20. Home

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

James' Point Of View.

I knock on the door frantically, knowing that this is where she would have gone after she left. After a few seconds, Vee's grandma opens the door, and Sofia is stood next to her in her school uniform. "Dad!" Sofia smiles when she sees me, running to give me a hug. And it melts my heart, knowing that she still sees me as a dad, even after everything that's happened.

"Hi Sofia," I smile back at her, "can I speak to mummy?"

"I thought she was with you." Her nonna says, which instantly gets me worried. "She left a couple hours ago to go and speak to you."

"What?" I murmur, the noise barely escaping my mouth. "I have to find her." I say determinedly, then leave without saying goodbye, rushing to the car. 

I get in the car and start driving away and call Asher and put her on speaker. If anyone's going to know where Vee is, it'll be her best friend. "Asher?" I say as the phone stops ringing.

"Hi James, everything alright?" She asks cheerily. She got out of the jungle a couple days ago, only just missing out on the crown. And we're all so proud of her, and I'd tell her that if I wasn't so desperate to find Vee.

"Not really Asher, to be honest." I tell her quickly, wanting to get to the point. "I'm sure Vee told you about our little argument but I went to her house this morning to apologise and she wasn't there. I don't suppose she's told you where she's gone?"

"No, she hasn't." Asher replies quickly. "I'm so sorry, I wish I could help." 

"No worries, Asher. It was worth a try." I tell her, feeling slightly disappointed. "Anyways, congratulations on coming second, I'll give you a big hug well done as soon as you're back in England."

"Sounds perfect." She says as I turn the corner into the driveway of the house that I share with Vee.

"Sorry Ash, I've got to go." I say bluntly, hanging up. I quickly park my car and turn off the engine when I see Vee's car in the driveway. She's here. She came home. I run through the front door but she's not sat in the living room like normal. "Violetta!" I shout, trying to figure out where she is.

"James!" I hear being shouted back in return, her voice sounds shocked, like she didn't expect to hear me. I run upstairs as quick as I can and there she is standing at the top of them having just walked out of our bedroom. "James." She says again, but softly this time, and with a warm smile, like everything is right in the world again.

"You came back." I claim, and she nods her head ever so slightly, tears forming in her eyes. "Why?" I ask, "What changed?"

"I realised how stupid I was being." She sniffles, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "But there's something else, something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" I ask, realising that this is very serious. And I have no idea what she's going to tell me. She takes my hand in hers and leads me to our bedroom. She sits down on our bed slowly, holding her swollen belly as she does so. And I sit down next to her, looking her dead in the eyes.

"On my way here this morning I had to stop and get some more petrol." She starts, which is not what I was expecting to hear to be honest, I feel like we have more important things to talk about than petrol. "And whilst I was at the petrol station I ran into Hayley."

But now I realise why this is so important. This is probably the reason why Vee is crying. I just hope to God this hasn't made the situation worse. "What did she say?"

"She asked about the pregnancy at first, saying how big I was." She starts to explain, but yet again this part of the story doesn't seem all that important. "Then she asked about you and how you were feeling after the last time she saw you. So I asked what she meant and what happened that night six months ago." I don't say anything, I just look at her, waiting for her to explain. But my nerves fade away when I see a small smile appear on Vee's face a millisecond before she continues talking. "She said that she got herself very drunk, and when you saw her at the bar you offered to take her home so that nothing would happen to her and so she didn't do something she'd regret. But when you were walking her to her room, you couldn't carry her properly and the two of you fell down the stairs." She closes her eyes for a second or two, as if it's painful talking about it. "You hit your head James, that's why you don't remember. Apparently you were acting all drowsy, she took you to her room and laid you down so you could get some rest. She even tried to kiss you, but you pushed her away, telling her that you could never kiss anyone but me."

I take in every word that she says, then raise my hand to the back of my head, feeling a slight bump and a scab where it had been bleeding, and somehow it all comes back to me, every single second of that night. "I remember."

Vee reaches for my hand that's holding the back of my head, and holds it tight as if she never wants to let go. "You didn't cheat on me James, I had to tell you that. You had to know."

I'm glad she told me, but now my nerves kick in again. I don't actually know if she's forgiven me for how I've been acting the past few weeks. I think back to what my mum told me this morning, and I ask Violetta the same question. "Vee, do you want to make things work between us?"

She looks down at the ground, sniffles then looks back up at me, her eyes shiny from the tears. But her voice is soft when she speaks, "do you think I would have came back here if I didn't?"

I can't help but smile, that simple reply was all I needed. "God, I love you so much, Vee." I tell her, but I feel like that's not enough. "I love the way you're always smiling, I love how amazing of a mum you are, I love your sense of humour, I love how caring you are, how smart you are, how kind you are. I love every single thing about you, flaws and all."

She smiles at this, even though she tries to hide it. "Good." She says with a small laugh, "because I refuse to let you out of my life. You're stuck here for good."

I kiss her gently, running my hands through her hair. God I've missed this; I've missed her. But suddenly she falls backwards so she's now laying down rather than sitting down, and she takes me with her. I start laughing, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." She giggles, "I still haven't got quite used to my centre of gravity changing." She holds her arms out for me to help her up, but I just sit there watching for a few seconds as she looks like a turtle on their back unable to get up. But I don't like seeing her suffer for too long, so I stand up off of the bed and help her to her feet, giving her a big hug as soon as she's standing again. So glad that I have her back in my arms again.

"I'm so glad you came home." I whisper as I hold her in my arms.

She pulls away ever so slightly so that she can look me in the eyes. "Of course." She smiles at me, "I finally found a home after all these years, I'm not going to give it up." But as she speaks I can tell that she's not talking literally about our house. "You're my home."

And those words hit me, pulling right on my heartstrings. And Vee doesn't even know why. When I was little, before my dad died, he told me something that I've remembered all my life. He told me that the greatest thing in life is finding someone who feels like home, because home is a person, not a place. He said that home should be where the heart is, and up until this moment I always believed that my dad's idea of 'home' was a lie. But it's true, and I see that now. Violetta is my home, now and always.

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net