Gap-Year *finished*

[the_admin]

Charlie spread out the green and red chequered blanket over on the grass. He put the picnic basket on top of it and sat down, leaning against a tree with his back. I sat opposite of him, only the picnic basket separating us.
“So,” I began and got a ham and cheese roll out of the basket.
“So,” Charlie repeated me and took off the roll. “I made that one for myself, actually.” He said and took a bite. I screwed up my face and went looking through the basket for something else. I found a small fruit salad and a spoon, so I started eating that instead of the roll. “How are you?” He asked, swallowing the piece of bread and flushing it away with a sip of water.
“I’m alright, I guess. Yourself?” I asked him return and chewed on a bit of apple.
“I’m okay.” He answered and took another bite. “You’ve been a really good plugger in the past two days.” He added and swallowed. “But, I think I’ve got some rather frustrating news for you.” I pulled up both of my eyebrows and put the fruit salad aside for a moment.
“And that would be?”
“You’re fired.” My jaw dropped to the floor. How could this be possible? I hadn’t done anything wrong, had I?
“What! Why?” Charlie didn’t seem to be bothered too much in telling me this and happily went on chewing on his roll. “Charlie! Why?”
“Because,” He swallowed and slowly took another sip of the water. I could only barely hold myself in to hit the bottle out of his hands and throw the roll to the other side of the park. “You’ve broken the rules. They were in your contract, which you obviously haven’t read.” His eyes were fixated on the roll he was holding and he didn’t even seem to care about this.
“What rules?” There weren’t any rules that crossed my mind that I could’ve possibly broken in two days.
“You must be in the country legally.” That was weird, I had a passport and they knew I was going to stay for a long while. “And you can’t have any sort of relationship with your clients other than a friendship.” He said and pushed the last piece of bread in his mouth, chewing slowly and swallowing it all together, finishing it off by taking a sip from the water.
“I don’t have any relationship whatsoever with any of you.” He looked at me puzzled.
“Yes you do.” Now it was my time to look puzzled.
“With who?” Did he know something I didn’t know?
“With me of course, you silly.” He knew something I didn’t know. He wriggled about on the blanket and put the picnic basket aside. “Come here.” He signalled for me to come into his arms. I shook my head and was determined to stay where I was. “Okay, guess not then.” He pulled up an eyebrow and dropped his arm. “What’s with you?” With me! “You seem to be a bit distant today. Have I done something wrong?” Well, no! “Emma, come here and tell me what’s wrong.” He grasped my wrist and pulled me into his arms. At first I wanted to try to break myself free, but as I saw the people looking at us, I decided that it was a better idea not to. “See? Now that’s better isn’t it.” He said and pulled me against his chest with my back, holding my arms and stroking them lovingly. I didn’t like this, at all. “Tell me what wrong, Em.” I pressed my lips onto each other. “Emma, talk to me.” I wasn’t going to say anything. Not now, not ever. “It’s Matt, isn’t it.” He didn’t really say it as if he asked me something. “You don’t have to say anything, I know already.” He sighed into my ear and pressed a light kiss in my neck. “I don’t see why.” I thought I’d just let him do his thing, tell his side of the story and then I could tell him that was nothing going on between him and me. Not between Charlie and me, and not between Matt and me. Even though that was a little white lie. “We had such a good time at my place the first night. Why did you run off with a person like Matt?” He entwined his fingers with mine and pressed another kiss against my neck. I closed my eyes, I didn’t want this. “He doesn’t love you like I do, Emma.”
“How can you love me? You only met me three days ago.” I blurted out and immediately regretted it.
“Oh, I loved you since the very first second I saw you. How embarrassing the moment was that faithful night back in April, I really fell in love with you, hoping that I would see you again soon. And I did! Three days ago. Isn’t that a lovely story to tell our kids?” Excuse me, kids? He wasn’t going to spread his sick seed into me even if I wanted to! “But I guess there won’t be any kids, will there?”
“Nope.” I said softly.
“Because you’re going back to Holland with the first plane tomorrow morning.” He took a deep breath. “And unfortunately, I can’t come with you. And neither can Matt. So you’ll be all alone, with your parents, doing your lousy job at the lunch room. How ironic.” He concluded and let go of me. “Now, get back home and start packing. I don’t want you to miss your flight because of me!” I quickly pushed myself up and turned to face him. I felt something buzzing in my pocket, and took my mobile out of it. It said ‘Matt’ on the screen. “Who is it?” Charlie asked and stood up himself. “If that’s matt, I wouldn’t pick up if I were you.” I looked at him daringly, rolled up my sleeves and pressed the green button.
“Hello?” Charlie rolled his eyes at me.
“Hey, it’s me, Matt.” I smiled to myself, hearing a reassuring voice.
“I think it’s rude of you to talk to your lover boy while your boyfriend is right in front of you, Emma.” Charlie complained, I pressed the mobile harder against my ear and held my hand over my other ear.
“Is that Charlie in the background?” Matt didn’t wait for an answer. “Since when is he your boyfriend?” Once again I didn’t get the chance to answer his question. “I thought we had something?” I quickly opened my mouth to speak before Matt would hang up and turn against me.
“He isn’t my boyfriend.” I whispered as I turned my back on Charlie. “I don’t know what gave him the idea that he is.”
“I can still hear you, Emma. How dare you lie to him, and even deny that we love each other?” Charlie whined on and on.
“So now you love him as well?” Matt asked, he saw where this was getting to. “You ain’t taking the piss here, are you.” I shook my head, then realized that I actually had to speak.
“No, I am not, Matt. I’m fucking fired at Universal, I’m getting kicked out of the country and Charlie thinks I want his babies. For fucks sake, help me!” I yelled as Charlie ripped the phone out of my hands.
“Bye Matt, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He said casually, pressed the red button the phone and gave me back my phone. He fiddled around in his pockets and then found what had been looking for. “Here’s the official letter to you, to get you kicked out of the country, as you said it.” My eyes scanned the paper, and yes indeed, I was getting kicked out. This wasn’t taking the piss anymore, this was purely an eviction note. “I’ll miss you.” Charlie softly said, grabbed my hand and planted a kiss on my forehead. I gave him a stern look, turned on my heels and walked out of the park, straight to Ruth’s apartment to start packing.

[the_admin]

“How can they kick you out? You haven’t done anything wrong!” Ruth yelped and ran around my room with her hands in her hair. “You can’t leave like that!” I threw her the paper.
“I think I’ll have to.” I sighed, closed my suitcase and sat on it. I rested my head in my hands. “I’m really sorry Ruth, I had a magnificent time, for as long as it lasted. I don’t want to go either, but I’ll have to.” She sat down on the floor opposite of me and looked at me.
“No…” She whined and put on a puppy dog face. “Isn’t there anything we can do?” I shook my head. “Have you phoned Matt yet?”
“He phoned me when I was about to walk away from Charlie, had a quick conversation with him, explaining the situation and then Charlie grabbed the phone and hung up on him. I think he got the message.”
“You think he’ll stop by?” I shrugged.
“I don’t know. Why would he? It isn’t as if he has a reason to care for me. At all.” I sniffed and a tear rolled down my cheek, leaving a black stripe on my face.
“Hey, hey, don’t say that.” Ruth jumped up and flew over to me to give me a hug.
“I don’t want to go home, Ruth. I hate my parents, I hate my life back there. I don’t want to go back to the lunch room. The pinch my arse without asking permission first.” I laughed in between my tears. Three firm knocks on the door and a continuous buzzing of the bell made both me and Ruth look up.
“I’ll get it.” She smiled weakly. “Now, dry your tears, I don’t want to see my expensive mascara running all over that pretty face of yours, okay?” I nodded and sniffed, watching Ruth walking out my almost ex-bedroom.
“Where is she?”
“In her room over there.” I heard voices go, my face got swept by a whoosh of fresh air as Matt lunged himself at me and started kissing my face all over. He held my shoulders and looked at me.
“You’re not going anywhere, baby. I’m gonna keep you right here.” He said reassuringly and caressed my cheek. I pointed to the bit of paper that was now lying on the floor, looking a bit sad there all alone on the floor and no one looking after it. Matt picked it up, read it briefly and then took me back in his arms again. The tears flooded down my cheeks as I sniffed on his shoulder. “You can’t leave me, Emma. You just can’t.” I heard a slight tremble in his voice as he mumbled it into my neck and stroked my back.
“I think you’ll find that I have to.” I croaked, and secretly wished that I never had gone to here in the first place.
“Well, Charlie’s triumph won’t last for long, I can tell you that.” Matt replied, stood up and pointed at me to make a statement. “Because,-” He hesitated for a moment. “I am going to get your arse back up here within days. Just days! Watch my words, Emma. You’re gonna be back before you know it.”

My fingers are actually bleeding from typing and chewing my nails of deep thought of what to write, so bare with me here!!

[the_admin]

I was stood at the airport, Ruth looking more miserable than I’d ever seen her, Matt on her left side, looking just as miserable. I bet I fitted in the picture of the miserable people in front of me. I’d phoned my parents the night before that was coming back home. They hadn’t sound very happy, nor did they sound very disappointed. I guess they were just relieved to know that I was coming back in one piece.
Ruth hugged me tight, a single tear escaping her eye and she quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand. Matt’s shoulders hung low and his dark hair was stuck flat on his head and in front of his eyes. He grasped my hands and pressed a kiss on my lips.
“I’ll get you back here, I promise.” He whispered before giving me a last passionate kiss. I smiled, he caressed my cheek delicately and sighed deeply.
“Well, I guess this is it then.” I said and shrugged. I waved my plane ticket about in the air and shoved my purse back on my shoulder. I turned, held hold of Matt’s hand until the passport checks and gave him the very last quick kiss.
“I’ll see you very soon.” He whispered. “Call me when you’re home, okay?” I nodded, lost my grip on his hand and found myself getting pushed to the scanner and off to the sign saying the gate numbers.

Life went quicker back to normal than I had hoped it would. I spoke to Matt on the phone on regular basis, but mum had forced me to get back to my lunch room job close to our house. I was worn out within a week and I missed Matt and Ruth so badly, that I’d cry myself to sleep every single night. Matt reassured me that he was working on plane tickets and a UK residents passport so I could even move to England. This was a comfort during the day; I didn’t have much time to think, but at night I thought about what could possibly happen if things didn’t pull through and I’d end up stuck in Holland, with my stupid waitress job and nagging parents. I longed for the freedom I had back in England, the hugs and kisses from Matt and the long girly talks with Ruth. I even missed the lived-through couch from Matt, that I really had only sat on once.
It was a late Tuesday night when I was sat in my room behind the computer, talking to Ruth and telling her how much I missed her when my phone rang. I typed ‘phone’ over to Ruth, who responded with a ‘kk’. Then noticed who it was and hit the caps lock key to type, ‘CHARLIE!’ before answering the call.
“Hello?” I said, knowing all too well who it was.
“Please don’t hang up on me. Please.” Came his deep, low voice.
“Why shouldn’t I?” I replied annoyed. I wasn’t in for a good, long conversation about Charlie telling his undying love for me.
“Because if you would, you wouldn’t have picked up the phone in the first place.” Good point. Maybe worth a listen. “I want to apologize for a few weeks ago. I acted stupidly.”
“You can say that again.”
“Can I please do my thing before you’re going to start adding stupid comments, please? Thank you.” He said and took a deep breath. “Firstly, I’d like to say that I got you kicked out of the country.” I gasped for air. “I know it was stupid. I was blinded by jealousy and didn’t see that you didn’t love me, nor wanted to be with me. Matt’s been a mess since you left and I’m truly sorry.” He paused. “You can do your stupid comment show now.”
“Right.” I began, and had to think of something to say first. “You better be fucking sorry.” Yes, that was the best I could come up with. “Not only did you mess up your best friend’s life, you messed up my best friend’s and the person’s who you supposedly loved.” I felt the tears well up in my eyes. “Don’t think I’m ever going to forgive you, let alone look you in the eye.”
“Don’t be mad please,” Charlie pleaded.
“How can I not be?” I stopped to take a breath. “You ripped me away from my dream, tore it into little teeny, weeny pieces and burnt them right in front of me.” I snapped.
“I said I was sorry.” I heard him sigh and a voice in the background. “Look, I’ve got to go now, I’ll talk to you later.” And he hung up on me, without saying goodbye.
I told the story to Ruth, who was surprisingly not very shocked by his sudden phone call. Apparently, Matt had talked to Charlie about this and persuaded him to tell me that he was really, truly and utterly sorry about what happened. We had a laugh about Charlie sounding ever so nervous on the phone and using every form of the word ‘stupid’.

When I came home from work, there was a small package on the dining table addressed to me. I asked my dad about it, who said that he only accepted it from the mailman. It was coming from England, seeing the Royal Air Mail sticker on it. I eagerly ripped the tape off the edges and flipped the cardboard sides out of my way. My eye caught sight of a pile of papers, all in English, all with the same sort of trademark stamp on it. As I let my eyes briefly scan the lines of words, I quickly discovered that this was a confirmation for my UK resident passport. I practically jumped in the air of excitement, hugged my dad tightly and hung on the phone with Matt in a matter of seconds.
“I’m going to move to England!”

[the_admin]

With the same blue suitcase, I arrived back at Heathrow. I didn’t take more with me than necessary, Matt had told me not to and that he would get me everything else I needed that I couldn’t take with me in one suitcase. So I had done as I had been told, and had thrown everything absolutely necessary into the blue suitcase.
His eyes casually hid under the dark sunglasses, his hair secret under a white Von Dutch cap, he stood there with his hands in his pockets, suspiciously looking around the airport, praying to God that he wouldn’t get recognised.
“Are you looking for someone, sir?” I whispered in his ear from behind. He jumped, nearly got a heart attack and then realized it was only me. He wrapped his arms around me and nearly pressed all the air out of my lungs. “Matt… can’t… BREATHE!” I managed to croak and hit him several times on his back to get him to loosen his grip on me. He planted a series of kisses on my mouth and stroked my hair, tucking some strains of hair behind my ear, looking at me as if he’d never seen me before.
“You haven’t changed one bit.” He smiled and gave me another kiss.
“Well, that’s because you haven’t seen me for only two weeks.” I said and winked.
“True.” He said and shrugged. “Even so, I’ve missed you like mad.” He took my hand and my suitcase in the other. “Come on, let’s go home.” Home. That sounded so good.
Matt had arranged a great welcome home party, a small one, with only James, Ruth and Charlie there, but it was nice to see all those familiar faces again. It hit me only then that I’d missed each and every one of them, including Charlie, with all of my heart.
As I was enjoying my cuppa, I sat watching the guys talk and converse with each other. James flopped next to me on the sofa at Matt’s and let out a sigh.
“You know, we’ve got a new replacement for you.” He said and turned to face me.
“Oh, is that really?” I said surprised, not sounding very convincing.
“Yeah, Mr Marsden had done the interviews the day after your first work day, actually.” Now that offended me slightly. “He already knew something was going to happen between either you and Charlie or you and Matt. Seeing that Matt couldn’t stop talking about when we got back.” James explained, I puffed.
“Who’s running around for you guys now then?” James laughed softly.
“This blonde girl who’s actually, if you ask me, rather stupid, but Charlie fell in love with her looks, so I guess she’s not gonna stay for long.” I laughed with him.
At around 2am, everyone had gone home and Matt and I were sat on the sofa watching some kind of infomercial on TV. He was stroking my hair as I lay on his chest. He lifted my head and kissed me delicately on my lips, to turn into a more passionate kiss as we got along further. His hand found its way up under my top and he pulled it over my head, stopping the kiss for a small two seconds. I stood up, pulled him with me to the bedroom and started to undress him there. With his naked torso pressed to mine, our lips locked together, I undid the fly of his jeans, unbuttoned it and slid the jeans down to his ankles. He kicked off his shoes as he panted into my ear, kissed and softly sucked and nibbled on my earlobes. I let my fingertips run down his spine and hooked them under the waistband of his boxers. He got rid of my jeans within seconds and ripped my underwear off in less than the time he had taken for the jeans. He lay me on the bed, kissing every bit of bare skin that he could possibly reach from his position. I pushed down his boxers, he kicked them off his legs and somewhere into the room. He slowly, carefully thrust into me, groaning in my ear and turned up the speed until we fell into each other’s arms, breathless.

Charlie stepped aside to make room for Matt, and stood behind his friend, waiting for him to do his little speech in front of the whole of the United Kingdom, telling them how thankful he was for the third BRIT award that evening.
“I’d like to thank the guys, who I’ve been working with for the past six and a half years now, my family, all of the fans,” He paused and seemed to look through the room. “but most of all, my wife, Emma.” The crowd went wild, clapped, yelled, screamed.
I twisted the ring around my finger round and round, the small diamonds catching the twirling lights, and I held the bump that hid the baby Matt had given me. “I love you,” He mouthed and blew a hand kiss.

The end

Now, I thought that was quite good of me in one weekend!!! Just for the record, I've written this in approximately 55 hours, the fiction counting 22 pages in Word, 15.671 words, 65.259 symbols, 1.059 lines and 325 paragraphs. Hands together for Kim!! *bows*

[Bitch*Goddess]

Well done you!!! That was bloody amazing!!!

[Kolakube]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So cool, for some reason I have tears in my eyes but I can't work out if that is from reading the fic or sitting too close to the computer screen!!!

[the_admin]

Awww, thanks guys!!!

[ilovejamessomuch]

yeah it was great!!! ;D