cupcakes and trifle. In the centre of the room was a mini dance floor and the DJ was stationed next to it. There was a warm atmosphere and Amelia knew that this would be a night to remember.

Amelia’s best friends Katie and Sam arrived about half an hour after Amelia. Katie was tall and skinny with long blonde hair and wearing a very noticeable gold sequined dress. Sam was the same height as Amelia and slightly overweight. The girls greeted each other with hugs, shrieking and bombarded Tom with kisses on the cheek. “Watch the lippy. Ewww. I have girl germs.”

“What are you, like four Tom?” joked Katie. The gang erupted with laughter, made worse by Amelia and Mel’s infectious laughter.

“What time will your brother be here babe?” enquired Amelia.

“Errrrr, he said he’d be here about ten as his mate was giving him a lift” answered Tom.

“Ok. I hope I don’t embarrass myself”, Amelia giggled. Tom shot a "don’t be ridiculous" glance at Amelia.

Ten o’clock passed and Amelia and her gang were showing off their dance moves, laughing and taking pictures with their identical pink cameras whilst doing so. At this point Tom had undone some of the buttons on his shirt and his hair was slightly dishevelled. Amelia had begun to feel slightly tipsy but decided to order more vodka and red bulls for everyone. There was a queue at the bar and Amelia was waiting for about fifteen minutes before she eventually got served, much to her annoyance. When she got back from the bar, Amelia noticed that Tom was stood with a rather short but skinny guy with mouse brown hair, dressed in black skinny jeans with a studded belt and a tight tee shirt. She couldn’t see the man’s face as his back was turned to her. Amelia managed to catch a rather drunken Tom’s eye. “Babe, I want you to meet my brother Lewis. Yo Lewis, this is my sexy girlfriend Amelia”. The skinny man with brown hair turned round and greeted Amelia with a smile but when their eyes locked, both of their smiles diminished. Amelia turned a deathly white colour, much paler than usual. “Errr hi”, Lewis mumbled.

“Hi, nice to meet you”, Amelia lied. “Can you just excuse me for a moment I need the little girls’ room”. Tom looked slightly baffled at the obvious awkwardness between the pair of them but continued to take a swig from his bottle of Stella Artois.

Amelia had locked herself in a toilet cubicle for half an hour. She felt nauseous and was in disbelief. How could Lewis be Tom’s older brother? A tear began to roll down Amelia’s delicate face and was in an almost catatonic state. She was disturbed from her daze when she heard a crowd of drunken girls barging into the toilets.

“Amelia. AMELIA!”

“Are you okay Amelia? What’s wrong?”

Amelia quickly wiped the tears from her cheek and opened the door to the cubicle and managed a feeble smile. “Dodgy volauvent I think”, Amelia replied.

“You just sort of weirded out when that Lewis dude joined us”, said Sam who was obviously very concerned.

“I am fine I just came over a bit dizzy and have been a bit sick that’s all”, Amelia reassured the girls.

“Well we will call you a taxi home”, said Katie.

“No it’s okay, I feel better now”, exclaimed Amelia. Melanie however, did not look convinced.

The girls rejoined the party and went to search for Tom, who by 12 o’clock was completely legless. Amelia noticed that Lewis was no longer with him. “Where’s your brother gone?” asked Amelia.

“He went home. Something to do with being up early in the morning”, Tom was slurring his words and Amelia giggled slightly and grabbed hold of Tom tightly and did not loosen her grip for a good few minutes.“You alright babe?”

“I just love you Tom. So much.” Amelia began to choke back the tears and then let go of Tom and joined in with the girls’ questionable dance moves. While the girls were laughing and enjoying themselves, Amelia forced a laugh every now and again for the rest of the evening.

The party ended at 2 o’clock in the morning and Amelia and her gang were very amused by the fact Tom’s parents were carrying him into a taxi.

“Think someone enjoyed themselves a little too much”, Melanie giggled. Eventually Amelia and Melanie’s taxi arrived and both girls slumped into the back seat of the fusty smelling taxi. There was silence for a while until Melanie grabbed Amelia’s hand.

“What really happened tonight Ams. You have not been yourself all evening. I’ve been really worried about you”, said Melanie who was clearly worried.

“Nothing”, Amelia sighed.

“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you one bit!” snapped Melanie.

“Oh Mel don’t spoil a good night. Nothing’s wrong so just drop it will you?” Amelia rarely lost her temper, but she did not feel like sharing her deepest, darkest secret.

After the ten minute taxi journey the girls were finally home. Melanie paid the taxi driver the fare while Amelia fumbled with her house key trying to open the door. Melanie snatched the key from Amelia’s hand and opened the front door with ease. Amelia barged past her sister, completely blanking her and ran straight upstairs into her bedroom. She threw her clothes off onto her unusually clean, cream carpet and got straight into bed. Tears fell from Amelia’s eyes like raindrops from the sky. She knew that tonight would be a night to remember, but she knew she would remember it for all the wrong reasons.

CHAPTER 2) Meeting The Parents

It had taken Amelia almost two and a half hours to have a shower and turn herself into the goddess that she was. She looked stunning. She was wearing a hot pink off the shoulder dress which complimented her slim but curvy figure perfectly, coming down to just above her knees, and wore hot pink heels with zips at the side. Amelia did not know how she was going to last in such killer heels all night but as long as she looked good, the pain was worth it.

Amelia must have been staring at herself in the mirror for at least ten minutes. Her wavy, chestnut hair was now perfectly straight, with not a single strand of hair out of place. Her makeup was immaculate; soft pink cheeks to accompany her perfect, porcelain skin and bold, sparkly silver eye shadow which made Amelia’s sapphire blue eyes stand out even more than usual. Amelia applied yet another coat of lipstick. This was not her usual shade of pale pink, but a vibrant shade of hot pink.

Amelia was in deep thought when she was interrupted by her younger sister Melanie shrieking at her. “Yes, yes you look fine. Come on or else we’re going to be late!” Amelia suddenly came back to reality and picked up her clutch bag, which was also hot pink. “Oh for God’s sake Amelia, come on! Stop pissing about”, Melanie commanded.  Melanie was quite bossy, whereas Amelia was reasonably laid back. Melanie was almost the spitting image of her elder sister. The only difference between the two was that Melanie was slightly taller and had her hair cut into a bob. Amelia quickly hurried herself to her father’s gleaming black BMW before she felt Melanie’s wrath.

The girls got into their father’s car. “It’s a lovely day for a celebration, isn’t it?” This was their father’s feeble attempt at making conversation whilst passing the time while he drove them to Tom’s house. “Yes dad it is. I’m so glad it hasn’t tipped it down with rain”, Amelia replied politely. Melanie butted in.

“Yes, I spent ages doing my makeup and Amelia spent all afternoon doing hers”. Amelia shot a glance at Melanie. Their father laughed, “Oh you girls and you’re makeup”.

The girls sat in silence for the remaining five minutes journey to Tom’s house. Amelia was once again in deep thought. She was nervous about meeting Tom’s parents. She had been with Tom for four months and had not met his parents properly yet. She had met his mum a couple of times when she came to pick Tom up from her house, but had never been to Tom’s house while his parents or elder brother were there. Amelia felt slightly sick. She was rehearsing what she was going to say to them in her head, and more importantly, how she was going to behave in front of them. She looked out the window and instantly recognised the house the car had stopped at. It was Tom’s house. She took a deep breath and got out of the car. She was greeted by a chubby woman with golden blond hair and bright green eyes. “Hello Amelia. It’s nice to finally meet you properly! I’m Deborah, Tom’s mum, but you can just call me Deb or Debbie. Oh it is so nice to see you. Is this Melanie?”

“Yes this is Melanie. Everyone mistakes us for identical twins! “, Amelia stuttered.

“Hello Deb. Nice to meet you. Just ignore my sister, cat’s got her tongue and her brain’s in a mush”, Melanie giggled.

“I’m just fine Mel. Sorry we are a bit late Deb, you know us girls, like to look our best”, Amelia admitted nervously, whilst receiving a nudge from Melanie.

“Oh don’t worry. I know all too well. It took me nearly two hours to transform from a dragon into a yummy mummy”. Everyone laughed. “Well here comes Malcolm, my lovely husband, say hello to the girls Malc”. Malcolm was skinny, with grey hair and smoky brown eyes. Amelia could not quite believe that this was Tom’s dad as he bared no resemblance to his son, except his eyes. “ ‘Ey up. I’m Malc, Tom’s dad. Taxi’ll be ‘ere in a minute. Let’s ‘ope birthday boy hurries his arse up. Bet ‘e’s taken longer to get ready than you pair combined”. Amelia and Melanie chuckled. Malcolm was a typical Derbyshire bloke with a broad accent. It was an accent hard not to love.

About ten minutes passed, before Tom finally appeared from the house, locking the door. Melanie giggled. “I’ve never seen him looking so smart, he normally dresses dead common”. Amelia immediately came to her boyfriend's defence.
“No he doesn’t. Just because you are all la-di-da young lady”.  Both sisters chuckled with their infectious laugh. Amelia could see Melanie’s point. Tom normally dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt. She hardly recognised the smart young man that emerged from his house. Tom was dressed in a suit with a trendy blazer from Topman. Amelia was admiring the sight of her boyfriend when Malcolm announced, “Taxi’s ‘ere”.

CHAPTER 1) Amelia's Garden

It was a warm day in August. The sun was shining and the sky was blue without a cloud in sight. Amelia was sat at the old, wooden picnic bench in her back garden with her boyfriend, Tom. The bench had been varnished ten years ago by Amelia’s mother, Catherine. It was once a very rich shade of brown but after years of sunshine, rain and snow, it was fair to say that the picnic bench had seen better days. Amelia turned to her left and gazed into Tom’s smoky, brown eyes. She smiled at him whilst inquiring nervously, “So, tonight I will meet your entire family”.

Tom rolled his eyes and mumbled, “Yes gorgeous, you will.”

“But what if they don’t like me? What if I get too drunk and embarrass myself? Oh gosh, I can’t believe we have been dating for four months and I haven’t even met your parents yet!”

Tom put his arm around Amelia’s waist and kissed her on her the top of her head. He could feel her soft hair on his lips. “Baby, you really need to stop panicking. You will be fine. They will love you and can’t wait to finally meet you. You’ll be okay babe, I promise. Besides, your friends and sister are coming aren’t they? So if you do make a prat of yourself you can always sneak over and hide with them.”

Amelia shot Tom an evil glance whilst giggling. Amelia had a very infectious, loud giggle and Tom could not resist joining in.

Amelia spent the next hour canoodling with Tom at the picnic bench. They were both admiring the view of Amelia’s back garden. Amelia’s garden was very spacious. It was almost like a miniature field. The grass was a very healthy looking green, with each strand of grass mowed to equal lengths with precision. Flowers of all different colours brightened up the garden. There were carnations, iris’, violets, orchids and of course, a variety of roses. Apple trees shaded the bench where Amelia and Tom were sat, keeping them cool and ensuring that Amelia’s porcelain like skin did not burn in the heat coming from the sun.

Tom looked at his watch and stood up. Tom was a tall, well built man. He had broad shoulders and was very muscular with a rugby player’s build. Unsurprisingly, Tom was a big sports fanatic who played rugby every Sunday morning and trained at the gym almost every day. Tom had golden blond hair with spikes, which he gelled to perfection every day. “It’s nearly 4 o’clock babe, I had better go home and get ready for my big night tonight.”

Amelia stood up and wrapped her arms around Tom, ignoring the fact that she was covered in old varnish that had peeled off the bench. Amelia was all of five foot four, and just came up to the base of Tom’s neck. “Okay babe, my dad will drop me and Mel off at yours around seven”.

Tom bent down slightly and gave Amelia a quick peck on the lips, forgetting that she had just recently applied another coat of her favourite pale pink lipstick. Tom raised his voice slightly, while holding Amelia by her waist, grinning like the Cheshire cat.  “Not again! You and you’re bloody lipstick! I’ll see you later then, I love you babe!”

“I love you more!” Amelia exclaimed. “I will see you later. Bye!”

Tom let go of Amelia’s waist and began walking to his racing green Vauxhall Corsa. Amelia waved him off, and then headed up to her bedroom to get ready for Tom’s big 21^st birthday party.