Begin Again

Chapter 17

I’ve never been so excited in my life.

Joe’s taking me to see his family. The family I haven’t seen in four years.

I’m literally bouncing in my seat right now.

“Are you okay there, Savannah?” Joe asks, an amused smile slipping on to his lips. As you probably can tell, we’re in the car, driving to his house, which is like, three streets away. It’s only around a ten minute walk, so in the car it’s like a three minute drive. Not that long, I know.

“Yeah,” I answer breathlessly. “I’m great.”

He chuckles, keeping his eyes on the road. In no time we pull into his drive way and I jump out of the car and race up the front door steps, not even bothering to wait for the slow poke we call Joe.

I ring the doorbell, waiting for someone to open the door.

“Sav,” Joe smiles, coming up next to me. “You don’t need to ring the doorbell. It’s my house.”

I roll my eyes, bouncing on the balls of my feet.

I what feels like forever, Joe finally opens the door. I take small steps inside, taking in my surroundings. The house has ‘cosy’ written all over it.

As you walk inside, you walk straight into the living room. The living room is big, their television hangs up on the wall and the couch is directly in front of it.

Family pictures litter the walls. I run my hands over them, in amazement. I walk down the wall of pictures, until my hand comes across a familiar picture.

A picture of Joe and I, when we were five.

“You’ve found it,” Joe comments, coming up behind me.

I look back at him and smile. “Yeah, I can’t believe you still have the photo.”

I remember that day clearly. It was our first day of pre-school. Our mothers were so excited, that they got millions of pictures, but decided that this one was their favourite.

In the picture Joe and I have our arms wrapped around each other, with big smiles on our faces. If only we could go back to that day. When we didn’t have to worry about anything. Being a 5-year-old is the life.

“Of course, I still have the photo,” Joe exclaims, looking at me incredulously. “Don’t you?”

I give him a sheepish smile. “Uh, yeah.”

“Then why are you judging me?” he chuckles.

“I’m not,” I protest softly.

“You totally were,” he teases, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “C’mon, we’re going to see my family now.”

Cue the excitement.

We walk out of the living room and down the hall to what I presume is the kitchen. We stop abruptly out the front of the door. I shoot Joe a questioning look.

“Stay here,” he mouths, before opening the door and walking into the room.

“Hey mum,” I hear him say.

“Hi, sweetie,” the familiar voice of Pam’s fills my ears. I almost squeal in excitement.

“Are you busy right now?” he asks.

“No, why did you want something?” she asks.

“I just want you to meet someone,” Joe announces.

Then I hear footsteps coming towards the door. The door opens and out appears Joe and Pam.

“Mum,” Joe announces. “Here’s the person I want you to meet.”