Page 23 of The Boy I Once Loved

Stacey giggles. “Gather round everyone.” She drops down on to the rug and places the albums on the coffee table. My Mum and Leila get up from the sofa and take seats on the rug around the table.

“Oh god. Look at this one,” Leila says laughing and pointing. “Dyl, Ella, get your asses down here and come look.”

Dylan and I exchange a defeated look and we drop down on the rug, ending up beside each other. Leila points at a photograph of the two of us. The writing underneath the photo says. 'D & E aged 6.' Dylan is dressed as a knight, complete with a sword and a shield, and I am dressed as a princess in a hideous pink crepe frilly dress.

“I remember this,” my mum chuckles. “It was for a kid at school’s birthday party. Dylan insisted he was going as a knight and that you had to go as the princess he rescued.”

Stacey grins. “How young and cute do they look?” She turns the page and she gushes. “Awe, now this one is the cutest.”

I look down at the photo and groan in embarrassment. It's a photo of Dyls and me in the bath together. We look about five or six.

“Mum, you let us bathe together!” He shakes his head while his own cheeks flush slightly red.

“What?” His mum laughs. “You were both only little. Besides, you had both been making mud pies on the back field. You were both covered head-to-toe in mud.”

They continue flicking through the album and laugh and reminisce over more photos of the two of us. Then Stacey flicks to the last one in the album. It's of Dylan and me and the writing in the album says it is Dylan's eleventh birthday. I am sitting beside him smiling for the camera in a pretty blue dress but Dylan instead of looking at the camera, is looking at me with a strange expression on his face.

“Look at the way he is looking at her on this one,” my mum gushes. “Like she is his entire world.”

I study the photo. Is that how he is looking at me?

Dylan stands up and runs his hand through his hair. “Okay, this is getting boring. Anyone want a drink?”

Everyone shakes their heads, and they all go back to looking at the albums and chatting. I watch him leave the room and I stare after him. I am pulled from my thoughts when Leila nudges me. “Looks like someone hit a nerve with that photo, huh?”

My brows furrow in thought. “I should go check on him.”

I leave the lounge and go off in search of Dylan, but I don't find him in the kitchen. The back door is open, and I peep round the door and see him sitting outside on the patio steps just looking out, deep in thought.

“Penny for them,” I say as I step outside into the cool night.

He scoffs. “I doubt you would want to know.”

I walk over and take a seat beside him on the concrete step. I put my crutches beside me, and I hug my knees to my chest. “It’s cold out here.”

Without replying, he pulls his hoodie over the back of his head and holds it out for me. Smiling, I take it from him and pull it over me. Straight away I am hit with his dreamy scent, and I lean into the hood and sniff. I pause when I catch him looking at me in question.

“Did you just sniff my hoodie?”

I shrug my shoulders; glad it is too dark out here for him to see my reaction. “I was just checking it didn’t smell of B.O.”

He smirks and nudges me. “I always smell damn good.”

I roll my eyes in response and look up at the stars. “Remember when we used to camp out here in the summer and we’d name the stars?”

He nods and looks up. “I do. I remember you naming one after that lead singer out of the wanted.”

“Yeah, don’t remind me,” I chuckle.

He laughs, but then his gaze turns serious as he turns and he looks at me. "It's good. Having you home. I forgot how easy it is, being with you. I'm not captain of the footy team or anything. With you, I can just be me."

I nod and grin. “You mean, you stop pretending to be some popular god who thinks he is all that.”

“I can’t help it if the girls find me attractive, can I?” He smirks.

I shake my head smiling and don’t offer him a reply. He stands and offers me his hand and steadies me whilst I right my crutches. “Come on, we should head inside.”

My mum is putting her coat on as we enter. “Oh, honey. Stacey suggested you stay here tonight. I’m on shift again tonight and well with your ankle you’ll need some help.”

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