Her delicate fingers thread through mine and I swallow nervously that she might feel the lingering tremor from standing in the middle of all this. But if she does notice, then she doesn’t say anything as she tugs me toward the door and then turns toward the stairs.
We’re halfway up when the front door opens, causing us both to stop immediately.
“Mum?” Jodie calls, forgetting all about what we were going to do as she spins back around and damn near pushes me aside as she runs down the stairs to get to her.
“Hey, baby. You’re back. Did you have a good weekend?”
“Y-yeah. It was great,” she says as I follow her back down to the hallway, hoping what we were about to do isn’t entirely obvious to her mum. “Where have you been?”
“Oh… I… uh… I went out to see a friend to get some advice.”
“Advice about what?” Jodie asks, concern laced through her voice.
“Um… I think we’re going to be evicted,” Joanne confesses before I step up behind Jodie and finally make my presence known.
Jodie gasps in horror as I wrap my arm around her, pressing my palm to her stomach and helping hold her up.
“No,” she breathes, her body trembling.
While she freaks out, however, Joanne’s eyes find mine over her daughter’s shoulder, and they narrow with enough suspicion that my heart drops into my feet.
Fuck. She’s about to ruin everything.
“Hello, young man,” she says politely, her smile growing now her shock seems to have worn off. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced.”
“Uh… hi,” I say, forcing a lightness into my tone that I really don’t feel. “I’m Toby. Jodie’s… f-frie—”
“Boyfriend,” Jodie blurts, shocking the shit out of me.
“Oh well, hello Toby. It’s lovely to meet you. I’m Joanne.”
She holds my eyes, something I can only describe as suspicion crackling between us.
“We were just going to grab a drink,” Jodie lies, making Joanne smirk. “We need to talk about what you just said.”
“I’m sure that can wait. I doubt Toby wants to hear about our life right now.”
“Um…” Jodie looks between her mum and me.
I’m about to part my lips to tell her that I’m just going to go and leave them to talk when my phone cuts through the air.
I almost ignore it, assuming that it’s either Nico or Theo freaking the hell out over my disappearance, but when I recognise the ringtone as Stella’s, despite knowing she’s probably going to give me the same ear-bashing the guys will, I swipe the screen immediately, something deep down in my gut telling me that it’s important.
“Stella?” I ask, turning away from Jodie and Joanne.
“T-Toby,” she stutters, putting me instantly on edge.
“What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
“It-it’s M-Mum. She’s in hospital.”