A Beautiful Forever - By Anderson, Lilliana Page 0,78

at my appearance.

“It’s been a shitty couple of days, come on in,” I say standing to the side.

Stephanie goes straight into my kitchen and tells me she’s going to make a strong pot of coffee. I don’t complain because I really need to check what I did last night. I can’t believe I applied for a Visa while I was off my face. I go into my email and check all the confirmations. I’ve set up my biometric interview and everything. Shit.

Stephanie walks back into the lounge room balancing the three coffees she has made and Gary, who’s been sitting on the other couch watching me curse myself repeatedly, jumps up to help her.

I nod as she places my coffee beside me on the table and continue to wildly scan my application, checking that all the details I gave were correct.

“Elliot,” she starts. “Is there something wrong? Is there something we can do?”

“No just – ” I click through to the last page of my application and let out a steady breath. It’s fine; I didn’t fuck it up. I sit back on the couch and put my hands on either side of my head, suddenly laughing.

Gary and Stephanie are both looking at me wide eyed, “Everything ok mate?” Gary ventures.

“More than ok, everything is great,” I tell him, smiling like an idiot.

“Well, how was your trip? Oh! What did you think of Naomi – she’s cute huh?” Stephanie asks.

“The trip was… life changing. I’m going back there to live.”

“What!” they both say in unison.

“I met someone on the way over there – not Naomi sorry, but she's a nice girl though - Her name is Paige and she’s staying there indefinitely so I'm going back there for her.”

I tell them about Paige, show them a couple of photos but avoid talking about all the bullshit that kept her there. I don’t want to focus on any of that right now. I just need to focus on getting back to her. The whole process will take around three months, and I need to be patient until then.

As I sit back and drink my coffee, listening to Stephanie and Gary as they catch me up on their lives while I’ve been away, the memory of talking to Paige last night filters back to me. She said she loves me with every fibre of her being. I have to convince her to stop trying to let me go because I don’t want a life without her. I’m not going to let her ruin this.

Chapter 29

Paige

Applying the handbrake as I pull up outside the house, I take a slow steady breath before opening the car door, striding purposefully up the driveway dragging my suitcase behind me, and rapping loudly on the door.

When the door swings open I’m confronted with my mother’s surprised face as she drags her eyes over me, pausing when she reaches my luggage. Her eyes fly back up to mine in question. I’m sure I’m the last person she expected to be opening her door to.

“I need a place to stay. I think it’s the least you can do for me considering…” I tell her boldly, refusing to be polite as I step past her and into her home.

“Of…of course,” she stutters, scrambling down the hallway and opening a door for me. “You…you can stay i-in here,” she says, flicking on the light and standing aside so I can enter her guest room. “The bathroom’s just around the corner, and the kitchen is at the end of the hall. Can I get you anything?” she asks sounding calmer.

“No,” I answer simply, stepping into the room with my suitcase in hand. I turn around to look at her expectant face, an unfriendly glare on mine as I reach out and start to close the door. Before it’s almost clicked shut, I open it slightly, meeting her eyes once again. “This doesn’t change anything,” I affirm. I don’t want her getting any ideas that we’ll be playing happy families any time soon.

“Of course,” she whispers, her eyes swimming with tears as I click the door closed and spin the lock on the other side.

Pulling the covers back on the bed, I remove my shoes and climb in, curling myself into the foetal position as I close my eyes, thinking about everything that has happened this past week.

After collapsing at the airport, Naomi took me back to the flat where I spent every day since then lying on the couch and refusing to