8. Stay With Me?
STAY WITH ME?
ANNELISA
SIXTEEN YEARS OLD
When I met Will Anderson, I had no idea that he’d become the most important person in my universe. Or what a strong impact his family would have on mine.
Four months after that fateful day on the beach, when I called him out on his crush and all but dared him to make a move, I came home from school to find my mother in a ball on the lounge room floor.
I have no idea how long she’s been lying there, but the way her body shakes with heaving sobs looks painful.
“Mum?” I run into the room and fall to my knees beside her. “What’s happened?” Anxiety runs through me as I imagine the worst. “Did something happen to Dad?”
She struggles to take a breath, pushing herself up off the ground to sit with her head resting on her knees. Her long strawberry blonde hair falls over her arms in a curtain, obscuring her face entirely .
“What’s going on?” Tara asks, coming into the room behind me.
I shake my head. “I don’t know. Mum… please?” My voice cracks while I plead with her to tell me what’s wrong.
After what feels like an eternity, she finally pulls herself together enough to look up at us. Mascara streaks her cheeks, and she rubs her face while she takes another deep breath.
“Your father has moved out,” she manages to say.
Her voice is hoarse, and I’m not entirely sure I heard her properly.
“What?” Tara asks, her voice sounding small.
“He got his assistant pregnant, and he has moved out.”
I blink, her words not sinking in at first. There has to be some sort of misunderstanding.
My parents are sickly in love. Dad is always bringing Mum flowers and showering her with affection constantly.
They have set a pretty high bar for Tara and I for what we should expect in a relationship. There is just no way Dad has cheated.
“I don’t understand.” Tara shakes her head. “No, you must have misunderstood.”
I get up and go into the kitchen to grab Mum a glass of water.
As I’m filling the glass from the tap, my eyes travel over the bench, settling on the spot where, for as long as I can remember, my father’s fancy coffee machine has taken up residence.
It’s his pride and joy, and he uses it several times a day to make barista grade coffee. But now it’s gone.
Abandoning the glass of water, I make a beeline for my parents’ room. The cupboards are open and Dad’s side of the closet is empty, only bare hangers left where his suits and business shirts were once hanging.
I reach into my skirt pocket and pull out my phone, my hand shaking when I press Dad’s name in my contacts.
He answers on the first ring.
“Hey kiddo.” His voice sounds wary.
“What’s going on, Dad? Mum’s crying and said you’ve moved out. She’s confused, right?”
I hear him draw a long, deep breath, and in that moment, my heart breaks.
Oh God… this is real.
“I’m so sorry, Lis,” he says, and it sounds like he’s choking back tears.
Tara appears beside me and pulls the phone from my hand, holding it to her ear as tears run down her face while I stare blankly at the wall.
“Dad? Where are you? Why is all your stuff gone?”
I hear him apologise to her, too, and that’s the moment that anger replaces the shock I’m feeling. Taking the phone back from my little sister, I put it to my ear once again.
“Fuck you, Dad. I don’t ever want to see you again.” I hang up and throw the phone across the room.
“Why did you do that?!” Tara screeches at me.
“We don’t need him. I don’t want anything to do with a cheater,” I reply, turning on my heel and walking into my room, slamming the door shut behind me.
I have no idea how long I’m lying facedown on my bed, too shocked to cry, but eventually I hear voices coming from the front hall.
“Hey, is everything okay?” I hear Will’s voice, and Tara’s sobs float through the door.
I’d forgotten he was coming around to do our English homework together.
I drag myself off my bed and walk out of the room. I follow the sound of voices and find Will sitting on the couch with his arms around my crying sister.
“Dad left us. And he’s not coming back.” Tara chokes out and Will looks stunned .
“What do you mean he’s not coming back?” he asks.
“He’s knocked up his assistant, so he’s taken all his stuff and I guess he’s setting up house with her,” I answer for Tara, my voice devoid of emotion.
Tara cries harder, and I can’t handle it. I turn and walk back into my room, just grateful that Will is here to make Tara feel better. Because I don’t have it in me right now to take care of anyone else.
Eventually, the sound of Tara’s sobs fade away, and I hear her say, “Thanks, Will. You should go check on Annelisa, though… I don’t think she’s cried yet.”
A moment later, Will appears at my bedroom door, lightly knocking on the door frame. When I don’t reply, he comes to sit next to me on the bed, putting his arm around my shoulders. I turn my body and curl into his side, pulling my legs beneath me.
Neither of us speak for the longest time, and I can tell he would sit here all night in silence with me, if that’s what I wanted.
“I can’t believe he just left…” I say, eventually.
“I’m so sorry, Annie,” he replies quietly, using the nickname he’s coined for me.
He’s the only person I’d ever let call me that.
When he said it the first time, I baulked at the reference to the little orphan Annie, but he told me it was because he wanted a name for me that was just his.
I’d relented, my heart melting a little when he’d turned that gorgeous grin my way.
I find it hard to say no to him. Not that I’d ever want to.
The tears start flowing now, and Will pulls me in close while I sob into his chest.
We stay like that for the rest of the afternoon, although Will steps out at one point to make a call. Within half an hour, his mum arrives, and Kylie bursts through the door behind her, heading straight for Tara’s room.
I can hear Will banging around in the kitchen, and I emerge from my room to see him pulling out plates and taking containers out of plastic bags. His mother is nowhere in sight, and I assume she’s in the bedroom with Mum, who I haven’t seen for a few hours.
“Mum brought us food,” he says when he sees me standing in the doorway.
I nod, moving forward to take the plate he’s holding out towards me. I serve myself a small amount of food, but I don’t taste any of it as I eat it on autopilot.
Tara and Kylie join us, and eventually Morgan and Bri show up. I assume Kylie or Will let them know what was going on. We all eat in silence until Mrs Anderson eventually joins us, putting together a plate of food for Mum.
“Are you girls okay?” she asks, running her eyes over Tara and me.
We both nod. She gives us a sad smile before disappearing again.
Once we finish eating, the six of us go into the lounge room and turn on the TV. We’re not normally allowed to watch TV during the week, but I figure no one cares about that rule right now, and we need something silly to take our minds off the crappy situation we’re now in.
Several episodes of some mindless comedy later, Mrs Anderson reappears.
“I’ve given your mum something to help her sleep. It’s getting pretty late. You should probably try to get some sleep,” she says kindly.
Tara nods beside me and gets to her feet. She gives everyone hugs before going into the bathroom to have a shower. The others start to get ready to leave, and I pull Will aside.
“Do you think your parents would let you stay?” I ask quietly.
I can tell he’s taken aback at first. We’ve not slept together, and definitely aren’t at the sleepover stage, but the idea of him leaving right now fills me with dread.
He shoots his mum a glance, and she looks between us both for a moment before nodding slowly.
“If your mum is ok with it, I’m happy for Will to stay in the spare room. I know this has been a hard day, honey.” She gives me a hug before heading back towards Mum’s room once more.
Will holds me close and waits until his mum comes back out and nods at us both.
“Will can stay. Do you want to come home and get some stuff, or should I get your dad to drop clothes off for you?”
He looks at me for a moment.
“Could Dad drop some stuff off? I don’t think I should leave just now.”
His mum nods and looks over at Kylie. “Do you want to stay with Tara, honey?”
Kylie nods quickly.
“Okay. Dad will be by in a little while with your stuff.”
She leaves, and Morgan and Bri head home, walking back up the street a few houses to their place. Once Tara reemerges from the bathroom, I head in to take my own shower, praying that the hot water will help me feel a little more human.
I have no idea how long I’m in there, but when I come back out, Will’s backpack sits on the couch beside him, and Tara and Kylie have gone to bed.
“Am I okay to take a shower?” he asks, getting to his feet.
I nod, giving him a quick kiss when he walks past me on his way into the bathroom.
I walk around the house, locking up all the doors. It feels so strange to be going to bed after my parents.
Well, just the one parent now.
The reality is, I don’t think my parents will ever be under the same roof again, and the thought causes a tightening sensation in my chest.
I go back into my bedroom and curl up on my bed again. Will comes in a few moments later and lies down beside me .
I roll to face him. “Thank you for staying… For some reason, I just couldn’t say goodbye to you tonight…” I stretch both sleeves of my pyjama top over my hands.
“I’m not going anywhere, okay?” He presses his lips to my forehead, and I close my eyes, breathing in the scent of him.
“Stay with me? Please?” I whisper, opening my eyes.
He scans my face for a moment. “What about your mum?”
“If she even comes out of her room, I’ll deal with Mum. We’re not doing anything wrong. I just don’t want to sleep alone.”
Will nods, and we get under the covers. Will holds me close, and we fall asleep soon after, the exhaustion of the afternoon consuming us both.
The next morning, I wake up first and lie with my head on my pillow while I watch Will sleep, a small smile playing across my lips. In the early morning light, he looks even more handsome than ever, and it’s hard to keep myself from reaching over to touch him.
He slowly wakes up, blinking at me for a few moments before smiling back.
“Good morning. How’d you sleep?” He rolls onto his side and pulls me close before brushing a kiss against my forehead.
“Pretty good. Thank you again for staying. I don’t think I would have slept half as well if you weren’t here.” I snuggle into his chest.
“I’m glad… I gotta admit, it’s nice waking up next to you.”
I smile. “Back at you, babe. I am so glad I have you in my life.” I pull back from him so that I can look him in the eye.
He studies my face for a moment, before pushing a strand of my hair behind my ear.
“I’m happy I have you in my life too,” he says quietly.
“I love you, Will Anderson,” I say, before looking away, stunned at the words that slipped from my lips.
He lifts my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze again .
“I love you too, Annie.”
I kiss him, softly at first, but it quickly grows into something more. I slide my hand under his shirt, and his grip on my hip tightens. Moaning softly, I press myself closer when he pulls my leg up over his hip and begins kissing his way down my neck.
After a moment, he pulls away.
“As much as it pains me to be the first one to end this, I don’t think now is the right time for much more… Your mum or sister could walk in at any time, and with everything else going on, it just wouldn’t be right.”
I nod, pushing through the disappointment. I know he’s right, and it’s further proof that he’s the perfect guy.
He pulls me into his arms once more. We lie together like that until my alarm goes off, and I’m forced to face the world outside my bedroom door once more.
Months later, during the winter school break, we once again find ourselves alone in my room.
It’s on that quiet evening that we take the next step in our relationship.
Mum has finally started to venture out of the house again, and has gone to dinner with her sister, while Tara is having a sleepover at Bri’s with Kylie.
Will and I order pizza while we spend a few hours watching a movie, and this time, when we start kissing, neither of us wants to stop.
He is so sweet and gentle with me, and I almost cry from how good it feels to be loved by someone so supportive and respectful.
It’s the perfect first time for both of us, and the knowledge that we’ve both found our other halves convinces us we’ll be together forever.