Chapter 1.18 Snow Day

Today was probably the day Erin was least looking forward to.

Everyone was still happy, even though it was the third birthday for the third day in a row. Well, almost everyone was happy.

Everyone was celebrating, everyone was happy. Even Toby was joining in for crying out loud! There was only person who wasn't happy though...

The only unhappy person there was the birthday girl herself. Erin honestly didn't want to age up. She wondered where her life went. All that time partying in the city, all the time spent here, it was all gone, like that. Closing her eyes, she blew out the candles. As they went out, Erin took out the candles and got herself the first slice of cake.

To say she was listening would be a lie. She aimlessly separated the crumbs of the cake as she frowned down at the colourful icing. Sure, she loved what she had here, but if she had waited just a little longer, or had been a little less impulsive... Would she still have the same-ish style life? Of course not.
She placed the fork down on the table, and mumbled "I'm going up to my room." She walked off, fairly quickly without letting anyone interject or ask why she was walking away.

Rosie and Connor stayed sat at the table while Thomas cleared away the plates. They had a snow day today as the school was shut due to the heavy snow. Thomas sighed, sitting down in his chair
"Do either of you know what's up with her?" He asked, and both of them shook their heads, almost insync.
"She seemed pretty upset yesterday." Connor murmured, looking away. "She kept saying how she didn't want me to grow up..." He trailed off, still not making eye contact with either of them.

Rosie then got an idea, probably the best one both her and Connor have had. She turned to her Daddy

"Can me and Connor go to the Festival today?" She grinned, putting on her best puppy dog eyes. 

"You do know that Snowflake Day is really soon, right? We can just go then." He shrugged off the suggestion, and Rosie frowned.

"Please Daddy? Pretty, pretty please?" She pouted. "I promise I'll be good until forever."

Thomas sighed, "Fine, you two can go. As long as you both promise not to get into any trouble."

"We promise." Rosie grinned, and went into her bedroom, dragging Connor along with her.

"What was that about?" Connor asked, looking down at the floor then up at Rosie. "I thought we were going to try and talk to my mom today..." He trailed off, confused. As far as he was concerned, he thought that Erin was only upset about, well that's just it. He wasn't sure why she was upset. Girls can be so confusing.
"Its over." Rosie murmured, frowning. She honestly looked really upset. "I think I screwed it all up." She sniffled a little, feeling guilty. Was Erin upset because of what she said? She really didn't mean to make her upset. She was just curious about her. She was the closest thing Rosie had to a mom, and she wanted to know more about her. Is that such a crime?

"What happened?" Connor frowned, looking up at Rosie. The bad feeling was spread across the room as she looked away. It was obvious she did something wrong, she looked guilty and couldn't make any eye contact, not even close.
"The only thing I can think of now is just letting Erin and Daddy spend some time together..." She trailed off, sighing. She honestly wondered what the point was in even trying now.
"Then we better go to the fair." He grinned a little, and stood up. "Come on, if those two being alone might help them be together, then we better get going." He helped her up, and then he went into his own room.

Pretty soon after she ran off upstairs, she went to the tattoo parlour unnoticed by anyone in the house. It was a skill that she was fairly proud of. The fact that no one heard her come into the parlour either possibly proved that she was a little too good.
She also noticed that the two men in there weren't the usual stylist and tattoo artist. What was with this town and no one keeping their jobs too long?

As soon as Connor and Rosie got there, he went straight to the concession stand.
"Aren't you a little young to be here on your own?" The concession lady asked, and Connor just shrugged.
"I'm here with my older sister, so..." He trailed off, half smiling. He then ordered what was apparently a 'Hot Chocolate'. He really hoped they were nice.

"You know... You're kinda cute." Erin mused, slowly inching herself closer to the tattoo artist. She wasn't fully sure whether it was the fact she was feeling alone or that she actually did like this guy, but she just felt like being flirty again. Being the person she was before she was a mom.
"I'm not interested." He mumbled, a little put off by her. She nodded anyway, a little hurt that he said that. He was probably into guys anyway, was the only think she could think about.

Rosie slowly ventured out on to the ice rink, scared she'll end up landing on her backside. She had the ice skates in her hand, unsure of what the use actually was. A few stumbles before even making it very far, she managed to get back to the edge of the rink to put them on. Obviously, it wasn't best to ignore things like that.

"I didn't exactly come here for that." Erin murmured, still fairly disappointed. "I wanted to know if I could get a tattoo? I've already got two from the past two guys who worked here." She explained, and the newest tattoo artist held his hand up to stop her.
"I don't need your life story, princess. All I need to know is what and where." He grumbled, getting to the point quickly. She wasn't so sure of what to think about this new guy. She much more prefered the one before.

Connor slowly lifted the drink up to his lips, hoping it wasn't too hot. Nothing sucked more than a burned tongue. He had learned that a few times. He gradually lifted up the cup, tasting the rich, smooth texture of the drink. He grinned, wishing he had tried this before.

"Baby steps... Baby steps..." Rosie murmured to herself, watching where she went as she skated along. She was really scared of tumbling and falling. As long as she didn't end up on the floor like a certain deer, she'd be fine. She slowly glided along, holding her arms out so she wouldn't fall flat on her face. After the first lap, she managed to go a little faster.

She made a whimpering noise when the ice seemed to come up to her. She tried to steady herself with any way possible. That's when Rosie realized that ice skating wasn't any fun, at all. In fact, ice skating was dangerous and if she was clumsy enough, the blade could probably run over her hand! She soon came off the ice, not liking it at all.

It was the exact same feeling being sat in this chair again. The exact same pain from the needle and the exact same wanting to run off. It hurt but it wasn't all too painful, not nearly as close to how painful it was the first time. That seemed like a lifetime ago now...
Once it was done, she went back home. Again, she went unnoticed.

She flopped down on to the bed, sighing heavily as she did. She outstretched one of her arms as she looked up at the ceiling. She couldn't help but think about everything that has happened since she came here. There was when she moved in with Thomas, her fling with Danny, finding out about Connor, and then Rosie moving in with them too. And all that was before she even got her dragon tattoo. After that, there was the warning about Rosie, after her fling with Alex

She sighed softly, closing her eyes. She wanted to imagine anything other than what might have been. She closed her eyes tighter, wanting any way at all to get rid of those thoughts. There was a knock on the door, which then broke her train of thought. 

"Erin?"

"Hey, you alright?" He asked, frowning as he slowly closed the door behind himself.
"No." Erin mumbled, frowning. "I feel old, and I've done nothing with my life." She whined, looking up at the ceiling.
"Why do you think that?" He frowned, and went to sit down on her bed with her.

She sighed softly, sitting up a little so she wasn't on her back. "Remember when I first came here? And how I never actually told you the proper reason why?" She looked up at him, frowning uneasily.
He nodded "Yeah, of course I do." He moved one of his legs in front of himself, and now she brought it up, he started to wonder why she even came here. Surely, if she was from the city, wouldn't she have wanted to stay there? "Why did you come here?"

"I ran away." Erin mumbled, and Thomas got fairly worried for a second. Was she actually as old as she said she was? Or was she secretly younger? She rolled her eyes, guessing she knew what he was thinking. "Yes, I am still an adult." She frowned.
"Then why did you run?" He asked, confused, why would anyone freely run away?
"Because I didn't want to get married." She whispered, frowning. She sat up, and sat on the edge of the bed.

"I was engaged to this guy called Alex." She started, frowning. She held her head in her hands, honestly hating thinking about it. "It was literally a week before our wedding and I panicked." Her voice was slightly muffled by the heels of her hands. "I went down a bad track, that I really don't want to talk about, and then I left." She managed to pull her hands away ever so slightly, just enough to see Thomas's shocked reaction.
"I uh... I wasn't expecting you to say that." He admitted, shocked by her confession.
"And now I've given up practically my only chance of ever getting married." She whined, trying not to cry. "To make it worse, I'm pretty sure I found a grey hair." She tried not to cry, but she just couldn't help it.
She felt alone, and regretted being here. The only thing she had tying her here was Connor, and she knew she wasn't heartless enough to leave. There was still always that temptation though, and the knowing that Alex would come straight back if she wanted him to.

"You're not old." He mumbled, putting his hand on her shoulder. He bit his lower lip, not fully sure of what actually to say. What are you supposed to say at times like these. After about half a minute, he continued with "If it means anything, I'm glad you're here." He mumbled. "I mean, at first I didn't know what I got myself into, to be honest." He lowered his voice even more at that bit, not wanting to offend her right now. "But I honestly can't imagine not knowing you." He smiled "And I can't picture you not being here, and Connor not being here."

She shuffled away from him, wrapping her arm around one of the posts in the headboard, her head resting on her hand. "That's sweet, really and truly. But that's not what I want right now." She bit her lower lip, aware that her thoughts right now were all mixed up.
Thomas furrowed his eyebrows, unsure of what she actually wanted. "What do you..." He trailed off as realization struck "Oh." He mumbled, looking at her.
"But, I don't want it to lead to anything more." She clarified, untangling herself from the headboard. "I just want it to be one time, no strings attached."
"No strings attached?" He couldn't help but smirk a little "Fine with me." He mumbled

And so with that, all their clothed quickly and swiftly landed on the floor. As their lips locked and their 'no strings' agreement came to a beginning, only a few things could be considered. What if the stringless agreement fell through? Or perhaps that nothing will go wrong.
Maybe, at least...

Chapter 1.17 Don't Grow Up                                                          

Chapter 1.19 No Strings Attached?

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AN: AH! I keep forgetting to add this! This chapter was probably about 10 pictures longer than my usual ones, I should be sticking to keeping them fairly short-ish about 20 pictures though. I like this chapter, and the drama that follows it... 
But for now, that's a mystery!